Training a Puppy

It used to be that puppy training was a haphazard affair until puppies reached five or six months of age. In fact, from time to time, I still hear that theory promoted. New puppy owners grumbled about in-house accidents but accepted them as part of bringing home a new puppy.
About forty years ago, Dr. Ian Dunbar ( his website is: http://www.dogstardaily.com/ )developed new ideas and methods of training puppies. His belief, and one that is currently widely held and practiced is that puppies learn fastest in the first 16 weeks of their lives. They continue to learn throughout their lives but using this 16-week window is the best time to be training your puppy.
Bringing home a new puppy, who is 7 or 8 weeks old, is our opportunity to begin puppy training where mom, the siblings and a responsible breeder left off.
The universal #1 conce
in training puppies is potty training, sometimes referred to as housetraining.
When training your puppy, your very best tool is the crate (and a timer). Training your puppy to regard the crate as his safe haven, his ‘doggy den’ if you will, will not only help prevent house-soiling ‘mistakes’, but also make transportation and confinement for a variety of reasons much easier.
In everything you teach your puppy, you want to set him up for success and then reward that success to ensure more of it.
Crate training will enable quick success with potty training and no messes to clean up.
Follow these steps:
1) Lure puppy into crate with stuffed chewtoy*
2) Set timer for the top of the hour
3) When timer goes, take puppy outside to pee / poop
4) Praise and treat profusely if he performs.
5) If he doesn’t perform, simply return him to his crate and set the timer for 30 minutes. When timer goes, repeat above steps. Do not scold.
6) Permit an ’empty’ puppy 10 – 15 minutes supervised freedom of one room.
7) Return puppy to the crate with chewtoy.
8) Set timer
* A hollow rubber toy into which you can put food and treats.
Training your puppy requires consistency, persistence and vigilance. The payoff is huge and quick!
For more details on stuffed chewtoys, luring puppy into the crate and many other useful puppy training tips, go to my website: www.judethepuppynanny.com