Training new puppy

[coxmegan80]

Just purchased this program to train my 12 week old puppy. We already have him sitting as well as some "wait" and "come". My question is, when do you move on to the next thing and do you still continuing perfecting the ones hes already learned at the same time? Is there some sort of calendar I can follow?

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Greetings, and welcome to the forums!

You have a smart pup and your pup is in great hands if he is learning so quickly!

To answer your question, once your puppy is able to respond to your verbal request to sit, wait and come, you must work on perfecting those, but the great thing about training dogs is that you can always train something else in another session so that your puppy won't get bored.

 

Actually, I will say that, with young pups, it is optimal to mix up several different behaviors after they have learned a couple of basic things like sit and come. Puppies can get bored easily and they have short attention spans so mixing up different behaviors can help them stay focused. You can also take advantage of your 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 such energy bursts to 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 then progress to involve various rooms of the house and the yard and then outside the home.

 

So, yes, there are really no rules set in stone, just make sure those sessions are short and sweet (puppies have short attention spans) and that you are both having fun. Nothing is worse for a puppy than a tedious training session that is boring or too difficult.

 

Worth reminding is also the fact that puppies are learning with every interaction so they are perpetually in "training." Play is training. Resting is training (yes, puppies retain what they learned while they sleep!). Walking is training, and even learning to be away from you is training.

 

Hope this helps,

Happy training!