basic training of a puppy

Question
Hi, I was wondering what is involved time/pacience wise to train a 6-8 week old female boxer puppy? I havent the extra time/money to do trainnig with a proper trainer and would be training her at home. All I want is sit/down/come and leave it basicly. I havent the puppy yet but will later this summer. How much time daily is needed to train the puppy?   how long do you think it would take for the puppy to reginize the commands and start responding to them well?    and lastly how much pratice and repitiion is needed after the puppy knows the commands to keep the dog used to them? Thank you for your time.

Answer
A 6-8 week old puppy is going to be difficult to teach commands to because of their extremely short attention span and lack of coordination. *laugh* You're also not going to get consistency because at that age, you can't really correct her. What you can do, though, is use treats and praise to shape the behaviors. A clicker is probably going to make things go more quickly, because it will allow you to mark each correct behavior before the puppy's attention span changes to something else.

What you can do to begin with is teach her what the clicker means. This is super easy. You just click it and give her a tiny treat (or a piece of her food). Repeat until she's sitting in front of you waiting for you to do it again. Wait until she's lost interest before doing it again. It shouldn't take her long until she's running to you from across the room to get her treat when you click the clicker. At this point, you know she knows what the clicker means, so you can begin her actual training.

To teach "sit," simply wait for her to sit on her own, click as soon as her butt touches the floor, and toss her treat so she has to get up to get it. Repeat until she's coming right back to you and sitting after she eats her treat. At that point, you can get up and walk away and get her mind on something else. Repeat later, and start saying the command *just* before the click. Gradually you can start saying the command earlier and earlier, until you can say it before she sits.


The concept is the same for teaching "down."


To teach "come," simply say the command when she's following you around. Puppies of this age naturally will follow you, so take advantage of it and use this time to imprint the come command. You can use the clicker for this, too. At first, click as soon as she turns towards you, and continue giving lots of verbal praise until she gets to you. The give her the treat. Gradually, withhold the click until she's taken several steps towards you after you say the command, and eventually withhold the click until she's all the way to you.


Teaching "leave it" to a puppy can be very difficult, because, like human babies, everything goes in their mouth. In my opinion, it would be best to wait until she's older and past the teething phase before trying to teach "leave it." In the meantime, keep things she shouldn't be into out of her reach, and confine her in a crate or puppy playpen when you cannot supervise her. If she does get ahold of something she shouldn't have, don't chase after her because that could become a game to her. Instead, see if you can get her to come to you, (and remember to click, praise, and treat if she does!) and distract her with an appropriate toy while you discreetly put the inappropriate item away.


Repetition is needed for the dog's entire life.


The most difficult thing is going to be housebreaking. I would recommend waiting until the puppy is at least 8 weeks old before bringing her home. She should really stay with her littermates at least until she's 8 weeks old so she can learn how to properly interact with other dogs. That extra 2  weeks will also give her a little more control over her bladder and bowels.