Puppy Training List

Puppies are cute but wayward. If a puppy isn't peeing inside the house, it's chewing on furniture or gamboling around getting underfoot and sharpening its teeth on small children. Training a puppy begins immediately, as the little dog's mind learns from its environment, and the way its owners interact with it.

  1. Socialization Training

    • Training a puppy to respond well to humans is an essential part of puppy growth into a well-behaved, happy dog. Dogs are social animals but a puppy needs to know where it stands in the human family's social hierarchy. A pup should meet lots of new people for the first year of its life so it is comfortable with humans. It should also go to lots of new environments, but until its shots are complete, the pup should not meet new dogs that may not be vaccinated.

    Raising a Calm Dog

    • To teach it proper etiquette, ignore the puppy until it calms down. Once calm is achieved, the visitor should reward the pup with a treat after it sits or behaves calmly. When a pup is young, it may bite during play when it's excited. A loud noise, such as a high-pitched yelp, dissuades it from biting. When the puppy is calmer and relaxed, the owner can reward the puppy with a chew toy.

    Housebreaking

    • Dogs don't like soiling the area they live in. Puppies, however, take time to be housebroken. An owner should crate the puppy when it can't be supervised in the home. Take to a designated area of the yard to urinate and defecate in. Bring the puppy to that spot consistently to encourage pottying outside. Putting the puppy on a leash before going to the spot helps control it. Praise the puppy verbally or with a treat as soon as it goes potty in the spot.

    Responding to Commands

    • A pup learns to sit quite easily. When it runs up to the owner for acknowledgment, the owner should hold a treat slightly over the pup's head. When it recognizes the treat, the owner should move the treat back slowly over the puppy head. This causes the pup to look up and raise its head, as the rear end moves toward the floor. Wait for it to completely sit before rewarding.

    Feeding Etiquette

    • A pup should know that its owner and all humans are above it in the social hierarchy. If humans are dominant, they should control the food supply. Therefore the puppy should not challenge the human through growling or defending its food supply or chew toy. A pup should be fed three to five times a day and the owner should give it the food. The owner should reward the pup with the food only after the pup shows polite behavior such as waiting or sitting calmly for the food dish. If the pup does not behave well (jumping up or nipping at the bowl) the owner should promptly put the food on a counter and walk away. Ignore the puppy completely, and try again in 20 minutes.