It is important for any puppy or dog to have training. The amount of training is going to be determined by what you want to accomplish. Most of us just want a fun loving companion that can be taught a few commands and fit into our homes. There are several things to consider in the puppy抯 first year regarding training and how some things should be handled.
First we will look at punishment for a little bit. Punishment must be effective. You have to have some type of punishment that will not degrade the dog or be disrespectful, but that will make your point. This is where learning certain commands can come into play when training your puppy. First of all any punishment should be delivered at the first offense. A puppy that is startled with a no or rattling is not always going to work. The best option you may have is going to be in remote correction. In other words you have to make sure the puppy understands that you are correcting their behaviour rather than just yelling out a word. The correction needs to be something they can associate with the behaviour they just had. This can be calling their name and using a startling device, but you have to make sure they know that you are correcting them. It must be something that you can walk up and stop the behaviour and then help them associate the issue as bad behaviour.
You puppy is going to be full of life. This means they are going to start out with some instinctual behaviour. When they want attention they are probably going to jump or even paw at you or at the thing they want. In order to have them associate this with bad behaviour you must make them understand that they cannot jump on you. You must not reward the behaviour, but acknowledge it and punish the behaviour. You can also train them how to come to you for attention and affection. This means that you should turn your response to the jumping and pawing into a negative response and reward them for the proper behaviour. If they sit, and nudge you with their head and this is what behaviour you want you can praise the dog and give them a treat or a pat on the head.
During training it is best not to associate all training with treats. If they always get a treat for a good behaviour they will continue to expect it even if you don抰 have a treat. They will also find this to be something bad if you don抰 have a treat and they may not proceed with the good behaviour. Help the puppy associate good behaviour with several different rewards.
Rough play is a behaviour that most of us do not want to see. You can train your dog when the behaviour is appropriate if at all. You need to teach the dog that there are certain limitations to the rough play. They can get excited and bite. This is not good especially if they think your child抯 arm is a toy. It is best to show them what they can play with, and that certain biting and force is not going to be acceptable. Again this is about rewarding the good behaviour over the bad. You must make sure that the dog or puppy is aware of the bad behaviour by a negative reinforcement reaction from you.
