Just like children, puppies need to learn from a young age how to behave. Here are a few tips on how to effectively train your puppy to act in and out of the home.
- Consider crate training your puppy. Young puppies do not have muscle control (which is why they have so many accidents), so crate training can be valuable for house training them. Be careful not to keep your puppy in the crate beyond the recommended amount of daily hours. Many adult dogs continue to consider their crate as their own “place” after they have grown up.
- Get your puppy into a routine for going out to use the bathroom. They do not need to go every 15 minutes. You can take them when they get up, after sleeping, after eating and before bed.
- Keep a radio and a nightlight on at night. Puppies are used to having their littermates around and the silence will wake them up. A radio playing or night light will keep them sleeping through the night.
- Leash-break your puppy when it is 12 weeks old. This is easy to do and is imperative because controlling it may save its life someday. Your veterinarian or animal care specialist can help with leash training.
- Teach them what is acceptable to chew on. Chew bones such as nylon bones are good. Never give puppies slippers to chew on. They don’t know the difference between slippers and $200 shoes. Chewing is natural while they’re cutting teeth. At seven months, all the adult teeth should be in are in and chewing should slow. All puppies chew for fun so be sure to train the puppy on which toys are theirs for gnawing. A basket of toys specifically for them helps with this.
- Stop your puppy from barking at a young age. It’s OK to bark for a reason, but they must hush when told. Terrier breeds are especially fond of barking from excitement
- Give your puppy its own blanket to sleep on. When you take your puppy out of the house, put the blanket down so they know where they can lie down. Using the blanket while traveling in the car helps them learn where to be in the car and keeps them from tracking dirt in your vehicle.
- Don’t let dominant breeds sleep in bed with you – it will make them think they are equal. They need to have a separate place to sleep so they still respect your authority. Make them ask to go through the door to the outside. They cannot be allowed to rush out an open door. Holding them gently with the door as a puppy will quickly teach them to stay until asking to go through the door.
