Puppies start to learn the moment they open their eyes and are most open to new experiences during the first four months. Start training your puppy the moment it is bought home. Good early habits endure and will result in a well behaved dog in the future. The basis for successful training is a good relationship with your dog. You’ll be off to an excellent start when your dog sees you as the provider of all things positive such as food, games, fun, affection, comfort, and exercise. Your dog loves to be with you. You are the person that makes everything good happen.

Exposing your puppy to new environments and experiences early can greatly enhance your dog’s interest in learning new things. Puppy walks or games are great ways to stimulate your pet both mentally and physically. If actively stimulated, your puppy will become healthier and adept at learning new trainings faster. This will also help strengthen the bond between the both of you at the same time. Whenever possible, hand feed your puppy. This teaches him/her to like human contact, even when your puppy is feeding from his food bowl. Not feeding from hand can lead your puppy to turn aggressive in the future to whomever that tries to get near him/her while feeding.

Always Have a list of the various things you want to teach your dog, find out how each can be achieved, and then take them one at a time. It works best to teach one thing thoroughly before moving on to something new. Never try to teach your dog several new things at once as this will be confusing. For more complicated tasks you may need to plan different stages, starting with the easiest first. Begin your dog training inside the home where your dog stays. Your dog will learn faster when he/she is in a familiar environment. Outdoor training should only be attempted when your dog reliably obeys commands in your home. After each training sessions, make sure you play with your dog to help associate training as positive and fun.

General rule of reward is to reward wanted behaviour but to ignore unwanted behaviour. Be aware of what you are rewarding. For example, if your dog jumps all over you when you get in and you smother him in affection, he may think this is what you want him to do, and he’ll continue to jump up at you and everyone else who comes to the door. Remember, whenever you praise him, you’re confirming what he is doing.

The post Start Home Dog Training Early first appeared on Puppy Blog.

Training a puppy can be a difficult, yet rewarding task. If done properly, you will be rewarded with a loyal friend for life. If done improperly, it can lead to frustration on both the part of the dog and the owner. One of the leading causes of learning disabilities in puppies is not due to defective genes or breeds, but to early separation from the dog’s mother. Because dogs have a much shorter life span than humans, they mature and learn at a much faster rate. A puppy learns more in the first 6 months of its life than it does in the remaining years. To break it down even further, many of the dog obedience training basics are not taught by the owner or trainer, but by the puppy’s mother.

In a natural environment, a puppy learns about social structures such as pack leader, dominance, etc from its mother at a very young age. The puppy learns that there are appropriate places to go to the bathroom, appropriate ways to act around the pack leader, and more importantly, patience. If a puppy is separated from its mother too soon, many of these vital skills are not taught and can make the foundation for training much more difficult to establish. Furthermore, a puppy with separation anxiety, generally brought on by early separation from its mother, will exhibit more aggressive behavior, destructive behavior such as chewing or scratching, or nuisance barking or howling.

So how do you know when it is too soon to separate a puppy from its mother? The general rule of thumb is that a puppy should not be separated before eight weeks, but it could be longer if certain signs are prevalent. These signs include, but are not limited to, abnormal dependence on the mother or failure to conform to social norms within the pack. If these signs are evident, the puppy still needs more time with the mother before being made available for adoption. Once a puppy begins to exhibit independent behavior, it is a good indicator that he is ready for adoption and will have better success during the training process.

Even once the puppy is separated from its mother, it still needs just as much love and attention as it got when it was inside the family unit. Its mother used to respond to its every whine and whimper, and in order to keep the puppy’s self esteem high, it will require you to do the same until it feels comfortable with you. Once you have created this bond however, the dog will see you as the one in charge and will respond better to your voice commands, function better in your home, and be less likely to develop separation anxiety when you leave the home.

The post Puppy Training – How Early Separation Can Lead to Puppy Learning Disorders first appeared on Puppy Blog.