Your puppy may just be the cutest thing on this planet but boy can they be a lot to handle. From housetraining to teaching him commands and tricks, a few things could go wrong during training sessions, but what’s important is your resilience to forge on. Puppies, depending on their breeds are averagely very smart creatures although they do have short attention spans. However, once you master the skill of training them, you both can live a fantabulous life.
Here are some great tips to help you through the training process.
- Catch them young
From the moment you adopt your new furry friend, the training starts. This is because you want to checkmate the housetraining pitfalls like peeing everywhere in your home and scratching at your furniture. You’ll need to effect a change in their socialization right away so they aren’t distant from people or other animals. By so doing, your Morkie, Pomsky or any other adorable breed will require walks to the park where they can interact with other dog breeds.
However, it’s been said that formal training of one’s dog should begin when they clock 6 months, but this would cause a delay in getting your puppy to behave. This is because during the 6-month interval they’re still learning and picking up habits from experiences which you’d have to teach him to unlearn if it doesn’t favor your home.
- Use treats or show affection when training
Your puppy can be taught simple obedience commands like ‘sit’, ‘down’, or ‘bad dog’ if they’re being naughty once they clock 8 weeks. Using these colloquialisms early will help your puppy identify which means which, while rewarding him treats or patting his head after successfully sitting or standing at your command will motivate him to learn new tricks. In essence, utilize positive reinforcement training methods.
You should also know that it may not happen immediately or upon the first trial, hence you’ll need to keep trying. However, as a way to visualize what you’re asking of him, you can ask a friend to bring his trained dog and practice some tricks in front of your puppy. This will fast track the learning process for your dog.
- Food-lure method
This method involves enticing puppies with food or treats, but unlike using treats as a reward, you use them to get the dog to the position you need. In essence, if you want your puppy to stand, you’ll need to position the food or treat at a position where your dog will have to stand to reach it. This can be done for other commands like ‘sit’, ‘stay’ or ‘down’. In the same vein, you can show your puppy the treat, saying the command and then moving the treat.
For clarity, you can place the treat on the puppy’s nose and slowly move backward with it which should trigger a ‘sit’ position from your puppy. You can hold it up for a ‘stand’ position and leave it on the ground for a ‘down’ position. In essence, once you pair a command with an action that will yield a visible reward, your puppy will surely learn faster.
Training your new puppy is a very rewarding activity that will establish a great bond between the master and the puppy. It’ll bring you closer to him and also get him to act accordingly to your specifications. For the most adorable, easy-to-train, playful and healthy puppies do visit PremierPups.