Essential Puppy Training Tips For Your New Puppy

Bringing a new puppy home is a lot like bringing home a new baby in many ways. The anticipation and nervous excitement that new puppy parents feel is almost the same as any new parents feel. And it’s no wonder because having a new puppy in the household can herald a brand new chapter of life. But it’s not just that: Bringing a new puppy brings forth a lot of (often conflicting) advice from everyone on the dog-owning spectrum.

New puppy owners can find themselves suddenly getting advice from well-meaning strangers in pet food shops, Uncle Bob (who used the breed black labs), and a mashup of both questionable or well-regarded Youtube dog training gurus. For many puppy parents, it can be really difficult to sift through all the advice and decern what they should or shouldn’t be doing with their new puppy. With that in mind, there are some training tips for puppies that are pretty consistent among dog trainers who used science-based dog training methods.

FYI: Science-based dog training methods are those that have consistent and measurable results. These methods focus on preventing behavior that we don’t want, while we reinforce behavior that we want more of. It works whether we’re raising puppies or helping a rescue dog to adjust to a new home. We know science-based training works because we can always measure training results accurately. In this article, we’ll dive into our top 5 science-based training tips for puppies. Doing these things will help to ensure your new puppy’s integration into your home is stress-free, seamless, and above all, successful.

Our Top 5 Training Tips For Puppies

1. Remember, your puppy is an infant member of a foreign species.

Many new puppy parents overlook the fact that their new puppy is an infant member of a foreign species. They forget that he’s a baby dog who’s only ever lived with his mom and puppy siblings before he was adopted into a human household. As such, he has no way of knowing how to act in a human household. He doesn’t know what you’re talking about when you say “sit”, “wanna go out?”, “no”, or even the perfect name you picked for him from a list of puppy names. As an infant dog who’s only been on the planet for a few weeks, he has to learn everything there is to know about living with humans. These things include, but aren’t limited to:

• The sounds you make mean something. For example, his name means “Hey, it’s time to listen to the human”, “Sit” means put your tush on the ground, “Down” means belly on the ground, “Off” means 4 paws on the ground, etc.
• The toilet is outdoors, and not on the floor
• There are things that he can chew on, and a lot of things he can’t
• Humans are trustworthy- They can always be depended upon for safety, food, and love.
• A crate is a safe place, not a scary isolation chamber.
• People don’t interact like other puppies- and nipping, mouthing and biting don’t get interactions and opportunities to play

2. Don’t use puppy pads indoors.

If you want your puppy to potty outdoors, don’t use puppy pads indoors. Let’s be real here: If we want to teach an infant member of a foreign species to potty outdoors, it’s counterproductive to teach him to potty indoors by using puppy training pads. Following the five golden rules to perfect puppy potty training will help to ensure this part of puppy training is a breeze.

1. Take the puppy outside to potty every hour until he gets the hang of it. Go outside with him. Take him to the same spot every time. Praise and (since praise on its own doesn’t mean anything to him yet) immediately reward him with a bit of kibble or a treat and then play with him a bit.
2. Confine or supervise all the time. Of course, you’ll want to supervise more than confining your pup to a crate. That way, he can get to know his surroundings (and you too).
3. Schedule all food and water. Food will be 3-4 times per day. Water should be about 8 times per day. You then can time how long your puppy takes to potty after he eats or drinks.
4. Never scold for accidents. Scolding teaches your puppy one thing- that the human becomes aggressive when he potties. He’ll stop doing it around you (that includes outdoors) and will start hiding indoors when he has to go. You’ll want him to let you know when he has to potty. If he has an accident, chances are you didn’t see him sniffing around or weren’t quick enough to get him out to his potty spot when he needed to go.
5. Clean up accidents thoroughly and don’t allow access to carpets and rugs until potty training is absolutely flawless. After you clean up the mess, use an antibacterial odor neutralizer like white vinegar. Follow with your choice of household cleaners. Keep the puppy off of carpets and rugs. This is because almost every puppy has a strong instinct to potty on absorbent surfaces. Furthermore, it’s really hard to get the smell out of a carpet completely. Your puppy’s nose can pick up scents you can’t even imagine. So even though the carpet may smell completely clean to you, even a nanoparticle of urine can be enough to stimulate a puppy to use it as a potty again.

3. Handfeed food as training rewards

Instead of feeding your puppy out of a bowl 3 times per day, use at least one of those meals to teach him his name means he should listen up, because his name means good things are going to start happening. Food is an amazing tool for initiating good habits because it meets a primary need that all animals have. Starting name training by using food is the best way to build an association in the puppy between paying attention to his name and the good feeling that comes with eating. Hand feeding builds and reinforces the really good habit of paying attention for any puppy.

Hand feeding also has many other benefits, including avoidance of bowl guarding, building trust in you as a reliable provider, and helping to teach a puppy to be gentle with his mouth.

How to hand feed:

tart with your puppy in front of you. Use a leash if you think he’ll wander off or lose interest. At first, just offer him a small handful of food as long as his paws are on the floor. Next say his name in a happy, inviting tone, and offer another small handful of food. Continue this until the entire meal is gone. Be sure to offer the food down low, so he has to bend slightly to get it. This will prevent him from snapping at the food (and your hand).

4. Begin training puppy training as soon as your puppy arrives in your home

Your puppy is learning all about living in a human household. It will be easiest for him to learn if you start preventing habits you don’t want, and start teaching him the habits you want to see more of from the beginning. Use tools like baby gates or exercise pens to keep him out of places where he could get into trouble. Get things you don’t want him to chew on into cupboards or at least out of his way. Supervise him 100% of the time when he’s not in his crate.

5. Socialization means introducing your puppy to different people, places and things in dfferent environments.

Puppies are born with the instinct to be afraid of everything they aren’t introduced to at between 2 weeks and 16 weeks of age. This timeframe can vary with genetics and the mother dog’s temperament. However, one of the most important things you can do in puppy training is socialize him to ordinary things in the environment. Puppy socialization requires you to bring puppy food with you on your puppy socializing adventures. You should watch him for signs of discomfort. If he shows signs of fear, you’ll want to take him further away from what’s scaring him and let him observe it from a distance while he enjoys a few snacks. Signs of fear to watch for:

• Stiff body posture
• Tail tucked
• Crouching down to hide
• Obviously trying to escape the scene.

We tend to tune out the background noise that surrounds us. We’ve learned that sounds like traffic, children or adults talking, or even fireworks are just part of the ambiance of life. Puppies need to learn this too. You can help your puppy to learn by playing environmental sounds on your computer or stereo while you feed or play with him. Start with the sounds at a very low volume for the first session. In the next session, you’ll probably be able to turn the volume up a little to play the sounds while you play with or feed your puppy. Continue this way until you’re playing the sounds at a normal volume while you feed or play with your puppy.

Don’t worry too much about your puppy getting experience playing with other puppies his age. I say that because puppies that engage in a lot of inter-puppy play without human-led protocols grow up to find play with other dogs to be preferable to interacting with their owners. Without human intervention, puppy play groups can be a shemozzle. A lot of puppy playgroups end up with one or two puppies becoming “prey” that all the other puppies chase and bite. That being said, dogs all over the world learn to be great with other dogs without group puppy classes.