People sometimes ask me, “When should I start training my puppy?” I know that they are thinking of “training” as teaching their dogs to do specific behaviors when they give commands … but the REAL answer is that since puppies are always learning, we are ALWAYS training them — whether we think about it or not. Puppies do more of what they find most reinforcing. If you pet a jumping puppy you are (unintentionally) training him to jump. Leave food on the counter, and allow your unsupervised puppy to nab it? You just trained him to counter-surf. The key to raising a well-behaved dog is to be conscious of the invisible training you do with your puppy, all day, every day.
It helps me as a trainer to set short-term goals, and write about them. I find it very reinforcing to look back and see what I’ve accomplished, and set new goals — or, to see where I haven’t succeeded, figuring out why, and making a new plan to get where I want to be.
With that in mind, I’ll keep a weekly training notebook from Wednesday to Wednesday each week. I’ll write about goals in three main areas: Manners, Basic Skills, and Foundation for Agility. Each week I’ll review progress (or lack thereof) from the previous week, and make plans for the upcoming week. Here’s my plan for Week #1:
Manners
- Sit for Greeting: I want this to be a default behavior, not cued — as such, I will not be asking for sit, but rather asking puppy-greeters to wait for a sit before petting him. At this age, greeting people is highly reinforcing for a friendly puppy, so the greeting itself will likely be reward enough. If not, I’ll break out the treats. If he gets jumpy, I’ll use the old “stand on the leash” technique to quietly discourage him from jumping.
- Bite Toys, Not People: Baby pups are piranhas, and need help learning what is and is not legal for mouthing, gnawing, and biting. Because this pup lives with children and will always be meeting more children, he must learn to never, ever put his mouth on people. I will be littering the house with appropriate chew toys, so that all family members can lay hands on one at a moment’s notice. If he starts mouthing us, we’ll substitute a toy for our fingers/clothes etc. If he persists in biting, we’ll take it as a cue that he’s overdue for a nap, and move him to his crate or x-pen for some down time.
- Potty Outdoors: The key to housebreaking is threefold: supervision, confinement, and plenty of opportunities to pee and poop in the right place.
Basic Obedience
- Sit: This is an easy skill for most puppies to learn! It will be a great opportunity for him to be “right” a lot, and for the boys to help with training. If I need to, I’ll use a lure to get him started, but I’d like to have him following fingers and learning a verbal cue almost right away.
- Leave it: I consider this a potentially life-saving skill. My definition of “leave it” means “get your nose off whatever that is, and give your attention to me — I’ll tell you what to do next.” This week I’ll focus on the “zen” moment when he has to back off from food in a fist.
- Come: It is so important for dogs to come when called, no matter what! This week we’ll play round-robin games and reward him handsomely for coming to us. I will avoid calling him to come for now — don’t want to risk poisoning the cue. I may start labeling “come” when he is 95% of the way to me, and is unlikely to fail.
Foundations for Agility
- Check-in: For agility and any other off-leash activity, it’s crucial that dogs learn to voluntarily and frequently look to the handler for information about what to do next. I will be consciously rewarding (jackpot!) any and all check-ins — this will also help with recall.
- Body Awareness: At this age puppies are still learning how to move through space without falling over. I’ll be giving him daily opportunities to try out new surfaces and learn how to negotiate them successfully.
Tags: agility, basics, biting, body awareness, check-in, come, greeting, housebreakng, leave it, manners, nipping, puppy, sit, training notebook
