Teaching commands is important to your puppy’s safety, and the act of training can be a wonderful bonding tool for you and your puppy. At a minimum, your puppy should learn to sit, stay, come when called, and (for older puppies) to walk on a leash. These four basics are essential for keeping your puppy safe! You can start teaching “come”, “sit”, and “stay” when your puppy is eight weeks of age. Here are some tips for effective training:
Try never to repeat a command. Repetition has a dulling effect. Continuing to give a command (“Sit! Sit! Sit!”) while your puppy ignores you will teach him that you’ll give him attention if he does the opposite of what you’re asking.
Say, “Come here!” in a fun, high tone of voice every time the puppy starts running towards you, and give the puppy lots of verbal/tummy rubs/food rewards whenever he comes running to you. Crouching down encourages him to run to you, too. Say, “Good sit!” every time the puppy sits for the first week. Then, begin asking for a sit, and use a treat to lure your puppy into the correct position, using these steps:
- Holding a treat, lure your puppy toward you.
- Move the hand holding the treat over the puppy’s head toward his tail.
The goal is to get him to look up and back, forcing him into a sitting position to keep looking at your hand. You can also use your other hand or a wall to gently stop the puppy from backing up as you lead the nose up and back. Do not push down on his behind to ‘make’ him sit. You want to teach him to sit on his own!
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Never use intimidation as a tool. If the puppy does something undesirable, you can use a calm, firm “no”, but avoid a harsh tone and never yell or use physical punishment. Punishment and yelling serve only to make your puppy afraid of you. Cowering does not mean your puppy ‘knows’ he did something wrong, he is just reacting to your voice right at that moment and showing submission. It will not help him learn the right thing to do. If your puppy is cowering when you are verbally correcting him, use a softer tone of voice, and focus on rewarding the positive and avoiding/redirecting negative behaviors. Or try a method called clicker-training, which is 100% positive-reinforcement -based, highly effective, and really fun! You can find all kinds of information about clicker-training online, and there are also many books written on the subject.
Be consistent. Always use the same command to elicit the same result. Don’t use the same word to mean two different things. When you say “down” do you mean lie down or get off the counter? When you clap, does that mean “come here” or “stop chewing on that sofa leg”?