Ways Of Avoiding Stress In Training Your Puppy

The main purpose in puppy training is to build a communication system between the two of you.

You are teaching your dog how to learn. In contrast to the positive approach of puppy training,

many obedience classes use a lot of leash jerking and a certain amount of punishment if the dog

is not performing well. There is a fine line between the two attitudes and it is a vitally

important difference.

With a young puppy, if you are forcing him to perform perfectly and punishing him even mildly

if he does not, you may be asking for trouble later on. After a puppy is six to eight months old,

he can usually begin to handle corrections and accept much more firmness in his training but not

at three, four and five months of age.

Stress should not be a specific part of puppy training. That comes later when the pup is six to

eight months old and ready for a more formal training. Of course, it is not possible or necessary

to completely avoid stress because there is often a small amount in any of a puppy's activities.

However, stress should be eliminated as a planned part of the actual training.

In puppy training, building confidence means knowing what you expect from your pup.

Focus is the single most important command to teach your puppy.

The capacity to learn is born in every puppy, to a greater or lesser degree.

Your puppy starts learning the moment he enters your house.

(He starts learning about you and soon knows whether you or he will be the boss.)

His capacity to learn grows as he does and is fully developed at the age of about a year.

Although he eventually stops growing, he never stops learning.