Puppy Training 101: Practical Tips To Train Your New Puppy

Welcoming home a new puppy is undoubtedly exciting. Of course, you want to spend as much time as possible bonding and connecting with your new four-legged family member. However, there’s a lot you need to prioritize between bonding time. These priorities include a visit to the vet for vaccinations and a general checkup, ensuring you have all the essentials for your pet, such as a bed, chew toys, and healthy dog food.

There are several basic online resources that will help you gather the right essentials, find a suitable vet, and you can even consider a pet food subscription to ensure you never run out of food. But with that said, in between it all, you will also need to prioritize puppy training.

Training a new puppy can be a nightmarish venture for anyone, especially if it’s your first time owning a pet. Puppies are known to be particularly curious and undoubtedly mischievous; without proper discipline and suitable training, your puppy will inevitably destroy your home and frustrate you and your family.

So, if you’re hoping to avoid losing shoes and finding yourself cleaning up all kinds of messes throughout every day, you must be devoted to training your puppy.

Fortunately, it can be a lot easier than you might think. Training your new puppy will be more of an exciting journey and less frustrating situation with the right amount of patience, persistence, and these practical tips.

House Training

Your first concern about training your puppy is probably house training. Of course, you’ll want your dog to know where it’s suitable to foul. House training is also commonly considered the more tedious area, although it is a lot less complicated than most would assume.

Consistency and patience are vital components for success during the process of housebreaking a new puppy. To house train your new puppy, you must place them outside in an area designated for fouling. It’s imperative to take the puppy to the same spot every morning and at suitable intervals throughout the day.

It will take a few weeks for any puppy to realize they are only allowed to foul in the designated area. Furthermore, when accidents happen in the house, use an anti-fouling pet spray to eliminate odors and replace them with pet-repellent scents that will deter your puppy from fouling in the same spot.

Crate Training

Crate training is a little more foreign than house training, especially for first-time pet owners. Giving your new puppy a crate with a blanket, some chew toys, and other comforts is an excellent idea. The crate serves as your dog’s very own safe space and can prevent destructive behaviors and anxiety separation as a result.

Once you have purchased a suitable crate and all the comfort additions you think are necessary, you must introduce your puppy to the space and routinely confine them inside the crate.

Toss a few treats in the crate and close it once your pet is inside. This should be done when leaving the house, in the evenings, or at other routine times of the day. Eventually, you will no longer need to confine them to the crate, as you can leave the crate open, and your pet will find comfort inside when they need to.

Leash Training

Leash training is a most overlooked area of puppy training, and neglecting this can make walks a frustrating situation as you won’t be able to control your pet well enough. Ideally, your puppy should walk by your side or slightly ahead of you at the same pace without putting any tension on the leash.

To achieve this, you must control the pace at which your puppy walks, using the leash to guide them. If your puppy walks too fast, enforce leash tension, wait until your puppy calms down, and wait for your command to continue walking.

Of course, leash training takes time, and you will need to be patient and stern with your pet until they note your commands and learn to walk at your precise speed.

Clicker Training

Even though clicker training is not essential, it is a relatively simple method of dog training as positive reinforcement. By opting for clicker training, you can easily teach your dog a variety of commands and tricks ranging from basic to advanced. Furthermore, learning how to clicker train your puppy is also pretty fast and straightforward.

You will need a clicker. This specific device makes a clicking sound when pressed, and when used correctly, your puppy will learn to connect the clicking sounds with praise for good behavior.

Clicker training is considered more effective than training with treats or verbal praise. However, for the puppy to link the clicking sound to affirmation, a treat is given after clicking. Eventually, the clicker itself acts as a conditioned reinforcer after the dog learns the positive impacts of the clicking sound.

Fun Tricks And Some Basic Commands

Whether you decide to implement clicker training or use another tactic for positive reinforcement, it is essential to opt for at least one to teach your dog to act on commands.

If your puppy recognizes positive reinforcement for good behavior, teaching fun tricks and basic commands is a lot more straightforward. That said, there are tons of elementary options when teaching your puppy fun tricks and commands, and it’s crucial to invest time in teaching a few, as this will serve as bonding time while also ensuring your puppy receives positive forms of discipline.

It’s undoubtedly crucial to invest time and effort towards training your puppy. But with that said, if you are battling to train your puppy and have tried all the tricks and hacks out there, it is wise to consider relying on a professional dog training service.

These kinds of professionals will help you get through to your puppy and show you how to communicate with your pet. With this kind of training, you will also end up teaching your pet a variety of fun tricks, depending on how far you decide to take pet training.