Puppy training is very important, whether you are training your first puppy or your 20th. Properly training and socializing a puppy is vital to making it a valued member of your family and your community.
In some ways training a puppy is easier than training an adult or adolescent dog. One reason is that the puppy is essentially a "blank slate", untroubled by past training techniques and other issues. In other ways, however, the puppy can be more difficult to train than an older dog.
One challenge to training a new puppy is that puppies are more easily distracted than adolescent and adult dogs. Everything is new to a puppy, and every new experience provides a new chance for distraction. For this reason, it is best to keep training sessions short when working with a puppy, and to end each training sessions on a positive note.
It is essential to allow the puppy more than enough time to play and to socialize with other puppies and dogs. Socialization training is really important to letting your new puppy become a good "doggy" citizen, as canine aggression is a growing problem in many areas. A properly trained dog will learn how to play and interact with other dogs, for overly aggressive play is often punished by other dogs in the play group.
This kind of play learning happens naturally among siblings in litters of puppies. As the puppies play with one another, they start to learn what constitutes proper behavior and what constitutes improper behavior. Improper behavior, such as hard biting or scratching, usually results in punishment by other members of the play group or the mother do, or both
It is too bad that many puppies are removed from their mothers and siblings (they are either sold or adopted) before this socialization has the chance to fully happen. Thus, a very vital part of any puppy training session will be the puppy play sessions. Most good puppy preschool training programs specifically provide time for this type of play sessions among the puppies and older dogs, to allow for this kind of dog interaction.
Introducing your puppy to new experiences and new locations is also an important part of puppy training. Teaching your dog to be obedient and responsive, even in the face of many distractions, is very important when training dogs and puppies.
One great way to socialize your puppy both to new people and new dogs is to take it on a trip to your local pet store. Many major pet store chains, and some independent ones as well, allow pet parents to bring their furry children, and these stores can be great places for puppies to get used to new sights, sounds and smells. Of course you will want to make sure the store allows pets before heading over.
It is important for puppy owners to structure their pet's environment so that the puppy is rewarded for good behaviors and not rewarded for others. One good example of this is jumping on people. Many people inadvertently reward this behavior because it can be cute. While it is true that jumping can be cute for a 10-pound puppy, it will not be so cute when that puppy has grown into a 100-pound dog.
Try rewarding the puppy for sitting instead of jumping. Simply ignore it when it jumps on people. This type of positive reinforcement will result in a well behaved adult dog that is a valued member of both the family and the community at large.
This type of reinforcement can also be used in potty training the new puppy. For instance, teaching a puppy to use a unique surface such as gravel or asphalt is a good technique. The theory is that the puppy will associate this surface with going potty, and therefore be reluctant to use other surfaces (like your kitchen carpet for instance) as a potty.
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