What Your Puppy Should Know During the First Year

You've just brought your new puppy home, holding him in your arms as he licks your face with puppy kisses. The last thing on your mind at that moment is training. That's okay but as soon as your first greeting together is over, the training starts.

Does this seem too soon?

No way. You should start on the basics of positive-reinforcement training right away, if your want to give your pup a safe, positive, loving home. Always have dog treats on hand for rewarding good behavior. 

Here's a little chart outlining what your puppy should learn during his first year. This is not written in stone. Remember that all dogs learn at their own pace, so use this as just a guideline.

The golden rule of training your puppy is that patience is the key. If you get frustrated at any time, stop the training session. It's better to end on a happy note, so your puppy looks forward to his next lesson.

What Your Puppy Should Learn during the First Year

These guidelines are broken down by the age of your puppy. Don't get stressed if your puppy's training milestones are different from this outline. He'll progress in his own time because all he want to do is please you.

Two to Four Months Old

This is a time for introductions and behavior in your home. These are the social graces that your puppy needs to learn. If he master these basics, you'll have a relaxed and happy puppy wherever you go.

• Meet and greet people without jumping
• Introduce your puppy to the veterinarian and groomer
• Begin socializing him with other dogs
• Positive crate training
• Answer to his name
• Housebreaking
• Learn to walk without tugging. A harness or head halter helps a lot with tugging issues.

Five to Seven Months Old

This is the time to get into basic obedience training. Clicker training can help a lot with positive training and marking your puppy's success.

If you put if off training for too long, your puppy will develop bad habits that are hard to break. Your puppy is never too young to learn.

• Come when called from 10 to 15 feet away.
• Sit

• 

  Four months old learning 'sit'

  Zen – this is learning not to grab food out of anyone's hand or not taking it until you say it's okay. It's basically learning self-control, which continues as your puppy grows.
• Stay (working up from a few seconds to a few minutes)
• Down
• Continue with loose-leash walking

Eight to 11 months

Now that your puppy knows the basic commands, just continue reinforcing them. You can add extra distance and time to what he already knows.

• Come – gradually work up to a distance of 40 feet for the recall
• Sit, Down and Stay – combine all of these commands, adding extra time for all of them. You can tell your puppy to sit and stay, or down and stay. Walk a short distance away to start, then come right back. Work on this daily until your puppy will stay until you tell him to get up.
• Zen – continue working on your pup's self-control. You'll be glad you did as he gets older.

  

  Eight months practicing 'down and stay

Twelve Months Old and Beyond

If you've been consistent with your puppy's training, he should get a gold star at this point. He should know all the basic commands down pat.

You can also teach your puppy some tricks along the way. Many tricks are based on obedience commands. Take a look at YouTube for some trick ideas. It's full of well-renowned trainers that can help you teach your puppy some tricks.

Training is a lifetime commitment, but it's worth the effort. You and your puppy will have fun, frustration, triumphs and form a loving bond that never ends. Just when you think your dog knows everything you've worked on, he might regress. Just remember, your puppy isn't perfect and just like you, he can have a bad day. Use baby steps when training your puppy and enjoy those moments of success when they happen. Just make sure your puppy training is positive and fun.

How to Teach Your Dog to Come When Called

It's so important to teach your dog to “come”.  It could save your dog’s life some day. I learned the hard way. My dog, Griffin, was 1 ½ years old when he was hit by a car. When I think about it, the whole series of events leading up to his tragic loss runs in slow motion in my mind.

Griffin and I were sitting in the yard with my 18-month-old son. A squirrel went darting past and Griffin took off like a rocket after him. I can still see him disappearing into the woods behind our house. This happened before leash laws and Griffin was always loose.

About two minutes later, the phone rang. It was the police telling me my dog had just been hit by a car. My neighbor took care of my son while I went to the scene of the accident. Griffin lay on the ground, bleeding from the mouth and a glazed look in his eyes. I don’t know whether he knew I was with him or not.

The person who hit him was in tears and offered to bring Griffin to the vet. I rode in the back with Griffin’s head in my lap. We arrived at the vet, but there was too much internal damage to do anything. Griffin died a few minutes after we arrived at the vet.

I only tell this story so you can see how important it is to teach your dog this command, “come”. I have a puppy now. He's 5 months old, and I work on the recall command every day.  My puppy is doing very well with returning to me when I call him, but I am going to continue training him until “come” is perfected.

I use the following recall method:

1. I tie a 50 foot length of rope onto the puppy’s collar then let him wander in the yard.

2. I say his name and then the word “come”. Then I draw the rope to me until the puppy gets back to me.

3. I have him sit and then praise him and give him a treat.
4. We do this about twenty times a day. After three days, my puppy was running back to me and I didn’t have to pull the rope.

I also use this method to train him not to leave the yard. When he reaches the boundary of the yard, he comes to the end of the rope. I call his name, and he comes back to me. He's learning quickly not to go beyond the borders of the yard. I do this in different areas of the property, so he learns the boundaries.

Check out this video for help training your dog to come. I think it's very helpful:

I hope this helps you, and that you teach your dog the “recall command”, so you don’t have to go through the tragedy that I did.

Here's a link to a Kindle book that describes the exact steps for teaching your dog to come every time. It gives more detail than I do here.

If anyone else has any tips on training a dog a reliable recall, please add them in the comments. It could save a dog's life.