There is no denying that puppies are adorably cute…..but they are also hard work! Brand new little beings for whom we are now totally responsible. Like human babies, they dont know what we expect of them and it is up to us to gently teach our puppies how we would like them to behave in certain situations, and they are constantly learning. So where do we start? With so much for them to learn, how do we prioritise.
Find a qualified reward based trainer
First things first, book onto a puppy training class with a reputable, suitably qualified trainer. Ensure the trainer only uses reward based methods, and has proven their knowledge and experience by being accredited with an association such as PACT (Professional Association of Canine Trainers – who I am accredited with), ABTC (Animal Behaviour and Training Council – also who I am accredited with), APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) or APBC (Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors). Accreditation with a reputable association such as these will give you confidence that the trainer not only has sufficient, up to date knowledge (practical and theoretical), but that they have been thoroughly assessed and are bound by a strict code of ethics.
But aside from that, I believe there are 5 key things that will benefit puppies to learn from the start
1) Human hands are good
Throughout your puppy’s life, they will have to put up with a lot of human contact. Be it at the vet, the groomer, in everyday life in terms of grooming and general handling, and attention from friends, family and other members of the public, especially when they are young and have that “cute factor”. Some of the handling they will need to endure during their life will not be pleasant – injections at the vet, handling and examinations if something is hurting them, having to put ear drops in – but we can make our puppy’s life much easier if we gently teach them that at a young age human hands are good. It is important to build up a positive association with a variety of handling procedures, from simple everyday ones like drying paws, cleaning eyes or grooming, to building up to be able to pretend to put ear or eye drops in should we ever need to do so. This way, while gentle restraint is a good thing to gently get your puppy used to, we should actively avoid having to forcibly restrain a dog for anything.
Human hands should always be seen as good by your puppy…..human hands should never be used in a confrontational or punishing manner, as if you puppy starts to see humans handling them as in any way negative, they could take that association forward with them into their adult life.
Start by pairing gentle, non-invasive touches on your puppy’s chest or to the side of the neck with tasty treats. If at any point your puppy backs off or seems at all concerned, simply move your hands away, start again but this time move your hand towards your puppy and stop before your puppy seems concerned. Simply pair each touch with a treat, as long as your puppy is comfortable. You want your puppy to not tolerate being touched and handled, but actively LOVE being handled because they associate touching by humans as predicting delicious food appearing. You will then be able to apply the same principle to other areas of the body – areas where your puppy may be less comfortable with, such as paws and ears.
Remember – if at any point your puppy backs away even slightly, it means they are not comfortable, so stop and then begin again but more slowly. It is much better to go slower than you need to than rush it and have your puppy feel uncomfortable with human handling.
2) Learning new skills is fun
One of the reasons I am so passionate about reward based training is because it is so important that puppies learn that the training process is fun….that doing things WITH their human is fun. As far as I am concerned there is nothing to be gained by wanting to train dogs with no rewards and not making the process enjoyable for them.
We all learn better when we are enjoying what we are learning. Lets say someone was trying to teach me maths….a subject that has never been a strong one for me! If one teacher wanted me to learn how to solve a problem, and every time I got it wrong they shouted at me, or they hit me or i received an electric shock. Would that make me suddenly learn how to solve the problem? Of course not. Would it make me try my best to stop being shouted at or to stop the pain? Absolutely. But that is avoidance….absolutely no learning has taken place.
Now lets say another teacher came along, who had an easy to explain way of explaining the maths problem and how to solve it, along with also a fun analogy to remember for the future. This teacher remains calm and relaxed, gives me time to think things through in my own time, and then I am able to work out how to solve the problem. In this situation I m not just trying to placate the harsh teacher and trying to avoid a stressful situation, but I have actually learnt.
It is the same for dogs. Punishment can supress behaviour and can cause a dog to avoid punishment by, perhaps, not pulling on the lead….but that dog will not have learnt to not pull on the lead because it is the best place to position themselves. They will be in a position of stress and their priority will be to avoid pain. In my opinion, if we cant train a dog without causing pain and intimidation, then we should not have the privilege of having a dog. For me, training is based on a positive relationship between dog and handler, where the dog wants to learn and wants to do things with their person because its an enjoyable, bond building process.
You puppy should light up when they see the treat bag or the clicker or when you begin training!
3) The world is a safe and happy place
Its great to take our puppies around with us to lots of places, but we need to prepare our puppy for the world they will be expected to cope with through their adult life as there are lots of potentially scary things out there. Its up to us to teach our puppy that the world is a safe and happy place. This process is usually known as ‘socialisation’ (I prefer the terms ‘exposure and habituation’), and it involves gradually and gently getting your puppy comfortable with all the different sights, sounds, environments, humans and animals that make up the world they will be living in. It is more than just making sure your puppy is exposed to these stimuli….it is also about making sure your puppy is feeling goo at that time so that they build up a positive emotional response.
The most important period of time for socialisation is actually between the ages of 3 and 12 weeks….so please do not wait until your puppy is fully vaccinated before you even take them out of the house. While we need to keep puppies safe and away from areas where wildlife has been or unvaccinated dogs, you can carry your puppy to a wide range of places…ideally where you can control the environment to an extent. By this I mean where there will be no scary surprised….such as big lorry driving past close by, or a busy high street where your puppy can be over crowded. Where possible given the current climate, take your puppy into dog friendly pet stores, garden centres, cafes, and pair the sight of anything unusual or that could be potentially worrying for your puppy with small yummy treats. Allow your puppy to watch traffic from a safe distance – ie where puppy can see the traffic but they are far enough away to not be worried or scared. Pair the traffic with yummy food or, if the environment is safe, have a fun game with your puppy if that is what they enjoy. Pair the sight of children running round, joggers, horse riders, cyclists, livestock, people with umbrellas etc with food so that again, your puppy builds a positive emotional response to these stimuli.
If at any stage your puppy appears at all worried, create more distance between them and the fear-causing stimulus before starting again with the food rewards.
4) Settling in various environments pays off
One of the first things I talk about and teach in puppy class is why and how to teach puppies to self settle….ie relax on a mat in a variety of environments. We cant expect our young baby dogs to make the choice to chill and relax because they are just that – babies. They have a short attention span, they are curious, inquisitive, active and we need to teach them that relaxing and chilling out is something that, longer term, is going to be beneficial to them.
In terms of learning behaviours, it is important to remember that if a puppy does something and gets rewarded for it, that puppy will learn it is worthwhile doing that behaviour again. If that behaviour went unrewarded, there would be no motivation for that puppy to perform that behaviour again. Dogs learn by what works, and what doesn’t work….among other ways.
Its also important we manage the environment as best we can so that puppies are not practicing the behaviours we do not wish them to continue. If we go to a coffee shop and don’t give our puppy something to do or don’t work on teaching them to settle, they will get bored….they will go and try and investigate things and introduce themselves to other members of the public. So lets set them up for success!
So if you would like to be able to take your dog to pubs, coffee shops, to watch your children play sport at the weekends, to the beach (assuming its not hot and they have a comfortable shaded place to relax), to friends and families houses etc, then we owe it to them to start to teach them behaviours that will not only help us, but will help them as well. Remember its not nice or easy for dogs if we expect them to behave in a way that we haven’t yet taught them 😉
So we can start by having a specific mat or bed – a comfy place for your puppy to settle which is also portable and in the early days can be taken around to various environments to give your puppy a helpful visual cue (ie when the mat is down it means it is worth puppy going and settling on it as food may rain from the ski!). We need to start by building value with that mat, so that we can get to that stage. Once your puppy is actively making the choice to place themselves on that mat as soon as it is put on the floor, and lying down or sitting, then we can start to drop some food onto the mat once they have made that choice to settle down on it. Just be sure to not drop food when your puppy is staring up at you as this will engineer an excellent “down stay” but it is not conducive to settled and relaxed behaviour. Instead, wait for your puppy to sniff the mat or look at something in the environment, then drop food at that point.
Once your puppy is offering this behaviour easily, because it has been rewarded it will become a default behaviour and you will eventually no longer need to take the mat around with you. However, it is good to have certain “places” in the home if you would like them to settle in certain areas instead of, for example, jumping on the sofa, or jumping at the counter tops while you prepare food. And then you will need to work on teaching puppy to remain on the mat or place for longer periods of time and adding in distractions, but first things first!
5) Their name means something good is about to happen
As humans, we are very verbal creatures, whereas dogs are much more visual. We do have a habit of over using our puppy’s name to the extent it can easily become white noise…..in the same way as if someone kept saying our name over and over again, with nothing meaningful being associated with it, if our puppy keeps hearing the same word over and over (remember, they dont know that is their name!), with nothing much happening as a result, they will start to zone out that word.
The way puppies learn what a certain word means is by associating that word with a specific behaviour. They learn what “sit” means by associating that word, with the action of putting their bottom on the floor. They learn “come” means come back to you because we assocaite that word with the action of them running back towards you. Therefore, if we want our puppy to respond to their name (because thats what we generally want – if we say their name they immediately look at us), we need to make an association with that word and something else. In order to get the response to the name, it is important to pair every time we say their name, with something good. So try to only say your puppy’s name when they are going to have a fun game, when its food time, when they are going to have some treats or a chew or a lickimat, when they are going out for a walk (if they enjoy going out for a walk – some pups take time to gain confidence in the big wide world). At all other times try to not say their name.
These are just 5 points that I believe are good to start with your puppy early on. Nobody said raising a puppy was easy….but then raising children isn’t easy either and puppies are baby dogs so why should we expect any different 😉 Its important we do right by our puppies and we owe it to them to set them up for success in the big wide world
Please contact me should you have any other puppy related questions!
Polite Paws 2020
