When Should I Start Training My Puppy?

Many people ask me this question.

Here's the bottom line:

If you have a puppy, you must start training early, but do it gently. Your puppy has to have confidence in you before he can begin learning. Remember that puppies are like children - they have growing bodies, short attention spans, and will only learn things when the conditions are right and when they understand what it is you're trying to teach them.

The earlier you start training dogs, the better. More specifically, it's best if you start “socialization” from 8 weeks, simple commands like “come” and “sit” from 12 weeks, and more intensive training at 5 to 6 months.

Here's some more on this topic:

When Should I Start Training My Puppy?

Simply put, the sooner you begin training your puppy the better – for both of you. But you have to understand the stages a puppy goes through as he matures so you can form some realistic expectations of his behavior and learning ability. (Click here to see my article on the “7 Stages of Puppy Development for additional in-depth information on this subject.)

While some early training can be started as soon as you bring your puppy home, the optimum time to begin obedience training is somewhere around 9 to 12 weeks of age. Keep in mind that training can cover a broad range of topics – I’m not suggesting that you begin training your puppy at 8 weeks of age for agility competitions! Your training should start off with the basics – teaching him “No!” and beginning house-training.

Socialization skills are next – experts tell us the best window for your puppy to learn socialization skills is between 3 and 16 weeks – that’s the best time to insure that your puppy grows into a well-adjusted adult. And remember, socialization isn’t about teaching him the right fork to use at the dinner table – it’s about giving your dog the self-assurance to deal correctly with any social environment he finds himself in is one of the most valuable and lasting lessons you can teach him.

A well-socialized dog will interact well with all types of people and situations, even those he has never been in before. With appropriate social skills, your dog will show little or no fear of most objects, people or other animals, and even if startled, will recover quickly and won’t panic.

Bottom line, a well-adjusted dog is one that is comfortable in a variety of situations and surroundings. He may be excited in a new setting, but not fearful. The key here is to create positive experiences as you expose your dog to more and more new situations.

Even training your puppy for 5 – 10 minutes per day as soon as you bring him home will make a big difference in the social skills and adaptability of your puppy. Keep in mind that puppies have very short attention spans, so keep your lessons short and fun. How short an attention span? That depends on the age of the puppy, his breed and how mature your individual puppy is – but a good rule of thumb is to keep the training sessions within that 5 -10 minute range.

Depending on your puppy’s age and maturity level, sometime between 3 and 6 months of age you should be moving the training into the area of the basic commands such as Sit, Heel, Down, etc. It’s important you have realistic expectations about your dog’s capabilities at this point – I don’t expect a puppy to be responding to the basic commands with any degree of regularity until they’ve reached 6 months of age.

Puppy training (well, all dog training for that matter) has three main components - known as “PCP”. No, I’m not talking about drugging your dog! (Shame on you for even thinking that!) PCP (in this case) stands for the three things you need to keep in mind day in and day out when you’re training your dog:

1. Patience

2. Consistency

3. Practice

Patience is the key to any training program with your puppy. The level of patience you display while training your dog will have a direct impact on whether you have a happy, well-trained dog, or a miserable, misbehaving one.

You’re the adult here, remember? You’re the trainer, the leader of your pack, and the one doing the teaching. You know that your puppy needs short and positive training sessions. You know you can’t teach him everything in one

session, or even in a week of sessions. So patience is the key. If you find yourself getting frustrated when training your puppy, end the session on a positive note, and stop the training. Don’t lose your temper and take it out on your dog. It’s not his fault you’re getting annoyed – ok, well, maybe it is, but it’s up to you to maintain control and restart the training on another day.

Consistency is the second most important component of training. I’ve already talked about how important it is for everyone in the family to give your dog the same commands and allow the same behaviors. I can’t stress this point enough. If your family is all on the same page in terms of training, your puppy will be trained more quickly and thoroughly than you can imagine.

Everyone in the household needs to use the same commands. That way, when someone says “Sit” to your dog, he knows it means “Sit.” Not “Lie Down,” not “Ok, go eat your food now,” not “It’s ok to chase the cat.” Sit means Sit. Down means Down.

And it’s equally important to keep the behaviors consistent. You can’t have one family member letting your dog get on the couch and another trying to discipline him and telling him “No!” for the same behavior. It will only confuse him, with the end result that he won’t learn which behavior is right. So he’ll either try to do both, or neither. And either one of those actions will simply get him in trouble with whatever family member happens to be present at the time.

Practice makes perfect. I really hate to use that old adage,

but it’s true! Repetition is the way to teach your dog a lesson – any lesson. Repeating the lesson over and over again will engrain it so deeply in your dog’s memory it’s likely he’ll never forget it, and that’s what you want. You want his reaction to your commands to become second nature, obeyed almost instinctively and certainly followed immediately – it literally could be the difference between life and death for your dog.

Any successful training program must include some sort of discipline. Having said that let me say this: don’t ever hit your puppy. Let me repeat that so there’s no mistake. Don’t ever hit your puppy!

In order to apply discipline for an inappropriate act, you must

1. Catch your puppy in the act of misbehaving, or

2. Take steps to avoid the misbehavior in the first place.

If you walk into the living room and find your puppy squatting to piddle on the carpet, you should tell him “No!” in a loud and sharp tone of voice, then walk over, pick him up and take him outside. (Or leash him up and take him outside.) Either way, your puppy can tell he’s done something you don’t want him to do. There is absolutely no need to hit your puppy, just because he’s doing what comes naturally to him.

And, truth be told, if you had been paying attention to your

puppy, you would have recognized the signals he was using to tell you he needed to go outside. So the fault for this particular situation needs to be laid at your door, not your puppy’s. You could have avoided the situation in the first place by being more attuned to your puppy’s needs.

So, start early, be consistent, be patient, practice – and before you know it, you’ll have a dog that’s a joy to have around!