Bringing home a new puppy is an exciting time! But also…a little overwhelming. Puppies are like little sponges; constantly learning, growing, and test driving the world around them. The habits formed in the first few months of development set the stage for behavior for a lifetime.

With the right approach, puppy training doesn’t have to be stress inducing. Here are five tips to help guide you to set your puppy up with tools for success.

1. Start Training Now!

A common mistake puppy owners make is waiting  until their puppy is “older.” The moment your puppy comes home, they begin learning:

• What behaviors are allowed 
• What boundaries are in place 
• Who makes decisions

Getting a jump on training from the start is important. Setting up structure and clear expectations for your puppy is crucial. The faster your puppy understands what’s expected, the faster we see good habits begin to form. 

2. Build Structure In Routine 

Puppies thrive with structure and predictable routines. A consistent daily schedule helps your puppy to grasp concepts faster. Important things to focus on include: 

• A consistent potty schedule 
• Set feeding times 
• Planning short training sessions 
• Allowing crate time for decompression and rest 

When puppies are provided with predictable, easy to follow routines, they’re less likely to feel anxious and overstimulated and are much more easily able to learn. 

3. Set Boundaries In Place Early 

Setting boundaries with your puppy doesn’t mean that you’re being “mean” or “strict”, you’re providing another layer of clarity for them. Allowing puppies to freely roam through the home, jump on house members or guests, and ignore you early on often leads to confusion and poor decision making especially later on in life. Setting firm boundaries in place helps guide your puppy to learning how to exist calmly in your home and around people. Some early boundaries we want to focus on include: 

• Waiting at doors vs. rushing out of them 
• Learning to settle in the home instead of causing chaos
• Understanding personal space 
• Understanding “no” and being consistent in curbing unwanted behaviors

When we bring up puppies with boundaries, they form into adult dogs who are respectful and easier to live with. 

4. Focus On Engagement & Relationship

Before we can add obedience into our puppies’ lives, we have to build engagement and a good relationship with them. This can look like: 

• Rewarding your puppy for checking in with you 
• Rewarding your puppy for responding to their name 
• Rewarding your puppy for looking to you for guidance in unfamiliar situations 

Engagement builds relationships and trust and ultimately makes training easier.

5. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

Consistency is likely the most important part of puppy training. When we allow a behavior one day and correct the same behavior the next, we create confusion and inconsistency within our puppies and our relationship with them. Ways we can implement consistency in our puppies daily routines are: 

• Having all family members follow the same rules for the puppy 
• Being consistent with expectations and boundaries you have set in place 
• Following through with commands 

Clear communication brings less confusion and frustration for your puppy. 

Overall, the habits we build in puppyhood shape our dogs for the years to come. If you want to give your puppy the strongest head start possible, implement early training sooner rather than later.