Welcome home, pup! What an exciting time to be a puppy, so many new faces to meet, smells to check out and adventures to embark on.
Bringing a new puppy into the family is certainly a thrilling time for all involved, but anyone who has brought a puppy home knows not to be fooled, there’s lots of hard work ahead and you will be required to work together as a family to ensure your four-legged friend is well socialized, learns manners and observes house rules.
By teaching our dogs how to behave we are providing them with a basic understanding of what is expected from them. Work may not sound fun, but our companions will benefit from such training, as it gives them freedom to enjoy the things they love the most like running off lead, greeting friends and visitors, being safe and under control in all circumstances. Not only is training an important part of any dog’s life but it helps to keep your dog happy, physically exercised and mentally stimulated. Our complete list of essential puppy training tips should help make things easy and fun for you and your new family member!
Puppy training tips summary
- How do puppies learn
- How to prepare for puppy training
- How do I teach my puppy to sit?
- How do I teach my puppy ‘down?
- How do I teach ‘middle’ to my puppy?
- House Line: The benefits for you and your Puppy Training
- How do I stop my Puppy from Chewing?
- How do I stop my Puppy from Stealing?
- How do I stop my Puppy from Biting?
How do puppies learn?
Before we teach, it’s important to understand how a student learns. Like all animals, puppies will repeat a behavior that has a good result. Any behavior that a puppy frequently shows, it is done so because they gained some benefit from it at some point.
These beneficial outcomes may be:
- A directly rewarding outcome from the owner e.g. a treat, a game, gaining your attention or being allowed to do something he or she wants to do.
- Something the puppy finds fun – chase, chew, dig etc.
- The removal of something unpleasant – a threat stopping, or the puppy being removed from a scary situation. Simply, the problem goes away!
Most people know that the best way to motivate a puppy to perform a behavior is to reward them for doing so; understandably, they then believe that the best way to discourage him from a behavior is to do the opposite. For most people, the natural thought is that the opposite of reward is punishment. However, whilst punishment certainly can discourage unwanted behaviors it is often unsuccessful because:
- The puppy simply does not link the punishment with the crime. Puppies do not have the ability to reason so often do not make the connection or simply become confused and just associate you with unpleasant outcomes. This rarely changes a puppy’s motivation to display that behavior again, but often makes him fearful of his owner!
- The punishment does not occur consistently every time they display the behavior. No matter how good a trainer you are and no matter how consistent you try to be, it is impossible to deliver the punishment immediately every time the puppy starts the unwanted behavior.
- The benefit outweighs the punishment. Even if 1 & 2 do exist, the puppy may decide that the benefit they gain from the behavior is worth enduring the punishment often resulting in progressively more severe punishments being necessary to achieve the same result. A negative, stressful and pointless cycle.
When we want to change a puppy’s behavior we simply need to work with the ‘no reward’ scenario; after all, no intelligent animal continues a behavior that never achieves a result, long term. Further success will be gained if we also offer our friends an alternative behavior and make that one rewarding. This basic principle applies to all behavior, and we simply need to work out just what benefit the puppy is gaining so we can control it.
Your Puppy is looking for Attention
Mostly, your puppy is simply seeking your attention, this is primarily the cause of typical unwanted behaviors such as jumping up, stealing and chewing, barking and nipping – all common attention behaviors. Unfortunately, our vocal commands (such as being told “no” or “down”) may even prolong the problem, as that’s giving them more attention!
Don’t worry! If your puppy is exhibiting attention seeking behaviors, this does not mean you’re a bad pet parent – it simply means that they have learnt a successful way of becoming the centre of attention, and for a puppy that’s a great place to be!
How to Prepare for Puppy Training
Getting ready to train your pup couldn’t be easier, and you can start straight away as soon as they have settled into the family home. There are some basic essentials to pick up first:
Collar
The Control of Dogs Order 1992 does state that any dog in a public place is required to wear a collar with their owner’s name, address and postcode on it – even if your companion is microchipped. So, it’s best to get your friend used to a collar nice and early. We recommend popping to your local pet specialist for advice and to look at their line of puppy-suitable collars.
Lead
Although letting your dog off the lead in most parts of the UK is legal, there are some spots which could land you in some trouble if your dog is caught without a lead. You can look out for signs alerting you to areas that are off-limits but it’s still a good idea to have your dog lead-trained, responsive to call backs and comfortable with both lead and collars.
Treats
Treats are a powerful training tool as they help to keep your dog’s focus; as you move on with your training, treats can be slowly weaned out. Find treats that work for you and your puppy and remember to reduce the equivalent feeding amount at mealtimes so you are not over-feeding.
Patience!
Of course, when it comes to puppy training, we must practice patience – and lots of it. Your puppy will pick up on any stress signals you may be showing. So it’s best to remain calm – don’t worry, so long as you’re following the puppy training tips below – you’ll get there!
If your puppy seems to be constantly engaging in unwanted behavior, instead of labelling them as bad or naughty, you should really think about the way in which you are communicating with them; chances are that you (or other family members) are inadvertently encouraging them to reoffend.
Nobody wants to be a bad dog owner or have a badly behaved dog, so learning how your new best friend processes information and what motivates them to repeat behaviors is crucial for all family members.
Even children need to understand how to interact with their new playmate and how to treat them appropriately; after all, your puppy may be smaller than them now, but will grow at a much faster rate than them!
How do I teach my puppy to sit?
It is really easy to train your puppy a simple sit during your games; by incorporating this into your regular playtimes you can teach your puppy that sitting is always a good way to get people’s attention or get a game to recommence. This will soon become their chosen behavior when they want something from you rather than jumping up, mouthing or barking!
Want to teach your puppy to sit? We can help – just watch our video here.
How do I teach my Puppy ‘Down’?
Once you have mastered “sit” then “down” should soon follow. With down we want to be aware of what word we are teaching our companions to do, as ‘down’ can be used for so many instructions i.e. ‘Get Down’ (from the sofa) or ‘Down’ (from that visitor). So we don’t confuse our pups, it’s important to choose a word that they can distinguish between.
Just watch our video on how to master ‘Down’ with your puppy.
How do I teach ‘Middle’ to my Puppy?
Teaching ‘Middle’ to your puppy is a fantastic way to bond with your new family member but it’s also extremely useful, especially in potentially stressful situations like the vet. Read on to hear why we believe teaching ‘Middle’ to your puppy is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make with your dog:
Priceless Bonding
Imagine how you feel when you hug someone or hold their hand… safe? Happy? Connected? That is what “middle” will do for your dog. It also means they can communicate with you. If they are worried or scared and deploy the “middle” position without being asked, you know something is up. How cool is that!
Reliable Recall
As your dog starts to learn that being in “middle” reaps rewards it will become their happy place and will never pass up the chance to be there! This is fun and useful for your recall games and practice. It’s also very handy should it become time to put the lead back on.
Managing stressful situations with your dog
“Middle” is unbelievably useful when it comes to managing a nervous or reactive dog. By getting them to adopt the “middle” position you can distract them from the dog/person/thing they are scared of and help them to focus on something positive. It can also help to give wildlife the chance to escape an otherwise exhausting or potentially traumatic chase. Calmly call “middle” and spin around to face another direction – crisis averted!
Calmer Vet Visits
Get ready to become “teachers’ pet” at the vets with “middle”. Remember, by this point, “middle” is a calm and happy place for your dog to relax so you can patiently wait your turn. The real magic with “middle” is during your appointment. By being in the “middle” position, you can reassure your dog and help build a positive association with the vets while giving the practitioner a calm patient to vaccinate or examine. Gold star for you!
Dog Theft
Sadly, thefts are at an all-time high at the moment and “middle” should be your weapon of choice should you be confronted or intimidated. Even if you meet someone asking strange questions… “middle!”
It’s a Top Training Tool for your Dog
When you start a training session all parties want to get “in the mood” and how better to start than with some quick wins. You’ll be setting the tone and warming up their brain ready for work.
Step by Step guide on teaching ‘Middle’ to your Dog
- Take a high value treat in both hands
- With one hand lure your dog behind your legs
- With the other hand use the treat to lure them through so that they are standing between your legs
- When they are standing or even sitting nicely between your legs say “middle” and feed them a few treats in a row… yum yum yum!
- Hold your dog’s collar or say, “leave it”, throw a treat out in front of you and say ‘OK’ to release them
- Repeat frequently to master but always end on a high, don’t wait for you and your dog to get tired or distracted
Still like to learn more? We’ve made a handy video for you and your companion here.
House Line: The benefits for you and your Puppy Training
As with all new puppy (or rehomed dog) training, your new companion needs to learn the rules of the house.
House lines (or puppy training lines) are particularly useful during those demanding early days, weeks and months when they are still learning the boundaries. By having a house line attached to your puppy’s harness at home, you will be able to safely and discreetly interrupt undesirable behavior, without confrontation or misunderstanding.
Find out why we like using a House Line whilst Puppy Training at home, here.
Dog Impulse Control
Once we have mastered the simple instructions above, we can move onto Impulse Control games, which will help train our friends into offering us calm behavior – particularly useful in a family home. Dog impulse control is effectively teaching your puppy that calm behavior results in them getting what they want, be it treats, toys or your attention. Building impulse control takes time and patience but it can also be a really fun way to spend time and bond with your puppy.
Impulse control can be more challenging for some dogs than others and so it’s important that the training is mixed with plenty of uninhibited fun too. A good formula is to balance every minute of impulse control games with five minutes of expressive play. This way, the training isn’t solely about self-containment. By mixing things up, your dog will stay engaged with you for longer and you can make sure that the calm, focused behavior you are looking for actually keeps the fun and rewards coming!
Once you feel you are making progress in the self-control stakes this opens up all kinds of fun challenges like “leave”, “stay” and release games like “Free”.
Watch our video on how to work on ‘Impulse Control’ with your dog, here.
How do I stop my Puppy from Chewing?
Bringing a new puppy into your household is a bit like having a small child! A certain amount of ‘puppy proofing’ will need to be practiced until he is trained and of course we can’t expect a puppy to instinctively know that it is wrong chew items that are within their reach, so all precious or dangerous items should be removed from reach, for the short term at least. Tempting but immovable items like furniture can be treated with one of the readily available anti-chew products available in most pet shops.
Set your puppy up for success by providing them with items to chew rather than waiting for them to start chewing your belongings such as mentally stimulating toys and any of those that dispense food. Food items left on work surfaces are an unfair temptation to an animal with such a sensitive sense of smell, even leftover crumbs or dirty plates are just calling out to be eaten up!
How do I stop my Puppy from Stealing?
Stealing is often inadvertently rewarded by being chased or given attention as well as having the fun of actually having the object. If your puppy picks up something you don’t want them to have, try to not give them a big reaction; as soon as they gets the idea you want their object it instantly becomes a game and a slippery slope for your training!
How do I stop my Puppy from Biting?
All puppies bite and mouth as a way of exploring their environment; it is a totally normal behavior, after all they don’t have hands that they can pick things up with! However, contrary to popular belief it is not something that “they will just grow out of”; if puppies learn that biting is a good way of getting your attention encouraging people to play with them or stop somebody from doing something to them they don’t enjoy, then biting may well last into adulthood which obviously presents a bigger problem!
Puppies need to learn from an early age that biting and mouthing at people is an unacceptable behavior and not something that brings rewarding outcomes; this doesn’t mean punishing them for it however, as always, it means that we need to make it an unsuccessful behavior whilst providing an alternative that is acceptable and rewarding.
Enjoy your Puppy!
Finally, take time to enjoy these special moments with your puppy as they grow and bond with you and your family. Our main advice is to have fun and be patient, so long as you offer clear and concise training information, your puppy will work with you for the very best results.