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I am getting my new Rottweiler puppy January 20 and she will be 8 weeks I understand starting with crate and potty training are top of the training list but I consider those 2 things a "duh!" in where to start along with socialization. very important with all breeds but especially a Rottie. There is so much information and I'm appreciative of the bang for my buck, but also overwhelmed. I realize all puppies are different but shouldn't the obedience be mastered before "tricks"? but then "look at me" is maybe the FIRST thing that should be taught?? I am excited about learning and teaching my new puppy. I don't want to screw this up. It would be helpful for the way may brain works to have a step-by-step basic outline of the basic essentials of obedience with brain training notables to accelerate the particulars. I find myself jumping back and forth from puppy to brain back to obedience to the forums and by then I've forgotten where I am at and what I was reading about to start. Help!! Thanks in advance.

So, this is my third dog & DEFINITELY the hardest one to train (so far.) Second male, second goldendoodle, ALL new training issues of course. Different dogs, different personalities I understand. BUT in regard to the Brain Training games, we worked our way through Preschool & Elementary School, certain games a little harder to conquer than others naturally. Now that he is in 'High School' we have been stuck there for a few weeks. 1st off, he came to me petrified of water (& cars & bikes & several other things as well, but staying on topic) He has gotten better w/the fear of water, but the Bobbing for Apples has been a real tricky endeavor. I started with tennis balls (his cryptonite) & that at least got him over to the pool & eventually playing the game. Less interested when switching to treats however & DEFINITELY did NOT enjoy sticking his muzzle into the water. (Literally to the point where he was trying to DRINK the water in the pool to get to the carrot at the bottom--argh/haha) We finally made progress with this game & think eventually he will succeed slowly but surely with practice. The Bottle Game however I am at my wit's end. We started with a wider necked bottle, less pieces of kibble, until he understood the concept of the game. Then slowly I added more pieces until we reached 10. Even with smellier (higher valued) treats & me initiating play with him, (giving him treats when he displays appropriate behavior, etc,) he either loses interest, gets frustrated, or both. In addition to the fact that he is a bigger dog & easily crushes the bottle when he picks it up with his mouth (he is not very gentle) & actually enjoys chewing bottles & thus ending the game prematurely. What can I do to get him to pass this test so we can finally move on to the next level of Brain Games? If he needs a B or C in the Bottle Game before moving on, I'm afraid we are going to be stuck in high school forever! Please help! Signed, Nutty in N.J. (Noelle-human & Aurelio- crazy canine)

Hi There, I recently got a golden retriever puppy, Riley. We absolutely love her but she's a biter, which is extremely frustrating. She isn't fully vaccinated yet, so we cannot take out to exercise so we play with her in the house. Within 5 minutes of us playing with her, she starts biting and jumping and there's nothing we can do to calm her down. If we turn around to not give her attention, she will run around and start chewing furniture in the house. We have tried to give her chew toys and puzzle toys but she gets frustrated with these easily and wants to run around chew every other thing in the house than her toys. For puzzle toys, we put her kibbles with some high value treats in a toy. Once she had the toy, she sniffed the toy and knew there was food in it but after trying to get the food for 5 mins, she gave up, got frustrated and wanted to bite me. I'm at a loss for what to do. Please help. Akshay

Hi All, so I have a question on training. My puppy Ellie is almost 3 months old (rescued her around 2) and were starting training. She is getting good with her name and is VERY food motivated, but when training her, she will naturally sit when she sees I have a treat. How would you suggest I train her to sit if she naturally does it without the command? We have been working on "come" but as soon as she sees the treat in my hand she will either sit in her tracks or run up to me and sit, so I don't know if I should be rewarding her for sitting even if I say "come".. Also on the other hand when teaching "Sit" I can't even get through the hand gesture because she automatically sits, so do I just start enforcing the word Sit as she touches the ground?

Hi, I have three different dogs I'm trying to train. My question is if I am clicker training, will having two of them in a kennel while I am working with one of them weaken the effect of clicker training? Or if I click to reward a spontaneous behavior by one of them, that the other one did not perform, will that not weaken the association of the clicker for the other 2? I guess in general I am just looking for tips for training multiple dogs.

I rescued a dog from Honduras this summer. All things considered she is doing super. The one exception is counter surfing. She, according to DNA is an American Valley dog. I know, I never heard of it either. Her longest strands of DNA are Doberman, Boxer and German Shepard. Has long legs so can reach to the backsplash. My husband and I are really trying to remember to hide things. Help

We have an approximately 5-month old standard poodle who has just recently become afraid of his reflection during the day and his (and other’s) shadows at night. This new challenge is resulting in difficulty on walks, as he stops to growl, bark and attempt to bite his reflection and often tries to run from his shadow at night. We have read/heard from a couple of sources that this is a “normal” or at least not unusual stage of puppy development. However, we were curious if there is anything we should/should not do to help him navigate this latest phase. Many thanks in advance for your feedback and assistance!

Hello, I have three dogs. German shepherd, jack russel, and chihuahua. I am training all three of them and am in the process of teaching the two littles ones to sit. Should I use their names and the beginning of a cue, like " bella sit" and "apple sit" in order to not confuse them all when only asking one to sit? Or will they all sit anyways regardless if their name is in front or not? thanks!

I have three dogs. I would like to train all three of them. I am wondering how far I need to seperate them when charging and training with the clicker. If I am charging the clicker with one dog and the other two hear it in the other room will the clicker loose association with the other two dogs? Thanks for any help