Puppies are brand new to the world and soaking up life lessons daily. It's up to us to help them learn the essentials.
Puppies, like all baby mammals, are little learning sponges. That means training your puppy begins from day one: you can’t and don’t need to wait for your puppy to mature to begin to teach her! But training does not have to be another thing on your puppy to-do list, as real world puppy training is something you do as part of your every day with your pup, to build your bond for life. Below are seven lessons that professional trainers teach their puppies. They are the not-so-obvious building blocks to a harmonious start to your puppy’s life with your family, but they are vitally important.
What can puppies learn?
In short, everything an adult dog can learn, but in smaller, shorter sessions! From the time your puppy comes home to you (and even before that) he is capable of learning complex skills, associations, and behaviors, but even with these abilities to learn and participate in training from a very early age, it’s important to take his specific developmental needs and abilities into account: while puppies can learn almost everything an adult dog can learn, how you teach and what you prioritize will be slightly different.
Not only can puppies learn, they already are - puppies are learning every waking moment. Like all baby mammals, learning, especially about their environment and the people and animals in it, is a puppy’s superpower. Puppies are new to their world, and they’re investigating and adapting to it: they’re figuring out what is safe and what’s scary, what is enjoyable and what’s not. In fact, puppies between the ages of 4-16 weeks (depending on individuals), are in such an intense, unique period of learning these things, we name this time the socialization period. In this period, what a puppy experiences and learns will not only stick with him for life, but will shape who he becomes as an adult. Will he be confident? Trusting? Fearful? Calm? Excitable? Optimistic? In other words, what your puppy learns can help him grow up to feel comfortable, relaxed, and confident in his world, and lacking these experiences and exposures can lead to lack of comfort, confidence, and difficulty relaxing. This period of your puppy’s life is not open-ended and once it’s over, you can’t get it back.
The importance of socialization
So, what you teach your puppy should take advantage of your puppy’s superpower: the socialization window she’s now in, and prioritize proactive socialization first. Proper socialization is a powerful preventative for many problems down the road, and is essential to living the best life with your new dog.
But, in order to have the best socialization experiences, to fit into their new lives and household, and to build a harmonious relationship with you and the other people and animals in your puppy's life, she needs to develop certain life skills. And so do you: in order to be an effective, efficient teacher for your young pup, you’ll want to add some puppy trainer essentials to your own skill set.
Sit can wait
As your puppy’s teacher, your goal is building a great relationship with a joyful confident puppy who grows into a joyful, confident adult dog. When you look at most puppy training classes, you’re likely to find a familiar list of traditional training favorites: sit, stay, heel, down… we all know them. And, while there’s nothing wrong with teaching these “useful tricks” to a puppy, we maintain that your precious teaching time with your pup should start with other skills. That’s because these poses, like, sit, are not necessary for the primary goals of early puppyhood, but there are other more fundamental skills that you DO need.
Teaching sit, heel, and other classics are a little like teaching your toddler first position in ballet, or how to spike a volleyball. If you and your toddler both want to learn these actions and poses, great! But if they don’t know how to put on their shoes, use a spoon, greet a new person, or ride in their car seat yet, you might need to focus there first. And, if after all that, you and your toddler are a little too tired to also master ballet or volleyball? Well, that’s ok! You’ll have a lifetime for that.
You might find that with your puppy as well. By the time you’ve fed him, played with him, taken him to his potty spot every 30 minutes or even more frequently, redirected his little sharp teeth from the chair leg onto his own toy, and made his next vaccine appointment, you’re both a little tired. And that’s ok. Even professionals find the needs of a young puppy demanding, and smart trainers don’t put pressure on themselves or their puppy to master everything all at once. They know they have a lifetime to teach specific skills, tricks and advanced behaviors to their puppy, so they focus on the skills he needs today: those will be the foundation for the fancy and optional stuff tomorrow.
Smart puppy training isn’t something you do in addition to caring for your puppy, and it isn’t a special formal set of exercises. Instead, it’s approaching each day and each normal interaction with an eye to building up your puppy’s skills for his life today and set him up for his life tomorrow.
Your puppy training mission is simple: teach your puppy that his world is safe, and fun, and so are you. Building your relationship first is the key to a harmonious life with your new dog.
Which Skills?
Below is the place we start with all our young puppies. The list might surprise you; if so, welcome, you’re about to learn some of the secrets of building a great dog and a great relationship!
Lesson 1: Introductions and Communication – puppy meets (new) world
Take a moment to think about where your puppy came from, and what she’s seen in her very short life. Was she raised in a nurturing, safe, enriched environment with her mother and littermates? Or was her start a bit rougher – perhaps her mother was stressed or didn’t have enough to eat at first. Maybe she and her siblings had their basic needs met, but didn’t experience much outside of the immediate surroundings in which they were born. Now, review the changes that have happened for her in coming to your home. What changed for her in that transition? She’s no longer with her littermates and mother, the individuals which she has known since her birth. What about where she’s living now: what new sights, surfaces, animals, and people has she met in the time she's been with you? No matter how well, or ill-prepared she was for it, the transition from being with her litter to being with you is huge and it is the first big transition she has ever experienced! Puppies are in general flexible, adaptable little creatures, but we can enhance their resilience and adaptability with our own attention to these changes. When we notice and empathize with all these big differences in our young’s life, we are better prepared to support her in not just tolerating them, but learning to enjoy them! And that’s the goal of introductions: to teach your puppy not just to survive in her new world, but to thrive in it.
Once you have taken stock of your puppy’s starting point, it’s time to observe her! Getting to know your puppy is about learning to read and understand her language: body language. All dogs use their bodies to communicate, and they are talking to us using body language all the time. They tell us:
- how they’re feeling
- what they’re thinking
- what they want and need
- and what their intentions are
Learning to read your puppy’s body language is an essential first step to training her. Once you have a better sense of what your puppy likes, what she's uncomfortable with and worried about, and what she likes to do, you’ll know both what she needs help learning and what you can do to teach her that the world is fun.
Socializing and training your puppy well depends on understanding her body language. Learn the basics, then observe your own puppy to learn her individual expressions of comfort, confidence, worry, or fear.
Lesson 2: Eat and play in different ways and places
Here’s the thing: modern puppy and dog training involves pairing food, play, petting, praise and other consequences that your puppy loves with situations and actions that you’d love your puppy to do more of. Want him to learn to focus on you? Pairing turning toward you with a treat he loves, or a game he cannot resist will make looking at you irresistible. Teaching him to relax in his bed? Same thing! But, as surprising as it is to many, learning how to enjoy treats and play games with people isn’t something that puppies come into this world knowing how to do. They have to learn it!
And so you can see why it’s important to know what motivates your dog, and to teach him that you're fun, and also the source of tasty goodies. He is an individual and just like you, he probably has some preferences already, and also can learn to love new things to eat and do.
Start with a treat interview. Choose a few pea-sized or smaller pieces of food that you're comfortable using for training later. These could be very small commercial treats, or (even better!) pieces of real, puppy-safe food, such as small pieces of chicken, cheese, steak, or turkey. You can try some less usual favorites, too! Some puppies go crazy for carrots, tiny pieces of fruit, or even little bits of sweet potatoes, for example. Drop a single piece of one in your puppies usual bowl. Does he eat it enthusiastically? Great! Put that on the list! Don’t forget his regular kibble or meal, keeping some portion of that aside for training is also a great habit to develop.
Treats into training: take those foods your puppy said “yes” to, and teach him how to eat in the ways you’ll need for all training! Depending on your environment and where you plan to train, you may want to show him how to:
- Take a treat from your open palm
- Take a treat from between your pinched fingers
- Follow your pointing finger to a treat on the floor
- Follow your pointing finger to a treat hidden under something, like a towel
- Chase and eat a treat as you bowl it across the floor
- Find and eat a treat in short grass
- Find and eat a treat in tall grass
- Find and eat multiple treats if you drop more than one at once
- Bonus: catch a treat in his mouth
Teaching a puppy how to find and eat treats in these ways is something that all experienced professionals do, and that many pet guardians don’t know that they should do. Have you ever heard, “he’s terrible at finding the treat” or “He just won’t eat treats outside, he’s too excited?” Sometimes this is about being overwhelmed by new or scary sights or sounds (see puppy meets world, above), but just as often this is because these fundamental treat skills haven’t been taught. They’re not fluent yet, and so while the puppy is able to eat inside, as soon as the world becomes noisier (literally and figuratively) those skills fall apart! So take a page from the professionals’ book, and intentionally teach your puppy how to eat in all the ways he’ll need to for you to train successfully for the rest of his life with you.
Repeat with play
Now it’s time to do the same thing with play that you did with food!
Start with a play interview. Puppies that are relaxed and comfortable usually enjoy play, but interactive games need to be taught! And, just as your puppy likely has food preferences, he also enjoys some types of games more than others. So, gather some supplies! Some possibilities:
- a long fleece tug (you can make one out of old shirts, too!)
- a soft fluffy toy
- a rubber ball or any other toy small enough that your puppy can carry it in his mouth
- something that makes noise, like a squeaky toy, an empty water bottle, or crinkly paper
Now, play! One at a time, introduce your puppy to each item. Let him investigate them, then start the game! Drag the tug along the ground, bounce the ball away from your puppy, squeak the squeaker or crinkle the water bottle and wiggle it until your puppy shows interest. Which toy is most appealing to your puppy? Are there certain games that are really fun for him? Take note, you’ll use these to build the relationship and the behaviors you want!
Teeth on toys only please! When you are playing with your puppy, remember that you're training, too. You're teaching him the rules of the game, and the number one rule is that little puppy teeth belong on toys but not on skin. Puppy mouthing and nipping is normal, and play is a great way to teach your puppy the life skill of chewing and biting the right things.
Teaching your puppy that you and he can play together is not only an important tool for all future training and socialization, it is also the most important lesson you can teach your new puppy: that you are fun and enjoyable, and that being with you is fun and enjoyable.
Just like with a young child, teaching your puppy how to play with you is teaching him how to learn from you, and also teaching him to want to learn from you.
Lesson 3: comfort with collars, leashes, and harnesses
Another important-yet-overlooked skill for all new puppies is learning to get dressed; comfort wearing collars, leashes, and harnesses is something that comes easily for some puppies and takes longer for others. Depending on your puppy’s history before she came to live with you, she may have had a lot of exposure to wearing walking equipment (harness and leash) and identification (collar), just a little, or none at all. But, if she is going to be able to train out in the world with those things on her body, you’ll need to teach her to put them on and enjoy them in a familiar environment first.
Decide what walking equipment is right for your puppy. Because puppies' bodies are growing and they are not yet skilled enough to avoid pulling on the leash at all times, most puppies benefit from a soft, adjustable harness to wear while walking, and will also need to learn to be comfortable with the feeling (and sounds) of a collar and tags on their neck. What you choose for your puppy is up to you, but we can help! Above all, avoid using special “training collars" like prong, shock, choke, or any other collar that uses pain or the threat of pain to control your puppy’s movement. These come with big risks and they rely on false promises. As tempting as it sounds, no collar can train your puppy, only you can. And the risks of these collars to your puppy’s health and wellbeing are very real, both in the short and long term. Instead, choose walking equipment that is pain-free, well-fitted, and designed simply to keep your puppy safely restrained when he is out and about with you.
Your walking equipment is safety equipment, not training equipment – think of it like a seat belt for your puppy’s adventures into the wider world.
Get dressed! Pair leashes, harnesses and collars with fun things. Once you have decided what’s right for your puppy, it’s time to introduce her to the feeling of wearing this new stuff! For some puppies, this is no biggie – you can put the harness and collar on their bodies and they hardly notice. (How will you know? Body language, of course!) For others, the experience is a bit more overwhelming, and you’ll notice that they squirm, try to escape, or even freeze in place when you first put their walking gear on them. If this is the case, they need your help! It can be tempting to laugh it off and assume “she’ll get over it,” but we encourage you not to leave a skill this important up to chance.
It is essential that your puppy feels comfortable in her walking equipment because her successful socialization depends on it. If she's uncomfortable in her harness, feeling a leash restraining her, or hearing the jingle of her tags, and she is wearing these every time she meets a new person, goes to a new place, or interacts with a new thing outside of your home, those feelings of discomfort can and do bleed over into those experiences, too.
So, if your puppy shows any discomfort with her new gear, slow down and teach her to love getting dressed. Some ways to do this are:
- Pair the sight of her harness with a fun game or a treat you found she liked in Lesson 2. Hide the harness and leash behind your back, then present it to her, when she looks at it or approaches it, make the good stuff appear (treats or toys). Don’t bring the gear towards her in any way, just show, treat, repeat. Remember, your goal is to get her excited to approach her walking equipment, not just to accept it.
- Break down getting dressed into smaller parts. If your puppy isn’t sure that she loves her collar, take the tags off and just introduce the feeling of the collar on her neck. If she runs from her harness, think about all the movements she needs to do to get dressed: put her head through it? Step into it? Stand still for the buckle sounds? Once you have broken it down, teach her to love each part separately before bringing them back together, using the pairing method above.
Lesson 4: Teach your puppy his name
One thing that is likely brand new to your puppy is his new name! And you’ll want to teach him to respond to it eagerly and quickly. To do this, you’ll teach your puppy that (you guessed it) his name predicts great things!
Begin by using one of the things – a treat or a game – that your puppy adores. Then wait for him to look in your direction, and call his name just once, in a normal voice. No matter what he does next, produce the goodies! Offer him a treat, or start the game, or both! Repeat until you can call his name and you immediately notice him looking back to you.
Practice in many locations, and vary what great thing happens to him when you say his name. Sometimes it might be a treat, sometimes a game, sometimes something else he wants at that moment, such as petting or his meal. Vary the tone and volume of how you say his name, too. Whisper it, say it a bit louder, say it in a sing-song voice, and say it with urgency. You are teaching him to respond to his name no matter how it's said.
If you call your puppy’s name and he doesn’t respond to you, get more interesting. If you call your puppy’s name and he doesn't immediately turn to you, that’s ok, he’s still learning! Your job then is to make responding to you irresistible. You might tap the ground, squeak a toy, make a surprising but not scary noise, such as a kissy sound, run in the other direction, anything you find that your puppy can't resist! Once he looks to you, reward him just as you would have if he had come without a bit of extra help. Remember, you’re teaching him it always pays to respond to his name, and every time you help him respond in a difficult or distracting situation, he will get better and better at doing it on his own next time.
Your puppy’s name is a sacred cue, do not use it to scold him! Unlike humans, puppies are not moral creatures: they do not have a sense of right and wrong, or “I should” and "I shouldn't." That means that scolding, admonishing, and punishing your puppy for doing the “wrong thing” is ineffective and ignoring the species differences between us. That doesn’t mean you can't teach your puppy what not to do, but you won’t do it through punishment. Instead, you’ll do it through interrupting and preventing the behavior you don’t want, and encouraging the behavior you do.
But all of us, and we mean ALL of us, are in the habit of using someone’s name in a scolding tone when we see something we don’t like, and this is a hard habit to break with a curious puppy who is likely constantly trying things we’d rather he didn’t (where exactly did he find that sock he’s chewing on NOW?). We know it’s hard, but even when you see your puppy doing something you don’t want him to do, do not use his name to scold him. Simply interrupt him by calling his name in a happy voice (you can fake it, you have our permission), and reinforce him for looking at you. After all, if he’s looking at you, he’s not doing the “naughty” thing! Then, change the environment, close the door, pick up the sock, or consider whether your puppy might need something else (a bathroom break or a nap perhaps?). Next, consider how you might give him something appropriate to do: does he need something to chew, for example? This recipe: interrupt positively, change the environment, meet the need, is how “naughty” (read: normal!) puppies grow up to be well-behaved dogs.
If you do use your puppy’s name sometimes as a predictor of good things and sometimes to scold him, he won’t learn the snappy, reliable response to his name that you hope. You will see that over time he responds more slowly, that you have to call more than once, or that he loses a bit of enthusiasm in his response.
So don’t sabotage your excellent name training: keep it always positive, even when you're using it to redirect your puppy from unwanted behavior.
Lesson 5: Teach comfort with separation
As much as you love your puppy, there are times when it's inconvenient or unsafe for her to be with you. Learning how to be alone is an essential skill for almost all modern dogs, and it's not something that comes naturally to most puppies. So don’t wait until you need to leave your puppy to start showing her the ropes: teach separation early, and keep it short at first.
Begin by making her a cozy, puppy-proofed spot. This could be a puppy pen, a puppy-proofed room or a space enclosed by pet gates. This area should include a cozy place to sleep, access to fresh water, and possibly a potty spot. It should also be fun for your puppy, include chews and toys so that your puppy has something to do while in her area.
Choose your first separation times wisely. Puppies, like young children, alternate between having lots of energy and needing frequent naps. When you're first introducing your puppy’s alone-time area, choose a time when your puppy’s needs have all been met except sleep. In other words, you have taken her to her bathroom spot, she has eaten, she has social needs met by being with you for a significant amount of time, and you can see she is ready for a nap.
Place her in her special area, and if possible, remain nearby. Bring a book, your phone, computer, or some other activity. Lean against the side of her pen or gate, and just be next to your puppy. Let her settle on her own, without talking to her and while keeping interaction with her to a minimum.
Keep first alone time sessions short and sleepy, and once she is sleeping, stay nearby. When she wakes, take her out of her area (and immediately to her bathroom area, remember always to offer a bathroom break after a nap!) before she whines or paws or otherwise protests.
Repeat these short, well-timed sessions, gradually spending more time away from your puppy’s area. By keeping sessions short and choosing times when resting is very likely a priority for your puppy, you're setting her up to learn that being alone is safe and easy.
Be alert for alone-time struggles. Some puppies need longer to learn to settle into alone time than others. Go at your puppy’s pace, and don’t be tempted to let her scream, whine, or “cry it out.” Letting your puppy struggle in the area you want her to learn to love can backfire, and isn’t the best way to teach her to be alone. If your puppy or you are really struggling to learn this skill, don't despair. Contacting a professional trainer while your puppy is still young can help you get started on the right foot, rather than waiting and seeing whether she’ll “work it out.”
Lesson 6: Teach adult life skills in puppy-sized sessions
Puppies can learn many of the life skills that adult dogs can learn, and learning them sooner can make life with your puppy rich and enjoyable. Teaching a recall, for example, is a useful and fun way to bond with your puppy. And teaching the touch skill is incredibly useful in many settings that your puppy will encounter before adulthood, including vet care, grooming, and everyday living at home. All life skills can be taught to your puppy, if you keep your puppy’s developmental needs and abilities in mind.
The major difference between teaching any life skill to a puppy and to an adult dog is limiting repetitions. You’ll have noticed that your puppy needs to eat more frequently, sleep more frequently, play more frequently, and go to the bathroom more frequently than an adult dog. Everything a puppy does is quicker, shorter, and cycles faster than they will as adults, and training sessions should match this puppy rhythm. Keep puppy sessions very short – 2-10 repetitions or one minute or less total training time is plenty for a pup! Your puppy cannot concentrate for longer than this, and his little body may get physically tired of repeating the same action over and over, too. Repeat these sessions often, keep them ultra-short, and you’ll train faster and get more enthusiastic participation.
Lesson 7: Train, yes! But don’t forget your priority: socialization
At this point your head might be swimming with ideas of puppy-appropriate training, and ways to build your bond of trust and joy with your new dog. We hope it is! There’s so much you can teach, and when you teach positively, there’s no need to wait to start. But we want to take a moment, puppy guardian to puppy guardian to remind you that it’s ok not to train anything formal at all before you and your puppy are ready. That’s because helping a puppy integrate into your life and your family is already a lot: a lot for you to manage and a lot for your puppy to learn.
Holding off on formal training doesn’t mean holding off on teaching your puppy. Instead, remember to prioritize socialization when raising a puppy, especially one younger than 16 weeks old. (You probably are housetraining, too! We can help you with that.) Socializing your puppy well is the most important thing you can do to build a foundation for your best life with your dog.
The training lessons above are meant to support you in this priority, not take away from it. As long as you focus on socialization, and on teaching those essential skills that are needed for successful socialization, everything else can wait!
Positive training is an investment in a relationship
We know that puppyhood is an exciting – and exhausting – time for everyone! We’d venture to say that there isn’t a puppy guardian out there that has been delighted, exasperated, charmed, bewildered, and drained by their beloved bundle of joy, sometimes all in the same day! Raising a puppy well is intensive, but short: your puppy will be an adolescent, and then an adult before you know it! Play the long game and focus on building a solid relationship with your puppy based on empathy, understanding, positive reinforcement, and fun. What you train in puppyhood is not as important as how you train it: each positive, short, successful session, no matter how simple, is an investment in your future with your dog. The behaviors your dog learns are truly just the icing on the cake: they can learn those at any time in their life, but you only have one time to start your puppy off with love, confidence, and trust in their world and in you.