Training your puppy, when to start and how to go about it!

 Thinking about getting a puppy for your home? You must know that raising a puppy is not a walk in a park, so to speak. If not trained properly, your puppy can sometimes show unwanted behavior like peeing where they’re not supposed to, barking a lot and similar other problems. For these reasons, you must learn about the different developmental stages of your puppy and how you’re supposed to train them. In the world of canines, it is the puppy's mother, who teaches the pup the ways of the canine world, how to survive and live happily during the various developmental stages. However, when you bring a puppy home, all these become your job. 

There’s no denying the fact that puppies need to be trained. This holds true irrespective of your pup’s age, how big he’ll get or what breed he is. Obviously, your dog will meet other people in his life, and quite possibly other dogs as well, thus, it is important that you socialize and train your dog properly in order to avoid any problem in future. 

You should start training your puppy early. Ideally, training should start as soon as they reach 56 days of age. You might encounter problems if you wait longer, say, 6 months. Eminent dog behaviorists are of the opinion that by the time a pup reaches 6 months of age, behavioral problems are already ingrained in them. As soon as a puppy enters his home, his training should start right away. 

Does it sound a little hard to you? It doesn’t have to be with positive puppy training techniques. Positive training techniques are the ones that are recommended by the experts. It should be a positive experience for both you and your pup. Harsher methods were used previously to assert dominance over the dog but nowadays, research is in favor of positive reinforcement as a method of training. It is not complicated at all, all you need to do is reward your dog when he’s doing something good and not reward him when he’s doing things that are unwanted. Rewards can be of any type, you can give them treats, you can praise them, pet them or play with their most favorite toys. 

Your puppy will learn to live with you if you maintain a routine. The learning of a puppy who is just eight weeks old primarily centers around where to sleep and how to sleep, the play and potty areas.  

Crate training your puppy is another important area that you need to focus on. It is his/her very own safe space so to speak, where they can relax, take a little snooze or play with puzzles. You can introduce your little puppy to his crate through games.    

The next thing you need to teach your dog is his name. The goal of this training is to teach your pup to look at you whenever you say his name. Again, whenever your pup looks at you or responds in any form, you should reward that with a treat. This would reinforce the training. 

At just 8 to 10 weeks old, these are the basic pieces of training that your puppy should be able to internalize. Dogs need to be trained throughout their life, starting when your dog is just 8 weeks old, gives you a strong foundation and also stamps out potential behavioral problems that might occur in future. Remember to have fun! Happy training!