Puppy training priorities

Bringing your puppy home can be an overwhelming experience for both new puppy parents and puppies alike. It’s likely something you’ve been planning and preparing for for weeks, if not months or years. But from your puppy’s perspective, it’s all quite a sudden change. Although you’ll be excited to get started with your puppy’s training and socialisation, it’s important not to overwhelm them and try to do too much at once. It can be helpful to make a plan for what you want to focus on in your puppy’s first few weeks at home, or at least prioritise what is most important.

Many people will immediately start teaching their puppy new tricks as soon as they come home. Whilst training is a brilliant way to bond with your new puppy, there are lots of other things that will be more important for their early life than teaching your puppy to sit. Getting off to a good start with your puppy will help set them up for success later on so that you can have the best chance of ending up with a happy and confident canine companion.

Prioritise your relationship

One of the most important things you can do for your new puppy is to prioritise building a trusting relationship with them. This will help them to feel secure, which will aid their confidence and can prevent issues like separation anxiety or fearfulness later on. 

Some ways you can help your puppy to know they can trust you and build a positive relationship are:

• Take care of their needs, such as toilet, food, water and social contact

• Avoid leaving them alone for longer than they can cope with

• Learn how to read canine body language so you can interpret their emotions

• Don’t ignore any whining/barking and comfort them if they are frightened

• Avoid unnecessarily putting them in any situations that might be frightening

• Spend time on training using only positive reinforcement based training methods

• Avoid shouting, scolding or using any punishment based training methods as these can cause pain, fear and might cause your puppy to be scared of you

Consistent routine

Having a clear routine helps your puppy to know what to expect and can also help speed up toilet training as well as allowing them to get enough sleep. Puppies need a lot of sleep and if they don’t get enough it can cause them to become overtired and exacerbate biting, barking and other undesirable behaviours. Most puppies will start to adjust to their humans’ routine after a few days and it can be helpful to arrange your day so that you can give them enough toilet breaks, naps, meals and play at regular times each day. This helps make things predictable for them to help them feel safe and comfortable while they are still settling in. 

Meet their needs

Having a relaxed and happy puppy is dependent upon whether all of their needs have been met. This includes the obvious stuff like food, water, toilet and sleep. But apart from a dog’s basic biological needs, they also need appropriate exercise, social contact and enrichment. It is a great idea to research your puppy’s breed so that you know what will likely be enriching for them.

For example, terriers were bred to hunt vermin so they enjoy tuggy games and tearing things apart. To meet their needs, you can make sure you have lots of fun tuggy games with a soft, long toy and give them things like cardboard boxes or toilet paper tubes to shred. Puppies who have had all of their needs met are much less likely to be crazy, bitey land sharks!

Puppy proofing

While you have a curious puppy exploring their new world, it’s important to keep them safe and avoid them getting into any situations where you might be tempted to tell them off. While they are learning how to live in our human world and how we would like them to behave, it’s much better to manage the environment so that they can’t run off with your knickers or swipe the steak you were defrosting in the kitchen. This usually means containing them in some way, using a pen or crate and supervising them closely while they’re not safely contained. Shouting at a puppy for chewing or stealing something they shouldn’t won’t prevent them from doing it again in the future and they may just learn that you can b scary and unpredictable, which is not ideal.

Positive reinforcement 

Whether we are aware of it or not, puppies are constantly learning. They learn whether certain behaviours will be rewarding or not based on the consequences, so whilst they are little it’s a great idea to take advantage of this and reward all the things they are doing well. If they settle by themselves while you’re on a Zoom call - drop a little treat, if they go to the toilet outside by themselves - have a party! You get the picture. While your puppy is learning, it’s a great idea to have some treats in your pocket or in a container you can get to easily so that you can reward any good behaviours as they happen. A good way to think of it is, what gets rewarded gets repeated! 

Puppy socialisation

A key part of helping your puppy to grow up to be happy and confident, is making sure they received appropriate socialisation during their key development stages. This is actually a little different to what people generally think of when they talk about socialisation. Many people think this just involves letting their puppy meet every person and dog they come across, but it is much more than that. 

First of all, we need to make sure that any experiences our puppy has during their critical development periods are positive experiences. If they experience something scary at that time, it may cause them to become more fearful in future, so we need to protect them from anything that could cause them harm, whether that’s the boisterous Great Dane puppy down the road who plays a little rough, or your loud uncle who is a bit heavy handed and has some old fashioned ideas about dog training. 

As well as ensuring all experiences our puppies have are positive and fun, socialisation is also about experiencing a range of different sights, sounds, smells and textures. After they’ve had a few days to settle in, start taking your puppy out to different places with you and just sitting outside and watching the world go by. This can also help them learn that they don’t always need to be involved and it’s ok to just watch, which may prevent issues like frustration from developing. 

Don’t panic

It can feel like there’s so much to do when you have a new puppy, but take a breath and don’t panic! There is going to be plenty of time for everything, the main thing is just enjoying your new puppy and helping them learn that you will take care of them and their new home is a safe place to be. 

If you’re not sure if you’re on the right path and need some help with prioritising or even planning for your puppy’s arrival, I can help you with a pre-puppy consultation as part of my Puppy Mentoring Package. We can work together to figure out what’s most important for you and I’ll provide expert advice for helping your puppy to settle in and get off to a good start. Feel free to book a free introductory call with me if you’d like to find out more.