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Hi there! Welcome to the forums! Here's a big fact: From the day you bring your puppy home, your puppy will be constantly learning, and that includes both good behaviors and bad. If you keep your mind focused on this very important fact, you will be more likely to provide guidance so that your puppy will often make good choices. Puppies are learning with every interaction so they are perpetually in "training." Play is training. Resting is training. Walking is training and even learning to be away from you is training. Embracing all these life events as training opportunities is incredibly beneficial in helping a puppy develop into the dog of your dreams. Because let's face it: by encouraging good behaviors from the get-go, we can avoid the hassle of fixing bad habits that straighten over time and become more and more challenging to overcome. So how long should a puppy be trained? There are no general rules set in stone on how long and how often a puppy should be trained. It tends to vary on an individual basis. Just like us (think students who can sit in class concentrating on lessons while others are glancing out of the window daydreaming), some dogs can tolerate more training than others. For instance, how is the pup's attention span? Is she easily bored? You can generally train your pup as many times as you like as long as you pup is enjoying it and isn't getting bored. Nothing is worse for a puppy than a tedious training session that is boring or too difficult! In general, with a pup of 8 months, you can do about 10-15 minutes of training every day in brief sessions spread throughout the day. This would be a good place to start, making sure you end the session on a positive note and always when the pup is still interested. This builds a strong desire to learn. Your pup is now in the full adolescent stage so she'll benefit from training and some impulse control. You can read about the dog adolescent stage here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ Making the sessions fun will make them less likely to feel "intense" for both owner and puppy. As the puppy matures and the attention span sharpens, it is possible to do longer sessions, but never to the point of boredom. So I would say start with brief sessions and watch how your puppy does. Now, dog owners may wonder whether it's best to focus on one behavior and teach it up to the level of mastery or whether it is best to teach a variety of behaviors at the same time. While there is really not right or wrong way to train behaviors (the important factor is that the puppy keeps learning and is eager to do so), with young pups it would be optimal to mix up several different behaviors. Puppies can get bored easily so mixing up different behaviors can help them stay focused. Puppy owners can also take advantage of their pup's energy levels and plan what to train accordingly. For instance, most puppies wake up with lots of energy or they may get the "zoomies" after finishing a meal. These are good times to take advantage of this energy bursts and train some recalls. Then, as the puppy gets a bit tired, why not focus more on some stationary exercises such as sit, down and stay? Once they are relaxed more, then you can resume with some more kinetic energy exercises such as polite leash walking. These exercises feature shifts in energy that are more in tune with the pups' activity levels and therefore can help maintain interest. On top of training different behaviors, it's important to also train them with different people and locations. All family members should be involved and take turns asking for behaviors. While training should start in a quite room, it should progress to involve various rooms of the house and the yard and then outside the home. I hope this answers your question, Happy Training! Adrienne .