What age do I start training my puppy?

As a trainer I get asked a lot ” what age do I start training my puppy ?”

As soon as you get your puppy or dog home training should begin. When I have a litter of puppies I start official training at 3 weeks old, yes that is right 3 weeks. I begin to litter box train the puppies, this helps to instill into them to be clean. House training goes a lot smoother when they get to leave to their new homes, as they never know anything different. They have been imprinted that going in a box or out side is what is expected of them.

I also begin to shape basic behaviors like sit. Sit is one of the most basic layers to most important behaviors in a dog. If a dog knows a a very good sit things like bolting out doors do not happen and the dog doesn’t jump. When the “Sit” command is re enforced they learn that all 4 on the floor is what gets them the reward.

When you get your new puppy home you should have a set of ground rules that you should stick too and be very consistent with these rules. Every time you introduce a new command make sure the criteria is always the same.

Dogs are never too old or to young to train and re mold. With our positive re enforcement choice based training its their choice, we just control the re enforcement.