Basic Puppy Training Rules

Puppy training or dog training can be a very rewarding and fun experience or a stressful and frustrating one. Here are some basic puppy training rules to follow when training your dog.

1. Reward behaviour you want, ignore behaviour you don't want. It's that simple. Behaviours are learned and we, not knowingly, train our dogs bad behaviours. A classic example is when we get home from work, and we get into the house. Fido wants to greet us and what does Fido do? Fido gets on two legs and licks our face while we praise him and say we miss him and love him. It's the beginning to jumping on people and it's not fun if you have kids coming through the door. Trust me, it happened to me. So only reward the behaviour you want whether it be a treat, a click or praise.


2. Be consistent, from what you say to what you do. If you want a well behaved dog, you must be consistent so they know what is expected of them. If the command for the recall is "come", don't have another family member say "let's go" or " over here". It will confuse your dog and success occurs less often.

3. Train to succeed. Do not setup your dog for failure. If you know your dog will not remain in a stay position while in a busy park, then don't train there. You must build your dog's ability incrementally. Small successes will equal greater ones in the end. Failures will set you back further. Keep your training sessions 5-10 minutes long and always end on a positive note.

4. Have patience. Here's an important one. Do not hit or yell at your dog for not getting it right. Maybe we're the ones not doing it right. Let your dog try figuring out what you want them to do. Let them offer you the behaviour you want. If it doesn't happen don't sweat it. Again, reward what you want and your dog will begin to understand, "oh that's what they want me to do."

5. Tone of voice. Dog training should be fun so be happy and sound happy. It should be exciting for your puppy. If you are not feeling the mood to train, then try it another time.

Follow these basic puppy training rules and you will be on your way to having a healthy relationship with your dog.