How to train a puppy
Now that you're a proud puppy owner, you need to know how to train a puppy. A well-trained dog is easy to live with and can be taken anywhere in public without embarrassing you. A well-behaved dog is a credit to you as its owner. Training your puppy will bring you and your dog closer together and improve the bond between human and animal. This bond will last a lifetime! And it's never too early to start training your puppy. You can start gentle basic training as soon as you get him home. On this page: How to train a puppy? Use gentle, fun positive reinforcement techniques to train your pup Positive reinforcement training: What is it? What is positive reinforcement training and why should you use it? More about training a puppy Lessons in puppy training How to train a puppy?You don't have to yell and shout at your puppy to get him to do what you want. In fact, yelling and shouting (or hitting) will set you up for failure as your puppy will become fearful and will hate learning. You can quickly and easily how to train a puppy yourself without tears and tantrums! So what's the secret? Positive reinforcement training!You won't believe how easy and fun it is to train your puppy! You can train your puppy yourself, with little expense, without tears and without hurting your puppy. But first we need to learn the principles of how to train a puppy. Positive reinforcement training: What is it?Positive reinforcement means that when your dog does something right, you reward it for doing the right thing. It is the easiest and most successful method of dog training and the simplest for new owners to learn how to train a puppy. Old-fashioned training techniques used punishment - often painful, physical punishment - to discourage a dog from doing the wrong thing. The dog was supposed to learn that whatever behaviour he was punished for was the wrong behaviour. Therefore, whatever was left over must be the right behaviour! This would lead to a nervous, uncertain dog, who was scared to do anything in case he guessed wrong and was punished for it. Positive reinforcement instead rewards the dog as soon as it does something right. By using clear cues, we can encourage the dog to try behaviours he thinks might please you. He learns to think for himself and make better decisions about what is the right behaviour. A dog trained with positive reinforcement
techniques is always seeking to please his master, is alert
and cheerful, and relishes learning new cues and tricks.
There are two key things to getting positive reinforcement training right:
The reward for the right behaviour must happen as soon as the right behaviour occurs or the dog won't know what behaviour is being rewarded
You must always reward the right behaviour - never reward the wrong behaviour and never punish the right behaviour, even if it's done at the wrong time or place. Dogs thrive on consistency and become confused if you give mixed messages. But what if my puppy does the wrong thing?Only the mildest punishment has any role in how to train a puppy. But you don't have to physically punish your puppy by hitting him when he does something wrong. Ignoring him or using your tone of voice will be your greatest tool. Tone of voiceUsing your tone of voice to discipline your puppy doesn't mean screaming and shouting! Puppies learn very quickly that a scowling voice means you are displeased and the thing your puppy wants to do most in the world is please you! There are two things you can do when displeased with your puppy: ignore it (just for a few seconds) or use a grumpy tone of voice. Ignoring the puppy means literally turning your back on it for a few seconds. Puppies love to be the centre of attention and hate to be ignored! Then turn back to your puppy and try the cue or ask for the behaviour again. 
If the puppy performs the wrong behaviour when given a cue - for example, he drops to the ground when you just wanted him to sit - you can use a mild word or sound such as 'Oops!' or 'Too bad!' and ask him to sit again. If you need to stop the puppy doing something wrong immediately, you can make an 'ah-ah!' sound. It's a 'caution' sound, such as you might give to a child reaching out for a hot pot on the stove. You may need to pick the puppy up, remove it from the area and put it down somewhere else to get the message across. Eventually the puppy will associate the 'ah-ah!' sound with your displeasure and will instantly stop any undesirable behaviour. On rare occasions, you might need more than a cautionary sound. Use the word No! in a loud voice. This is when the puppy needs to stop doing whatever it's doing right now because it's dangerous or destructive. But only use No in this way occasionally - otherwise the word will lose its power. If you use it for every minor wrong-doing, the puppy could learn to ignore it. Puppy training tipsThe secret of dog training with positive reinforcement techniques lies in the use of rewards, clicker puppy training (or marker words) and release words. To find out more about these, and how they can help you train your puppy, visit our Puppy training tips page. Then you can start your first lesson in puppy training: Puppy Names - teaching your puppy his name. Training a puppy yourself can seem a bit daunting if you've never done it before, or if you think you're a little rusty about up-to-date techniques. Therefore, we recommend you consider taking your dog to puppy classes. There your puppy will learn good social skills (how to get along with other dogs and humans) and you can learn hands-on techniques on how to train a puppy in a friendly, supportive environment. More about training a puppyPuppy training tips Clicker puppy
training Puppy classes
and socialization Puppy names Housetraining a puppy Crate training a puppy Puppy biting Training a puppy to come when called Training a dog to sit How to train a dog to lie down Training a dog to
stand Training your puppy to stay Leash training a puppy Puppy
separation anxiety Return to the top of How to Train a Puppy Go back to PuppyPrimer: Buy a Puppy home |
