Puppies bring joy and energy to a home, but without early training and socialization, their innocent puppy antics can soon change and become problematic adolescent and adult behaviors. The OC Working Dogs team believes that training is a lifelong journey and investment that begins the day you welcome your puppy home. This early and proactive approach ensures your puppy will grow up to be the dog you want, rather than one with deeply ingrained problem habits difficult to change.
Not to mention—training can be fun, and will help you bond with your new best friend
Here are five simple things you can do now to set up your puppy for a lifetime of success.
#1: Create—and stick to—a routine for your puppy
Caring for a puppy will inevitably disrupt your daily schedule, so you should establish a new routine that will get you and your puppy off to a great start.
Predictable routines give puppies comfort and a sense of security in their new home. Consistently sticking to the same times for eating, drinking, resting, and playing can also accelerate important skills, such as house breaking and sleeping through the night.
#2: Help guide your puppy toward good choices by managing their environment
Puppies aren’t born knowing the difference between good or bad behavior. Instead, they learn by engaging with their world and learning what they find rewarding, unpleasant, painful, or dangerous. Help your puppy learn good behavior by managing their environment, a strategy that involves spending more time praising and rewarding your puppy and less time reacting to their misbehavior (e.g., fishing something out of your puppy’s mouth, finding chew marks on your furniture), which also makes learning less effective.
Easy ways to manage your puppy’s environment include:
- Training your puppy to relax in their crate, which you should use whenever you cannot directly supervise their activity
- Tethering your puppy to keep them close when they are not crated or confined
- Confining your puppy to a pet-proof area, such as a playpen or gated room (i.e., don’t give them the run of your home)
- Keeping inappropriate or potentially harmful items (e.g., shoes, decorative items, electrical cords, choking hazards) out of their play area
- Providing safe and engaging toys for your puppy to practice normal behaviors, such as chewing, tugging, and wrestling
- Keeping your puppy on-leash outdoors and in new environments
- Restricting your puppy’s access to other household pets and unfamiliar dogs and cats
By limiting your puppy’s ability to make inappropriate or unsafe choices, your puppy will rehearse good behavior that you should then praise and reward. In time, these well-practiced and positively reinforced behaviors will become second nature and will ultimately help your puppy make good behavior choices as an adult.
#3: Help your puppy learn to be alone
Although you likely want to spend every waking moment with your cute puppy and to take them everywhere you go in the name of socialization, this well-meaning habit can lead to separation anxiety. Dogs with separation anxiety experience intense distress when they are left alone and may exhibit destructive or self-harming behaviors.
Teach your puppy to be comfortable alone by introducing the concept in small increments. Always ensure they are safe (e.g., confined to a crate or secure pen) and distracted with an enjoyable item, such as a Kong containing a small amount of xylitol-free peanut butter, plain yogurt, or wet puppy food.
Begin with brief separations (e.g., leaving them in another room for several minutes) and gradually work up to longer sessions. When you return, greet your puppy gently and do not acknowledge them until they are calm and quiet.
#4: Introduce your puppy to new places, people, and experiences
Socialization is essential for puppies to grow up as confident, resilient adult dogs. Unfortunately, many puppy owners confuse socialization with simply meeting as many people and dogs as possible, which can lead to negative and overwhelming experiences.
Instead, focus on creating positive, controlled exposures and managing your puppy’s environment to set them up for success. Keys to positive socialization include:
- Control — You should be able to manage your puppy’s environment and leave quickly if your puppy is nervous or overwhelmed.
- Familiarity — Ensure your puppy interacts only with dog-savvy people and adults and fully vaccinated adult dogs who are known to be friendly and to tolerate puppies.
- Pairing — Ensure new experiences, people, and pets are positive experiences by providing your puppy with tasty treats or their favorite toy.
- Brevity — Keep your sessions short and always respect your puppy’s body language. If things don’t go well, don’t force it—try again another day.
#5: Prioritize life skills over traditional dog obedience
Many puppy owners expect their young charges to quickly understand traditional obedience behaviors, such as “Sit,” “Down,” and “Heel,” but failure to obey these instructions is not why dogs are rehomed or surrendered to shelters.
Life skills help dogs learn how to coexist with humans positively and successfully, and prioritizing these skills prevents or minimizes relationship-damaging behaviors (e.g., destructiveness, reactivity, fearfulness, separation anxiety). We encourage prioritizing these critical life skills:
- Crate training
- Polite greetings
- Comfort and confidence in new locations
- Acceptance of grooming and handling
- Controlled stationary behavior (e.g., going to their crate or bed)
Puppyhood is an adventure, and our team can help ensure that your journey ends with a well-behaved adult dog by your side. Contact the OC Working Dogs team to discuss our services and your puppy’s training needs.
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