Now that your pup is settled in it's new home, let's focus on some basic training. To avoid confusion, it's best to have one person in charge of training your new puppy. Different people can have different methods which may end up delaying the end result! Puppies thrive on two things - routines and consistency. It's a proven fact that dog's learn better from positive reinforcement techniques as opposed to punishment or negative reinforcement. In other words - reward for positive behaviour, don't punish for negative behaviour.
There are three essential commands every puppy should know.
Their name!
Puppies are a whirlwind of energy. Being able to get them to focus on you when
you say their name is important! This is usually a pretty easy thing to teach with consistency.
2. Sit!
Sit is a command that you will use for their entire life, multiple times a day. This is another easy command to teach and one that is fairly easy for pups to pick up on.
3. Lay down!
Once your pup has mastered the sit command, the next natural step is laydown. The laydown command is initially taught from the sitting position, so make sure your puppy knows how to sit first.
Watch the video below to see how to teach each of these commands. I love Zak George's training videos because they're easy to follow and teach real life situations. He uses actual puppies and dogs that need to learn, not already trained dogs that are just being used as an example!
-Shannon Heitt
Founder and Owner,
Wiggles and Whiskers Pet Supplies