Puppy Training Advice, Tips, & Techniques

Puppy training advice seems to grow on trees nowadays – haha – but it can sometimes be difficult to decide which advice to follow. And with so many different techniques coming up, it's not easy to spot fads and ignore them.

So I decided for this section to just give you a simple DO's and DON'Ts list of interacting with your puppy. This practical training advice will likely form the foundations of your relationship – you'd be very glad you listened.

Puppy Training DO's

• DO ask him to SIT every time you feed him – This will establish you continuously as the leader of the ‘pack’ – as you provide the food.
• DO take away the food bowl after 20 mins – Do this regardless of whether it is empty or not. The reason is the same as my previous point.
• DO spend time bonding with your dog – Exercise him, groom him, and teach him. He will love and respect you for it.
• DO use the same tone of voice and cue- word for each of your commands – This will ensure the best possible response from your
  pooch – i.e. he has the best chance of understanding you.
• DO reward desirable behaviors – Use whatever is most valuable for your dog, but also vary the rewards. Some dogs love food, others love love and attention – so know your pup and you’ll make him happy.

Puppy Training DON'Ts

• DON'T call your small puppy to come to you if it’s not already coming towards you.
  He is too small to understand, so you need to associate a behavior to a command first, or you risk making him immune to your command, and therefore your call for him to come.
• DON'T reprimand your pup, if he has an accident.
  If you're just starting out puppy potty training and he has an accident – don't shout at him. He didn’t do it on purpose, and remember that at that stage, it is up to you to take him to the loo regularly. Telling him off will not make sense, but may disturb your rapport with him.
• DON'T pull him out of his crate when he’s whining.
  First wait for a moment’s silence and then pull him out. Otherwise you will teach him, that every time he wants his way, all he needs to do is whine…
• DON'T reward undesirable behavior. With attention – even negative attention.
• DON'T unknowingly teach your pup bad behavior.
  You do this by leaving opportunities for self-rewarding bad behavior. Remember the example of the puppy digging into the bin…

The above puppy obedience training tips are not common sense – and it's quite often that I see new puppy owners making crucial mistakes just while interacting with their dog on a day-to-day basis. They don't know they are doing something wrong… This is why the training advice above is invaluable.

You can make sure that right from the start you are creating a relationship that's based on love, trust and an understanding that you are the boss. This is not just so that you can call your self "the Boss" – but it creates the kind of respect dogs would usually have to fight to establish in a pack. Bare in mind that different dog breeds take different lengths of time to get used to things – so be patient.

You need to establish yourself as a leader – or your dog will feel that IT has to step up to the job. And when that happens you can end up with a lot of difficult to fix puppy behavior problems.

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