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Training Tips For Your New Puppy [Print This Article]
Congratulations! You’ve added a new puppy to your family. Puppies are a lot of fun – and a lot of work! Everyone with a new puppy experiences frustration with normal puppy issues, such as housetraining, chewing, and nipping. Following are tips to help you and your puppy adjust quickly.
Be patient with your puppy. This adjustment period can be stressful for your puppy as well as for you. This is a new home, a new family, and new things your puppy has not yet experienced. Have realistic expectations. She will have accidents in the house. She will chew up something of value to you. She will nip you with her sharp puppy teeth. She will misbehave as she is learning.
Establish your house rules now and be consistent. In some homes, puppies are allowed on the furniture, fed table scraps, or encouraged to jump on people. In other homes, none of these are allowed. Teach your puppy what is right and wrong according to your rules. Do not allow your puppy to do something you think is cute now but will not like when your puppy is full-grown. It’s easier to establish good habits now than try to eliminate bad habits a year from now.
Housetraining is one of the first things we need to teach our puppies. Your puppy is not used to having an entire house or apartment available to her, so she needs to learn this entire new building is her home. In order to teach her to potty outdoors only:
- Take her out to potty frequently when she first arrives home. All puppies are different, but as a general rule, potty breaks should be no further apart than your puppy’s age in months plus 1 hour. For example, if your puppy is 3 months old, she should be taken out at least every 4 hours. However, when she first arrives home, take her out every one to two hours. Expect to take her out at least once during the night. Always take her outside shortly after waking up, eating, or playing.
- Reward her immediately when she potties outside. Use praise, petting, playtime, a toy, or a treat. Teach her that going potty outside is very rewarding!
- When she is indoors, watch her very closely. If you see signs she might need to potty, take her out immediately. Signs might include: sniffing the ground, circling an area, pacing, fidgeting, squatting or lifting a leg.
- When you cannot watch her closely, confine her to a smaller area of the house, such as a crate, an ex-pen, or a small room. Give your puppy her food and a bed in this area so she learns not to potty here.
- Limit your puppy’s access to your home while she is learning to potty outside. Gradually give her more access to more rooms as she learns.
- If you do catch her going potty in the house, do NOT punish her! Simply clap your hands or find some other way to stop her from going potty, and then take her outside immediately. Reward her for going potty outside. If you punish her, she might become afraid to go potty with you standing nearby for fear of being punished - even when you are outside.
Focus on the good things your puppy does. Puppies love your attention. Try to give your puppy lots of attention for doing things you like and try to ignore your puppy when she is misbehaving, unless she is likely to harm herself or destroy something valuable. If you ignore her when she is behaving and give her plenty of attention when she is misbehaving – even if you are scolding her – she is learning that misbehaving is the most effective way to get your attention. By doing this, you are actually rewarding her for misbehaving!
Limit your use of “No” and other scolding. Teach your puppy what you WANT her to do, not what you do NOT want her to do. If she jumps on you for attention, and you teach her not to jump, she will have to experiment until she finds something else that works. She will learn much faster if you tell her exactly what you do want from the very beginning. For example, instead of telling her, “No!” when she jumps on you, ask her for a sit before she jumps on you.
Teach your puppy not to jump on people. Dogs usually jump for attention. If they are being petted, scolded or pushed away, they are receiving attention and will continue to jump. Your puppy should receive no attention for jumping. Fold your arms, turn to the side and step slightly TOWARD your dog, but do not speak to, touch, or look at her. Be careful NOT to step on her feet. As soon as all four feet are on the ground, tell her what you want her to do to get your attention, such as “Sit.” Be sure to reward the new behavior you wanted. If you start ignoring the new behavior, the jumping will return.
Teach your puppy to sit on cue. Hold a treat or toy in front of your dog’s nose. Slowly move the treat just over her nose and straight back over the top of her head. Don’t hold it too high or she will jump. As the treat moves over her back, her rear end should move into a sitting position. As soon as her butt hits the ground, give her the treat or toy.
Consider bringing your puppy to a training class. A positive reinforcement training class will help you learn how to more effectively teach your puppy to behave the way you want. It will also help you to build a stronger bond with your puppy. In addition to training, a good puppy class will give your puppy a chance to socialize with other puppies in a safe environment. Puppies need to have as many different safe and positive experiences as they can during this stage of their lives.
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