The 3 Tents The start of your dog training: What I call" the 3 tents"
Being Consistent, Insistent,
& Persistent
Puppy training starts the moment you bring your dog home, whatever he /she does, you must react properly
or he /she will learn the wrong things.
First and foremost, teach your new puppy its daily
routines. Where its
food and water dishes are, what times of day it will eat, where its bed is
kept, what time he/she goes to bed, what time he/she gets up. Where you want
him/her to go to the toilet, and where its toys are kept.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that it doesn't matter HOW you teach each of these routines. It
definitely does matter. If you do it the right way, your puppy will be
better-behaved and pleased to let you decide how you want him/her to fit into
your family.
If you use the wrong teaching method, your puppy will begin
making decisions about how it wants to behave and then YOU have to fit into its
life, and that's a recipe for disaster and conflict, this will be the start of behaviour
problems.
Actions
and associations You must teach your puppy to understand its actions and the
associated words that go with actions
and the words you associate to these actions, as much as the routines themselves. The most important words
are "No" which means "Stop
whatever you're doing" "YES "
which means " you are doing the right thing" "Good" which means "carry on doing what you are doing as I
like what you're doing"
These correction and praise words should be started at 2-3
months of age.
Praise and correction words will be used to teach many other words that a Puppy
needs to know. You must teach them properly, with the right tone of voice and
the right body language, or they won't be of any help in teaching other words.
If your puppy is older than 2-3 months and hasn't learned "YES", "No" and "Good" perfectly ,
you must start with those words before you can expect success with other word association
training.
You
must teach your puppy to respect you as the leader in your home. Without proper
respect, your training schedule doesn't matter much - because he/she may learn
words and routines but choose not to do them.
You
must be consistent, Insistent and persistent in all that you do with the dog.
You must get it completely, consistently right - in a way that
dogs understand. With the right guidance, I can help you with this.
Dogs are capable
of learning many words, and there is no better way to get your dog to
understand what you want and what you don't want than to teach him/ her
carefully chosen words. Of course, knowing which words to teach isn't much help
unless you also know HOW to teach them. I can help you with this, too.
Handling
of the dog Your puppy must accept YOU and any other family members as the
leader within its pack. You are the one who decides what is "OK" and what is
not. Grooming, clipping nails, giving medicine, removing a tick or a splinter,
putting on a collar or harness. These are all examples of times when YOU - not
Puppy - have to be the one to decide what is necessary.
The best way to do this is to include
it in your training sessions. If you teach words and the dog to respect you
properly, acceptance of being handled will come naturally to the dog - they go
"hand-in-hand"!
Acceptance of being
handled Start
handling your puppy immediately so he/she learns to accept anything you need to
do with it.
Teach
your puppy to be gentle when interacting with people, it must not be allowed to
nip or chew on people's hands, clothing or articles in the possession of that
person.
If your puppy is still mouthing on
your hands, or barking back at you when you tell him to do something, or if he
doesn't stop whatever he's doing when you say, "No", you mustn't rush
on to "heel" or "sit-stay". Respect needs to come first, no
matter how many months it takes. Then you can move on to....many other training
regimes with your dog.
Crate training I go into detail with the use of reward and
positive and negative methods of training. Encourage the use of the crate so
that the dog learns to accept the crate as a good place to be. A crate
protects your puppy from household dangers and is an invaluable aid in
housebreaking.
Housebreaking your dog to be clean indoors Housebreaking begins the day you bring your puppy home. Establish the
right pattern from the beginning and the Puppy will be housebroken as soon as
his little organs can cooperate, but if you establish the wrong pattern,
housebreaking will become a nightmare. There are several methods of
housebreaking, which can be employed to assist you with this.
Young puppies and
older puppies You might think a training schedule would be different for an older dog....but
it isn't. Whether your dog is 3 months old, 6 months old, or 9 months old, the
order of training must start with the same words and learn to respect as at the
start of any of its training, specifically routines, correction and praise
words, acceptance of being handled, gentleness, and household rules.
Once this established you can move on to ....
Walk on the leash without pulling. Come when called. Lie down - and STAY lying down for up to 30 minutes. Wait inside the door or gate, even when it's open, until you
tell it, that it can go through. Stop barking when you say "Quiet." "Give" or "Drop" whatever it has in its mouth when
told to do so. and much, much more 
