Dogsmanship - The Dog Lover's Survival Guide

Fun and Easy Ways to Training a Puppy

You just brought your new puppy home and you’d like to start training it right away but you don’t know where to start. The first thing you need to do is decide what you want to train your puppy to do.

House training is usually the first place people want to start, as nobody wants to live in a house that smells like urine. If you want to start house training your puppy, you need to begin doing it right away. Start out by creating a routine for the puppy, taking it outside regularly to do its business, and begin praising and punishing it right away to draw the lines between good behavior and bad. With a little patience and a lot of love and attention, your new puppy will soon learn what it’s supposed to do to, and what it’s not, and it will become a great addition to your family.

Puppy Crate Training
A good place to start is to crate train your puppy. That is, buy a crate that’s big enough for the puppy to move around in. Generally, puppies will not want to do their business where they sleep, so keep it in a crate during the night to prevent it from doing its business all over your house. Your puppy will cry and complain but it’s important that you don’t give in by letting it out. If you do, you will only teach the puppy that, just by crying, it will get its way.

Puppy Training Routine
You must create a routine for your puppy while training. Let it out regularly in the morning when you first wake up, and then again after each feeding. Finally, let it out once before you go to bed. If you keep up this routine regularly, your puppy will learn what you expect of it. Soon, there won’t be any accidents because it will know that you’re about to let it outside soon so that it can go to the bathroom.

Praise and Punishment
During puppy training, praise and punishment are key elements. When it does a good job, praise it with lots of love and affection. Pet it and tell it good job. When it does something that it’s not supposed to, either put it in its crate or create a loud noise by slapping a newspaper against your hand. Never hit your puppy, as you are much bigger and stronger than your puppy. Training a pup revolves around praise and punishment and both should be used to teach your puppy the difference between right and wrong.

Puppy training isn’t something that is done in a day or two. It takes time for your puppy to learn what you expect of it. So have fun with it and remember that your puppy deserves lots of love and patience. It will catch on eventually but, until then, you may have a long road ahead.