10 Tips For Current and Future Puppy Owners That Want to Train the Perfect Dog

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General Dog Training Tips

1. Choose Wisely When Selecting Your Future Pup

Whether selecting your prospective pup from a professional breeder or from a family breeding a litter for the very first time, the criteria are the same. Look for puppies raised indoors around human companionship and influence—specifically around people who have devoted lots of time to the puppies' education.

2. Future Problems Result from Early, Non-Corrected Problems

Digging, barking, and escaping are usually secondary problems of unhousetrained adolescent dogs which have been relegated to a life of solitary confinement and boredom in the yard. Housetrain your dog, and then you may leave him indoors. Magically, the digging and escaping problems will disappear.

3. Train Your Dog to Stop Barking by Teaching Him to Bark on Request

One of the best ways to reduce excessive barking is to teach your puppy to speak on cue. Training your pup to bark on request facilitates teaching him to shush on request, since you may now shush-train the pup at your convenience. Instead of trying to quieten your puppy when he is excitedly barking, you may request your pup to bark and so teach shush at times when the pup is calm and focused.

4. The Clock to Train Your Puppy Starts from Day 1

As soon as your puppy comes home, the clock is running. Within just three months, your puppy will need to meet six crucial developmental deadlines. If your puppy fails to meet any of these deadlines, he is unlikely to achieve his full potential. In terms of your dog's behavior and temperament, you will probably be playing catch-up for the rest of your dog's life. Most important of all, you simply cannot afford to neglect the socialization and bite inhibition deadlines.

Dog Training Development Tips

There are six crucial developmental deadlines that you have to keep in mind

1. Your Doggy Education (before searching)

Before you look for your perfect puppy, you need to know what sort of dog to look for, where to get it, and when to get it. An educated choice is generally far better than an impulsive puppy purchase. Additionally, you need to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the developmental deadlines; they become urgent and crucial the day you select your puppy.

2. Evaluating Puppy's Progress (before selection)

Before you select your puppy (usually at eight weeks of age), you need to know how to select a good breeder and how to select a good puppy. Specifically, you need to know how to assess your puppy's behavioral development. By eight weeks of age, your puppy must have become thoroughly accustomed to a home physical environment, especially to all sorts of potentially scary noises; your puppy should already have been handled by many people, especially men, children, and strangers; your puppy's errorless housetraining and chewtoy-training should be underway; and your puppy should already have a rudimentary understanding of basic manners.

3. Errorless Housetraining (before homecoming)

You need to ensure that an errorless housetraining and chewtoy-training program is instituted the very first day your puppy comes home. This is so important during the first week, when puppies characteristically learn good or bad habits that set the precedent for weeks, months, and sometimes years to come.

4. Socialization with People (by 12 weeks of age)

The Critical Period of Socialization ends by three months of age! This is the crucial developmental stage during which puppies learn to accept and enjoy the company of other dogs and people. Thus your puppy needs to be socialized to people by the time he is twelve weeks old. As a rule of thumb, your puppy needs to have met at least a hundred different people before he is eight weeks old and then meet an additional hundred people during his first month at home.

5. Bite Inhibition (by 18 weeks of age)

Bite inhibition is the single most important lesson a dog must learn. Adult dogs have teeth and jaws that can hurt and harm. All animals must learn to inhibit use of their weapons against their own kind, but domestic animals must learn to be gentle with all animals, especially people. Domestic dogs must learn to inhibit their biting toward all animals, especially toward other dogs and people. The narrow time window for developing a "soft mouth" begins to close at four-and-a-half months of age, about the time when the adult canine teeth first show.

6. Preventing Adolescent Problems (by five months)

To ensure that your well-rounded and well-schooled puppy remains a mannerly, well-socialized, and friendly dog throughout adulthood, your dog needs to meet unfamiliar people and unfamiliar dogs on a regular basis. In other words, your dog needs to be walked at least once a day. Your puppy may be taken for rides in the car and to visit friends' houses as early as you like. Start walking your puppy as soon as your veterinarian says it’s safe to do so. If you already have a puppy and feel that you are behind, do not throw in the towel. You must acknowledge, however, that you are well behind and that your puppy's socialization and education are now a dire emergency. Immediately do your best to catch up. Call a pet dog trainer at once. To locate a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT) in your area contact the Association of Pet Dog Trainers at 1-800-PETDOGS or www.apdt.com. Take this online video course for a more in-depth look at how to properly train a puppy. https://www.udemy.com/complete-dunbar-collection/