Training your puppy is essential for coexisting in a harmonious home. The sooner you start the training, the better. Everyone wants their puppy to be trained in the basics quickly. The good news is that there are some insider tricks to teach your puppy the basic commands faster. The best part is that they’re pretty simple to do.
How Does Your Puppy React?
You must learn about a dog’s body language—this is how they communicate with you. Dogs use body language to let you know how they are feeling. By observing them, you can understand what they are telling you. This really sets you up to train your puppy in the skills it needs.
The first thing you need to understand is your puppy’s nature. Like us, puppies have different natures; they can be cautious, anxious, shy, boisterous, and confident. Your puppy’s nature will affect how you train it.
An easy way to figure this out is by observing how they react to things in their environment and how they react to having their first collar put on.
The confident puppy will approach new things to investigate without too much hesitation. When they get their first collar put on, they will have a scratch, then ignore it. This puppy is easy-going and will be pretty happy to learn new skills.
The boisterous puppy is energetic and only seems to stop when it sleeps. It may not fully acknowledge that it’s got a new collar on before tearing around again. Working on focus games will be essential to teach this whirlwind that it’s fun and worthwhile to listen to you.
The anxious puppy will hesitate to approach new things in its environment and may get stressed having its first collar put on. This puppy will need more time and patience during training. Building its confidence will go a long way to making training easier and faster. The easiest way to build confidence is by playing games with your puppy.
The shy puppy may be curious but will take its time to investigate new things in their environment. They may also not cause much fuss getting their new collar on. Don’t mistake this as a lack of stress; it just means it’s unsure of how to react or if it’s safe to respond. Like the anxious puppy, the shy puppy will need its confidence built up to become a happy, confident dog.
Tools For Training
The first thing you will need is a well-fitting Y-shaped harness – this doesn’t have to be expensive because your puppy will grow, and it will need to be replaced. A Y-shaped harness is best for your puppy as it doesn’t put any pressure on the growing joints. It also doesn’t hinder shoulder movement or strain on the neck and spine.
A lightweight lead is also necessary, suitable for your puppy’s size. The lead will have to be replaced as your puppy grows.
It’s a good idea to start getting your puppy familiar with wearing a harness and lead, even though you won’t take it out until it’s had all its vaccinations. You can practice walking around indoors with minimal distractions.
Treats or portions of your pup’s daily food allowance. The treats don’t have to be big; keeping them small as a taster for your pup increases their interest. You can also use cooked chicken, hot dogs, or any tasty, healthy food your puppy enjoys; remember to deduct the amount of food used from your puppy’s food allowance.
Toys are also good for training purposes. Some puppies aren’t very food motivated but will cooperate for a toy, ball, rope, chew, or game. Mixing food and toys to motivate your puppy is also a good idea. Games during training sessions last for a minute or so.
A happy tone of voice. You will be your puppy’s primary motivator. Dogs are highly tuned to body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. Keeping your tone happy reassures the puppy that you are happy with it, which will reinforce its confidence. A Confident dog will be more willing to learn new skills.
Dogs want to make you happy; they seek guidance on what you want. They don’t intuitively know what you want them to do unless you teach them.
Patience and consistency are your best training tool. Ensuring you are patient with your pup and consistent with the cues and rewards will help your dog learn new skills quickly. If you start to get frustrated, stop training and take a break. Your puppy will pick up on your energy, and this will undo any confidence-building you’ve already achieved.
Always end the training sessions positively, ask your puppy to do something it knows how to do and reward it. Then maybe have a playful game to decompress the frustration you’re feeling.
Praise (marking the behaviour), Reward, And Repeat. This is your new mantra and the quickest way to build your puppy’s confidence and train them. Every time they display a behaviour you like and want them to repeat, praise is followed quickly with a reward.
While training my husky Luna, I carried around a bag with a portion of her daily food allowance. Even when we weren’t playing training games, I would praise and reward her if I saw her engaging in a behaviour I wanted to encourage.
For example, if I was working at my desk and she was calmly sitting or lying near me, I would quietly say ‘good girl’ every so often and mark the behaviour with a treat. Luna is almost 8 years old (2024) and will still lie calmly beside my desk when I’m working. She learned that being calm and chilling out was a rewarding experience.
Make Training Fun
Dogs love to celebrate. They don’t need to know why you’re happy and celebrating; they don’t need context; they will join the celebration and be happy with you. It’s one of the things I love about dogs! I won’t lie, there were many times that I must have looked like an insane person waving my arms and cheering on my dog, but it did the job!
Every time your dog achieves success, have a mini celebration with them. The more rewarding your puppy finds a behaviour, the more it will want to repeat it. Repetition is the key to embedding a behaviour into a habit.
This is the real trick to training your puppy faster. Make it fun, positive, and rewarding, and you will find that your puppy is eager to repeat the behaviour and learn new skills. The more success your puppy achieves, the more confident and happy it will become.
The added bonus is that with all the time you spend with your puppy having fun, you are also building a trusting relationship with them and teaching them the skills they need to live in our human-focused world.
You may find these articles helpful:
Introducing The collar And Leash
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