The best way to start your puppy with obedience training is to visit a training school. Not only will puppy become well versed in the required commands and actions, but you will also learn what is required from both of you. If you have never obedience trained a dog before it is unlikely you will instantly and automatically know what to do. Another advantage of training school is the social aspect. Meeting other dogs and other people at an early age can prevent your puppy from becoming frightened and possibly aggressive in the future.
Once you have attended a few classes, you should continue the work at home. You may want to continue with dog obedience training classes for the social aspect but either way it will be necessary for you to continue with the training when you are at home otherwise puppy will never learn anything.
Set a time every day to complete the training and work on several different areas of obedience. By giving this variety to your puppy you are still teaching him or her some of the commands and actions but they won’t become bored and let their attention wander.
As with all forms of dog training it is vital that you use reprimands and rewards in appropriate quantities. When you are first starting out, bear in mind that your puppy does not yet know what is right and what is wrong. They will not know without you telling them. This essentially means that you aren’t reprimanding you are informing. You do need to use a reprimand though, even in the very early stages but the reprimand should only ever be a vocal one. Do not use a physical reprimand because this not only scares your puppy but also can lead to aggressive traits when they grow up.
Teaching your dog some simple tricks is an excellent way to teach obedience training. Sit down, shake paw and similar tricks are not only cute and effective as a party piece but they also show that your puppy is submissive towards you. It certainly isn’t necessary to teach them extreme submissive tricks such as the submissive roll. Puppies love to do tricks and they love to get heaps of praise for doing something well and this is the most effective way that they will learn anything so make the most of every single action they do that is correct but try not to dwell on the mistakes for too long.
