The information provided will be useful to any dog owner/ dog breeder.
Raising a puppy starts from the moment you bring him home. At first glance, it is not immediately visible where exactly the upbringing is taking place, and such moments as regular feeding at certain hours and in a certain place, timely walking are the most vivid examples.
“Perseverance, patience and constancy are fundamental in raising a young dog.”
Perseverance should be understood as the ability to get the dog to complete the original task.
For example, let’s say you decide to call your puppy. And at this time, he is busy on something with concentration in the thick grass. You call his nickname and demand that the puppy come to you on the command “Come to me”. The puppy does not lead by the ear. You raise your tone and repeat your previous command. The puppy breaks away from his focused task and glances in your direction.
Seeing that your actions have brought “at least some positive result”, you add formidable notes in your voice and, with the same persistence, give the command “To me.” And the puppy continues to study the grass with the same persistence. It seems that you were quite persistent, but did not achieve your goal. This situation is most common in a relationship between a young dog and a novice owner.
So that this situation does not become the norm for you, your perseverance should go hand in hand with your knowledge, which you can glean from books, but a professional instructor-trainer will help you to master knowledge more effectively. In the above-described situation, the owner makes a number of mistakes that will exclude in the future a joyful and trouble-free call of his pet. The resolution of situations like this will be discussed later.
Patience should be understood as the ability to restrain your negative emotions, which will surely arise in the process of raising a puppy and practicing certain skills, when you repeatedly try to get the dog to perform the skill you are working on, but it does not understand. Here you have to put on a mask of goodwill and calmness, so that the dog does not suspect about the storm of emotions that boil inside you. Patience to you.
Consistency. If you decide that your puppy should grow into a cultured well-bred dog, then the instilling of good manners should not take place on Thursdays and Fridays under the guidance of an instructor, but every day, every hour, every minute and every second of your living together under the motto: “What is allowed now it is allowed once and for all ”and vice versa.
When you start raising a puppy and the initial training, remember that the development of skills should be done in the game, without the use of violence, with rewards for each correctly performed action. At the initial stage, one should not demand from the puppy great endurance, clarity in the execution of commands and the ability to long-term exercises, he is not yet physically ready for this, and the puppy’s skills are just beginning to develop. The speed and precision of command execution will come with time.
Training up to 6 months is training in the game. When raising a puppy, only normative commands should be used. To shrink the dog, this command is “Sit!” It is not correct to replace this command with the commands “Sit down” and so on, because the dog does not understand all these commands, but learns only a clearly pronounced form. This rule also applies to other commands.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT
Voice intonation.
Dogs do not fully understand our words. If you follow the work of a good trainer, it is easy to see how flexible he uses the intonations of his voice. Commands must be given clearly and firmly, while without pressure and threat in the voice, using one- or two-syllable words. This allows you to communicate with the dog, praise it and build confidence in it. Do not try to use long phrases when teaching your dog; you simply complicate the task for the dog, which is trying to figure out what you want from it.
Promotion.
Let me remind you once again: dogs learn associatively. Praise in the form of words of encouragement, strokes or treats is an important reward for your dog to help him achieve the desired results during training. Food, toys, physical activity, your company, or playing together can all serve as powerful rewards in developing the desired behavior in your dog. The best results are achieved by those who give the reward in the most timely manner.
Punishment.
If there is a need to punish a puppy (punishment is understood as light chatter at the withers, for a puppy this is the most effective way, since the mother shows her dissatisfaction with the puppy’s actions in this way), then the punishment should follow only at the moment the puppy commits an undesirable action. It is completely useless and even harmful to poke a puppy’s nose into a puddle or gnawed slippers when you come home. dogs do not have a causal relationship, and in the future the puppy will be afraid of your appearance, and puddles and other troubles will remain. To establish good contact with the dog, the puppy must feel in you first of all a companion, and then his protector, but in no case an offender.
Timing.
Timing is important with any training commands and exercises. If you want the dog to learn a lesson, then the reward or punishment should follow within 1-2 seconds after the action. It doesn’t matter if you praise the dog or scold, but if you wait too long, your words will be wasted.
Sequence.
It is very important that anyone involved in developing the desired behavior in their dog is consistent – otherwise the dog can become confused. If someone doesn’t always react negatively to the same undesirable behavior, the result will be dire. You end up with a dog that obeys and doesn’t.
Decide firmly what you want to teach your dog and notify all family members and stakeholders.
All owners who have problems with consistency often complain about their pet’s behavior, repeating like a spell: “He does not obey, I told him ten times, but he does not want to learn.” And this is how they teach the dog: “Sit, Rex! Sit down! Sit down, Rex! Rex, you nasty dog, will you finally sit down or not? ” But the correct command sounds quite simple “Sit!” We can’t imagine how a normal dog can isolate the right command from all this verbal nonsense. And Rex has no idea.
Remember that we are used to teaching other people whose brains are designed to perceive our logic. Dogs are very different.
The following are some of the most often misunderstood aspects of parenting for puppies.
Your first command.
The first command to which you must train your puppy is his nickname. Yes, you read it right – the nickname because a well-learned nickname automatically replaces the command “Come to me” and the puppy will run up to you.
Learning this command occurs during a walk (the puppy must be on a leash), feeding the puppy, while petting him, when, giving food, the owner calls the puppy’s nickname, calling the puppy to him. Having called the puppy to you, pet him, give him a treat, repeat his nickname, and give the treat again, then praise the puppy with the word “Good” again, stroke him and invite him to play, or just take a few steps to the side. Do not get your puppy to land immediately when prompted, if he does not sit. Your main and paramount task is for the puppy to come to you, and planting is already the second stage and a completely different story. Reward your puppy every time he approaches you. You cannot punish a puppy if it does not approach by nickname. If the puppy does not immediately listen to you, repeat the nickname louder and more clearly so that the puppy comes up, and immediately give him a treat and praise.
Do not give monotonous commands too often, give the puppy a little rest, play with him.
Place command
Train your puppy to the command “Place” from the first day. Having brought the puppy home, to an already prepared place (not in the middle of the apartment and not in a bright place), which is usually a mattress, put the puppy there, giving the command “Place”, smoothing the puppy and fixing it in this place. If the puppy remains lying, say the command “Place” and be sure to give a treat.
Collar training.
Collar and leash training are primary concerns of the wearer. You will ask why? Very simple. Without these two components, it will simply be impossible to go outside with a puppy. On the street, the puppy should always be under your control, this is also a mandatory element in the future during the initial training, but how to do it without a leash?
Collar training is actually a fairly simple process – the most important thing is not to scare the puppy.
Take a treat in your hand and call the puppy by the name. As soon as the puppy comes up to you, immediately give him a treat and praise him by saying the word “Good”. Then sit down in front of the puppy and give him another treat. Now we will consider two cases of how to put on a collar.
The first case is if your collar is worn over your head. Take the collar in your hand and a handful of treats in your other hand. Put your hand with the treat inside the collar so that your hand is in front of the puppy’s nose. Then offer a treat to the puppy and when he begins to eat it, slowly and smoothly move the hand with the treat back into the collar and at the same time lead the other hand with the collar onto the puppy and put the collar around his neck.
The second case is if your collar is fastened like a belt. Take the collar in your hand and a handful of treats in your other hand. Offer a treat to your puppy. After the puppy has eaten the treat, calmly bring the collar up to the puppy’s neck and carefully fasten the collar so that it does not squeeze the puppy’s neck. Remember to always praise and talk to your puppy while putting on the collar.
Once the collar is on, in the first or second way, look at the behavior of the puppy. If he is calm about the collar, let him wear it a little. A little is from one minute to three, for the first time it will be quite enough.
If the puppy starts to fuss and tries to remove the collar, your task is to calm down the puppy and let him know that there is nothing wrong with that. To do this, sit next to the puppy, take a treat in your hand and offer it to the puppy, while stroking and praising the puppy with the other hand. Then release the puppy and observe his behavior. If he also continues to fuss and tries to remove the collar, repeat the above steps again. Then call the puppy, give him a treat and calmly take off the collar and be sure to praise the puppy, what a fine fellow he is and offer him a game.
After a few repetitions (two to three times a day), the puppy will quickly get used to the collar. Never force your puppy to wear the collar several times in a row – this may scare him.
• Leash training.
Leash training starts when the puppy is good at the collar. Leash training is also based on the puppy getting used to something new. At home, attach the leash to the collar and release, let the puppy be a little like one. Then call the puppy and give him a treat. Take the leash in your hand, but do not pull on it, let it remain loose, and follow the puppy. Then gently pull on the leash so the puppy feels he is under control. Then, call the puppy to you, give him a treat right away, and stroke the puppy, continuing to praise him with the word “Good”. Then calmly, without too much fuss, unfasten the leash, take off the collar, give the puppy a treat, praise him again, saying the word “Good” and play with the puppy. Remember, while doing the above action, do not stop praising your beloved pet.
• On a walk.
You are going to go outside with the puppy for a walk. Remember, the puppy is small, and the street is big and dangerous and contains a lot of new and unknown things for the puppy. It will be difficult for a puppy to cope with all the “misfortunes” alone, and here the main task – to help the puppy, falls on your shoulders. How you do this, how you introduce the puppy to the street, is up to you. There are many ways. One of the simplest and most effective methods, which we propose in this case and in the future, we recommend that you take a treat with you before a walk (in no case dry food or raw meat). When you go outside, try feeding your puppy a bit of a treat. During the further walk, walking with the puppy, periodically feed him a piece. Make sure that the puppy does not pick up sticks, etc. and didn’t play with them. Remember, you are walking with a puppy and he must be interested in you. Offer him to play with you a ball on a string or a rag, get the puppy interested. Don’t let your puppy play with other dogs. But you have to introduce the puppy to other dogs. After acquaintance, which usually occurs by mutual sniffing (this is quite enough), draw your puppy’s attention to yourself (at the moment you can use a treat) and take him to the side, where you offer the puppy your play with a rag or a ball.
Many owners complain that their puppy is kind and try to anger him more, set him on strangers. This is a completely wrong tactic. Anger in a puppy appears with age. If you start to anger the little puppy, you can reach the level of anger that makes the dog uncontrollable. On the street, the puppy should not be aggressive, he should be indifferent to strangers.
• Outdoor games.
The game is the most exciting action for both the puppy and the owner himself. The game is simply necessary for the puppy, through the game the contact with your pet is also established. But you also need to play correctly. Never tease your dog while playing. It is completely wrong to show the puppy a toy and hide it, or make him jump after it – understand that you have a puppy of a dog, not a monkey. Throwing sticks or balls over long distances will quickly tire your puppy and lose interest in the game.
You need to play with the puppy for a short time, stop playing at the moment when the puppy still wants to play, and not when he is already tired of everything.
• Unwanted activities on the street
When walking on the street with a puppy, the owner should be one step ahead of the dog, he should see in advance what his puppy is going to do. But this does not always work out, and the puppy begins to do what the owner does not always like.
There are several methods of behavior correction to prevent unwanted actions of the puppy on the street. Consider an example in the most common case: picking up bone or other food waste.
Situation one: If your beloved puppy is going to pick up a bone, give a loud nickname and as soon as the puppy reacts to your call, i.e. turns his head, looks at you or starts the slightest movement in your direction (If the puppy does not begin to move towards you, take two steps back or sit down, this will attract the puppy’s attention) immediately start praising him, and praise him until he comes to You. As soon as the puppy comes up to you, immediately give him a treat and praise him again.
Situation two: If your beloved puppy has already picked up the bone. Calmly, without a threat in your voice, but loudly (just do not shout) name the puppy and as soon as the puppy reacts to your call, i.e. turns his head, looks at you or starts the slightest movement in your direction (If the puppy does not start moving towards you, take two steps back or sit down this will attract the puppy’s attention) immediately begin to praise him, and praise him until he approaches to you. As soon as the puppy approaches you, calmly exchange the bone for a treat. Offer the treat with one hand and carefully pick up the bone with the other. Then turn the puppy’s attention to the game by offering him a toy, and throw the bone aside, imperceptibly for the puppy.
Situation three: If your beloved puppy has already managed to pick up the bone, and, despite all your actions and attempts to call the puppy to him, he does not react, but is going to eat, in no case run with wild cries after the puppy, it will scare him and he will run away even further. You need to ignore the puppy and gradually move away from him. Also try to hide from the puppy, so that he does not notice, they usually immediately start looking for the owner. If the puppy doesn’t react to anything and continues to chew on the bone, you just have to wait until the puppy eats it or loses interest in it. Suddenly, after a while, the puppy got tired of the bone, and he came up to you. In no case do not scold the puppy, on the contrary, give him a treat and praise him for coming up to you. And here you should be scolded for walking with a puppy without a leash and that you have no contact with your dog. In fact, we do not want you to get into such a situation. The above example shows that the owner and the dog have no contact at all, this is very sad. Here you need to go back a step and start working out the nickname again, and this should be done exclusively on a leash.
Muzzle training.
From 4 to 5 months, the puppy should be taught to muzzle. You need to put on the muzzle gently, with a treat, without effort, at the beginning for a short time. In general, muzzle training deserves special consideration. After all, with a muzzle, a dog often has to “have” very close contact. Try to go somewhere with the dog and forget the muzzle at home. Yes, you will simply be “eaten” by those around you – like a small fish in a huge sea.
Therefore, accustoming to the muzzle is a rather subtle moment in which an inexperienced owner can make mistakes that will entail an undesirable result. To avoid problems with the muzzle in the future, you need to start teaching the puppy to the muzzle under the strict guidance of an experienced trainer.
When working with a puppy, do not let him run after other animals, birds, or passing vehicles. In no case should dogs be pitted against each other.
While raising a puppy, you must teach him to fearless attitude to street noise, traffic of cars, trains. To do this, while walking with the puppy, you should gradually move from quieter streets to more busy ones.