I enjoy doing in-home puppy training classes. Since I understand the important things a puppy must know to turn out into a great adult dog, I am highly motivated to get those puppies started properly.
You have four months to do this work. Four. From birth until 4 months of age, there are critical, or sensitive, periods that they go through that can never be re-captured. In terms of practical issues, I want to get as much out of these developmental stages as possible. Here are a couple of examples:
First up: Housetraining. I think potty training is the most important lesson any puppy can receive. It is the first thing people do to train their puppies, and the first place where they start blowing it with their puppies. For example, you might be angry that you puppy pooped on your carpet, but they don’t know why you are angry and if you display that attitude around them, they will pick up on that. Dogs are intelligent, problem solving, SOCIAL mammals. They pick up on social cues. Side issues include proper crate training. I hate it when people are advised to trap their puppy in a crate and let them cry it out. Trauma has no useful role in dog training.
Socialization: this is the developmental process that helps a puppy develop proper bonds with the family and opens the door for the adult dog to accept new relationships in the future. I had a past student whose old dog died. So, they got a new dog. But one of the family members wasn’t ready for the new dog, still having hurt feelings and memories of the loss. So, when the new pup came into the home, he was hostile to the new dog. That developed into the new dog growling and standing off with him! I had to tell him that his demeanor was setting this off. A myriad of small details like this can damage this important phase. Even issues like puppy mouthing are subsets of this socialization process. That needs to be handled properly without damaging the social relationships in the family. Some of this work can be done in the home, and there are relatively safe ways to do this work in public that should be done. If you keep a puppy in the home until all the vaccinations are in place, you will trade off having a pup that never got exposed to some diseases but end up with a potentially fearful or aggressively responding adult dog. These things need to be balanced, and there are ways to do this.
Obedience: there are several important associations I want to make with a new puppy which will streamline the training as the puppy matures. I don’t want owners to sidestep these parts. Too many dog owners use harsh language, body language, and methods without thinking about how that is affecting their puppy.
I could give a lot more detail on puppy training classes, as well. But here is a small detail. Early puppy training, meaning under 4 months of age, is essential. There is a good way to do those lessons and a wrong way. Older puppies, over 4 months of age also need proper training, too. I have met many students who enrolled their older puppies in group classes only to find they have freaked their puppies out and now they have created a serious fear problem that needs to be addressed. I’ve also met students who decided that their 5-month-old puppy needed to be put through a harsh boot camp to force that puppy into being an inert living room carpet. These folks gravitate to the harshest trainer they can possibly find who tells them what they want to hear, and the pup must take it or else.
Pups deserve a happy home and a good life “school”. It can be done. I do it every day. From little to big dogs, they all deserve a shot at a good life. Negligence, in terms of not training dogs at all can often be just as harmful as harsh treatment. People need to be more thoughtful about all of this and the lasting effects on their puppy.
Puppies should be trained in such a way that they end up wanting to do the right things. Not being put in a program that only punishes them for things they have no clue about how to do correctly. As soon as I hear that short, “tshh!” sound that owners learned by watching TV dogs, I know the dog and owner are on the wrong track. It doesn’t need to be that way.
Set up good puppy training classes and you will maximize the dog you will have. Try the popular short cuts, and you’ll probably experience lifetime behavioral problems that might never be fully resolved.
Plan accordingly.