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First Puppy Training Session

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Training Your Puppy for the First Time

Training Your Puppy
Wait for all four feet on the floor, then click and treat! solovyova/Deposit Photos

Training your puppy to have good manners is best done in the first 16 weeks. Given their short attention span, you should train your puppy in short sessions.

Five-Treat Puppy Training Session

Count out five treats and practice one or two dog behaviors until you’ve given your puppy all five treats.

Potty and play with your puppy for the next 30 minutes. Repeat this short puppy training session three times a day.

  • 1 puppy training session in the morning
  • 1 puppy training session in the afternoon
  • 1 puppy training session in the evening

Instead of treats, you can use your puppy’s morning or evening meal as the reward. This dog training session is great because you can continue to train your dog for as long as you and your puppy like.

RELATED: How to Potty Train a Puppy

One-Minute Puppy Training Session

Unlike the first puppy training session, the one-minute puppy training session requires a timer. Set your timer for one minute and practice teaching your puppy a behavior until the timer rings. Give your puppy a break. Bring him to potty and play for 30 minutes. Repeat this short puppy training session three times a day.

When training your puppy, remember to take breaks. Training breaks are invaluable during the learning process. You’ll be surprised how much your puppy learned during your short training lesson when he’s given time to think and process the behavior he’s learned.

New Behavior

Begin your next training session by practicing a behavior your puppy does really well like “sit” or “touch.” This builds your puppy’s confidence and sets him up for success. Next, introduce a new behavior, such as “down” and break into several puppy training sessions.

If your puppy is struggling, say “down.” End the training session with something your puppy does very well, such as “sit” or “touch.” Take a break and think through your training protocol.

There is a reason your puppy became confused. Maybe your treat wasn’t valued enough or you moved too fast. Think through how you could do better. Ask your dog trainer for advice—dog trainers are invaluable for troubleshooting and problem-solving, as they have trained many dogs!

RELATED: Dog Training Treats

Touch Command

Teach your puppy to respond to a cue. Practice several known behaviors back to back.

  • Example: Teach your puppy to “sit,” “down,” “sit” and “down.” This will strengthen both cues, and your puppy will learn the difference between the cues.
  • Example: Teach your puppy to “sit,” “touch,” “sit” and “touch.” Asking your puppy to “touch” will lead him out of the “sit” behavior, so you can keep practicing!

Make it fun and give him the chance to succeed with some cues he knows. It’s always more fun for your puppy when he’s rewarded for performing the right behaviors in puppy training.

WATCH: Teach Your Puppy the Touch Command

Always remember these tips when training your puppy:

– Keep sessions short with lots of rewards and plenty of break time.
– When you’re stuck, reach out to your dog trainer.
– Make puppy training fun.

What was your experience like when you first trained your puppy?

You may also like: Top 10 Puppy Training Tips

How to Train Your Dog to Park It

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Train Your Dog to Stay

One dog training cue that I strongly encourage every dog owner to train his dog to know would be to “park.” In a nutshell, this behavior means to stay with me while I’m doing something else. You can use these behaviors when:

  • Talking to someone at the park
  • Having guests over
  • Dining outdoors
  • Paying at the pet store or vet’s office
  • Listening to instructions

VIDEO: Train Your Dog to Park

You can use the dog park behavior when your dog becomes overwhelmed by another barking dog or excited in a new situation. You are teaching him to bring his arousal level down. It’s like taking a yoga breath for your dog. Having him know the ability to remain poised and look to the dog owner for approval before chasing or barking is key to a safe and calm interaction with other dogs, people or animals.

When teaching hyperactive dogs to be calm, many folks ask them to sit still. This is tough, as they are learning how to manage their extra energy and excitement. I want to set you and your dog up for success and asking for a rock solid stay or wait is not fair so let’s ask for something easier, such as park.

Let’s look at it from a human perspective. Have you been with a friend who meets up with another friend and you are not part of the conversation? It’s awkward, but it happens. Now, what if your friend asked you to sit on a bench and wait until their conversation is over? You can not check your Facebook page or text messages, you just watch them. Wow, I could not do it! Same thing for your dog. Let him walk around and occupy his mind by sniffing around and looking around if he wants to (as long as he is not pulling on the leash). Voila! You’ve parked your dog!

Don’t get this behavior confused with wait, as you’re not asking your dog to sit or down in one spot. I think of wait as a pause button. You stay in that position until released. Stay means you are asking the dog to sit or lay down until you pick him up or call (releasing him from the cue) to come.

Why are there so many words in dog training for similar things?

We need to clear up any confusion for our dogs. If I asked you to turn, you will ask which way (left or right), in a circle, just my head or my entire body. Let’s make sure we communicate clearly to our pooches. I think they will appreciate it. 🙂

Just by teaching this simple behavior, you are teaching your dog:

  • Self control (teaching your hyper dog to relax)
  • Polite greetings to people (not to jump on people)
  • Polite leash manners (not pull on the leash)
  • How to ignore other dogs
  • To stay
  • Not to bark

How to train a dog to park:

  1. Step on your leash about halfway up to your dog. He should have 3-4 feet of extra leash.
  2. Click and treat your dog the instant the leash becomes loose. Example: Your dog is pulling to visit another dog. Wait until the leash becomes loose and click/treat!
  3. Bingo. You are rewarding calm and quiet behavior!

This is very easy to teach. Just make sure you practice this behavior 1-2 minutes per day. Also, this is the first behavior you practice in the park before a walk and when guests come over.

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Have a comment? Tell us how the “parking your dog” behavior can be useful for you in the section below!

More on parking your dog:
Learn How to Park Your Dog
How to Park Your Dog
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