Puppy Training is Essential
I hate to start out on a negative note, but here is a sad-but-true fact: one of the most common causes of a dog being euthanized is that the people who had it as a puppy didn’t do the basic dog training that would have averted many of the most common dog behavior problems. So then a dog grows up who is out of control in one way, or more likely in several ways.
This website, and many others you will find around the internet, are dedicated to helping you train your dog or dogs. Since I used to be a librarian, one of the ways I do this is by drawing your attention to books, ebooks, and some of the outstanding dog training websites. I’ve never been a professional trainer, but I’ve trained friends’ dogs and done enough training that I also write some how-to articles.
Starting Off Right
Young puppies are so cute that it’s easy to not bother with training the cute little fluffball. But do begin as you want to things to turn out. Do you want your huge dog on the couch? No? Then make it off limits right from the start.
If there are good puppy classes where you live, that is a useful option, as socializing your dog to various kinds of people and dogs will make it much easier to take him anywhere in the future without worry that he will be aggressive or timid.
You can start training even before your puppy has developed an immune system strong enough to go off to classes. I always start my puppies right away, with enjoyable little interactions involving yummy treats. My smart little Basenji thought she had me trained to give her treats whenever she sat, within a week of when we got her. She even had me trained to click a clicker!
In my opinion, a superb resource for getting your puppy off to a good start is Sirius Puppy Training, a DVD featuring Dr. Ian Dunbar.
Literally hundreds of copies of this program have been bought from my recommendation on various pages of this website, and actually it’s one of the things I’m most proud of!
So do train your puppy, using kind and loving methods like those in that program. If you are interested in clicker training, get the comprehensive ebook, Clickertraining: the 4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer.
Of course, you will have plenty of challenges along the way, but there are few things in life more satisfying than raising a puppy who turns into a great dog!
I enjoy reading information on training your pet. If you have training classes available for your pet, I think it can be a great experience for them. If you don’t you just need a lot of patience and some time and your pet is sure to learn everything you want it to.
Anita Coombs’s last blog post..Training your dog
Cely, so glad you found out about Dr. Dunbar through my site. He is absolutely brilliant. There’s a great website run by his wife, that he contributes to also: http://www.dogstardaily.com — highly recommended!
I have a Sirius Puppy Training even before I got the puppy. I also have the ebook “Before you get your puppy” and “After you get your puppy” by Dr.Ian Dunbar long before I got my puppy. I am a fan of Dr. Ian Dunbar. It is fortunate that I signed up at Rosana’s ebook clicker training where I got the weekly email and go to her website. This is where I first found about “Sirius Puppy Training.” The clicker training is good; but in my opinion, the “collar, grab …reward” of Dr. Ian Dunbar is the best. The puppy loves and enjoys it. I believe that it’s a must to go to puppy training class.
Flora and Matt, thanks for your comments. I once met a Petsmart trainer who was wonderful too.
Readers, this blog uses a piece of software that finds a commenter’s latest blog post if they have a WordPress blog — and it puts the title at the end of their comment, like you can see on Matt’s comment above. I get a lot of one-line comments from other bloggers wanting the link, but I discard all of those. The latest gambit of such folks is to ask a one-line question, so if you have a REAL question, please ask it with some detail!
(The travails of a blogger… I have another piece of software on the blog, Akismet, which has weeded out 7276 spam comments!)
Just wanted to tell everyone how much fun our border collie puppy is having in puppy class. I looked around for classes in my area and the next one that was starting was at a local PetSmart. I was a little apprehensive about signing up at a chain store for training classes but it turns out our trainer is phenomenal, our four month old puppy (and everyone else in the small 5 dog class) knows how to sit, lie down, come, heel, stay, etc. and all this after only 5 classes! One of the puppies in class is a pit bull that was so aggresive at four months old on the first day of class that he had to wear a muzzle leash. By class 3 he was well behaved, all the aggression was gone and now he’s a big softy. Socialization was key in his behavior.
Anyway, that’s my two cents….
Good article. Puppy class is the best and if it’s an option you should definitely do it right away. If for some reason you don’t have access to a puppy class, which isn’t very likely, the Sirius DVD would be good. You need to learn how to train before you can do it. And it’s not at all something you would be able to guess how to do without help.