So you have your new puppy so whats next? Be ready for sleepless nights for a while. This is where a crate or even just a cardboard box can come in handy. I got my new pup and i got a box put in a new doggy blanket in the bottom and left the pup there. Taking him out to play, eat and poop but putting him back whilst he slept. He was fine for a few hours past midnight until the wines started, i took him out to potty and praised him and put him back in his box and waited a while. another trick that i use is that i use one of my many doggy cuddly toys and a clock. I put the clock under the cuddly toy and i found that he snuggled up to the cuddly toy and went to sleep, whenever he cried i took him out to potty. Potty training is esential if you plan to have your dog indoors with you, if your dog is going to be outdoors you can train your pup to use a certain area in the garden this way. using the crate or box method helps potty train quickly. The pup is crated and when you take the puppy out you first take it potty and then play, feed whatever but the pup goes back in after. Within a week a pup learns quickly and then you can just use the dog blanket kept in an area in a house. I dont like crating a pup for longer than usual, some people say that a dog needs to know its own den but a dog is not an animal that needs to be confined to cages and crates after all would you liked to be crated. Instead of crating train your dog to an area of the house and let it know its own place. Its not fair to the animal to be cooped up for such periods and the pup grows quickly and very soon that little puppy will fill up the crate himself!!
Another think you can start to teach at such a young age is the pups meal area, feed in the same place at the same time, the pup will very quickly learn when its dinnertime!!
Dont ever let the pup share the settee or bed with you, i have came accross so many people that have ran into dominent problems in these areas when the pup grows up, be fair to the pup let it know its own place and let him know that he has a bed too!!
There are so many things that a pup will learn, the next think is to teach it to walk on the leash!! My pup hated this and took him a good week to be able to walk on the leash so what can you do in situations like this? start off with a collar, you being the owner the only person to be able to touch the collar, let the pup get used to the collar then add the leash and let the pup walk about on the leash freely dragging it about. Slowly pick up the leash and if pup still wont budge make a came of it run about use food to get pup to walk and very soon he will learn that its not such a bad thing after all and will walk easily. NEVER and NEVER pull the pup on the lead you can infact do more damage tot he neck than good. Give time and patients!!
When the pup has learned to walk on the leash sit and down can be taught. What i do to teach sit is use a piece of food andhold it over the pups head and say sit when the pup sits praise lots and give the treat. Another way is to put your hand over the butt pushing down gently and say sit as you do this but i have found that this way takes a bit longer. So you have your dog sitting next to teach down and what i do for this is use a treat or a toy just as i did for sit and holding it infront of the pup bring it down to the floor in front of him the dog lies down almost straight away and say down as he does this, another way is to gently pull the dogs front legs in front of him and Down. Staying is always difficult for pups who think that there are better things to do than stay still for one minute. When the pup is sitting or down hold your hand infront of the pup and say STAY for s few seconds and then gradualy build up to minutes, but always praise when the pup does right and never scold when puppy did not listen. Keep training periods short and quick they will get bored very quickly. Always use lots of praise and treats and Never train if you are in a bad mood, remember the pup can have bad moods too!!!!