Bringing your new puppy home is an exciting time for all involved. The first few months of life for a puppy are key to shaping their brain and future. This vital window begins to close at 16 weeks old, so it is essential we start teaching them from the very beginning.
We recommend reward-based training as puppies respond well to this method and avoids using harsh techniques.
It is incredibly rewarding training your puppy, but it can quickly become overwhelming especially when searching for advice, it can often lead to being incorrectly informed.
Here are some simple tips and advice we believe will help your puppy succeed in the big, wide world!
Blythman and Partners recommend every puppy enrols onto a training course provided by a recognised dog trainer/ behaviourist.
Please ask for more information.
Taking Items
The most common outdated training advice is to put your hands into a dog’s food bowl when they are eating. This can be incredibly harmful to your dog’s training and cause resource guarding in later life. The best advice is to approach your puppy when they are eating and only ‘add’ food to their bowl. They will then associate human approaching whilst eating = more food/ rewards, creating positive associations.
With toys it is important to build a solid ‘leave it’ command. Start by holding food in your hand and make a fist, hold it near and allow your puppy time to sniff. When they move away immediately reward by allowing them to have the treat in your hand, repeat until they no longer approach your closed hand. The next step is to introduce your command ‘leave it’ in a very happy tone and present your fist, if they back away reward, if they sniff or paw withdraw your fist and try again. Start to increase the duration between ‘leave it’ and the reward. Once they are repeatedly following command you can add in toys.
It’s important not to chase your puppy if they have something they shouldn’t.
This will only turn into a game and become a learnt behaviour. Instead, you should ignore and swap the item for something better.
Please note there are many ways to train your puppy. If you are ever in doubt or have specific issues, please seek professional advice.
Useful links:
Finding a certified clinical animal behaviourist:
www.abtc.org.uk/
Dog training classes near you:
www.apdt.co.uk
Training advice useful videos:
www.dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice
Analysing dog food:
www.allaboutdogfood.com
