When Should I Start Training My Puppy?Written by Adam G. Katz
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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 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 age of puppy, his breed and how mature your individual puppy is – but a good rule of thumb is to keep 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 training into area of 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 basic commands with any degree of regularity until they’ve reached 6 months of age. For more: http://tinyurl.com/4efaq
Author, “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!“ which you can read more about at: http://tinyurl.com/4efaq
| | On Missing The Imprint Stage Of Puppyhood Written by Adam G. Katz
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#2: Build a strong sit and down stay. #3: Teach dog that he must hold positions around other dogs. It's your responsibility to make sure that other dogs do not jump on him. #4: With some dogs, aggression can only be controlled. Other dogs will get comfortable enough, over time being around other dogs, that it will be eliminated. It really depends on dog. #5: The problem with group classes is that there is too much going on for your dog to really learn. Plus, 10-on-1 nature means that YOUR instruction is lacking. It's a good environment if dog is ALREADY TRAINED... as you can take advantage of various distractions. [During proofing stage, that is]. But for teaching dog... no way! And you don't have to trust my opinion. Just look at caliber of training that you'll find with dogs that come out of group classes. They're substandard compared to dogs and owners that have worked just a few sessions with a competent dog trainer. To read more of my dog training ramblings, read about my book (click below): http://tinyurl.com/4efaq Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!
Author, “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!“ which you can read more about at: http://tinyurl.com/4efaq
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