Bringing home a puppy for the first time can be exciting; everyone wants to hold, feed, or play with the puppy. Nevertheless, all these can be frightening to a puppy that has just been weaned away from its mother and littermates. The most important thing it needs is security and training. Security can be easily provided, but how does one begin with puppy training?

Puppies are easily receptive; thus, it is important to be consistent in laying the rules. They learn quickly and are remarkably obedient to instructions. Because they are social animals, they easily relate with humans thus it is necessary to develop the master-subordinate relationship in puppy training.

Obedience Training

Obedience training is a method of establishing the human image as the master. When a dog can easily obey simple instructions such as “stay,” or “sit,” it is an indication that the animal feels as a subordinate who obeys and respects the human master. In training puppies, it is not even necessary to demonstrate the commands literally. It is enough to do simple actions such as paw raise or hand lick to make a superior impression for the dog to submit upon. Dogs thrive on human attention hence they take every opportunity to perform obedience commands knowing they can be acknowledged or rewarded by their human charge.

When properly trained, dogs can be a darling. However, if there is no established routine for their behavior, they can act like animals that they are. They can ruin things, fight with other dogs, bark unnecessarily, or even refuse to obey their masters. While these are natural canine behaviors, obedience training can prevent them from misbehaving because this method can rehabilitate their normal behavior to become appropriate to the domestic setting. A well-trained dog can be allowed to enjoy more freedom because its master is confident that the animal has been conditioned to behave properly and are ready to respond when called anytime.

There are established systems on how to train dogs. Some dog lovers enroll their pets in dog obedience training class where they can be trained the basic commands and some endearing tricks. However, most people prefer to teach their dogs at home where the setting is most familiar and comfortable for the dog. When a routine has been established at such level that the dog has acquired the skill to understand and comply with the basic obedience commands, it is the perfect time to bring the training sessions outside the familiar setting. The dog may initially be distracted or intimidated in the new area with new faces that there is the need to refresh the pet with all the commands. Nevertheless, all these can be worth it because when the dog gets the feel of the new surroundings, everything comes naturally.

Puppies, especially when they are too young, easily get bored and they become pre-occupied with new things that catch their attention. It is useless to hold long obedience training sessions. Instead, puppy training can be integrated with the normal routine. This is in fact a good way to make the dog become familiar with places, schedule, and actions of the household. For example, teaching a dog to fetch the newspaper every morning is a good way of teaching it where to bring an item without necessarily giving the command every time the newspaper lands on the front yard.

People debate on when is the right time for puppy training. Some say it is too early for puppies to be taken away from their mothers while others argue that old dogs cannot be taught new tricks. There can never be too advance or too late a time to train dogs because, as animals, their behavior is always changing. Unless they get proper training from their human master, today can never be too late.