Training a Puppy: The First Steps You Need To Take With Your New Dog

Getting a puppy is truly an exciting experience. However, you become responsible for an animal’s basic needs. This means providing your puppy with adequate shelter, healthy food, pet health insurance you can trust, daily exercise, and training. While your puppy will love you from the start, you’ll need to balance love with learning to teach them obedience. Puppies learn through conditioning. The more you reinforce a behavior, the more likely it is that your puppy will learn how to respond appropriately. Negative reinforcement will prevent bad behavior, such as accidents, and positive reinforcement will encourage good behavior, such as following commands.

While you know to use treats, you might not know the most effective ways to reward good behavior or address bad behavior. Here, you’ll learn basic steps to make training effective. If you’re new to puppy training, see more and read on to learn the steps you need to take with your new dog for success.

Start Potty Training Early

Until they are eight weeks old, puppies stay with their mother (and the breeder) for necessary health and development. After this time, the puppy is ready for its forever home. Your puppy will need to get used to its environment and take potty training in baby steps. If training is not something you’re ready for, you can also look into trained puppies for sale. 

If you’ve adopted a puppy at 8 weeks, begin potty training by using pee pads so that they can go in a designated spot. With practice, your puppy will learn not to go potty anywhere besides the pads. Saying “No” in a dominant voice and moving them onto the pad will teach them to avoid improper areas. If you’d rather look into trained puppies for sale, that is also an option. 

Puppy Crate Training And Trained Puppies For Sale

For those concerned about their new puppy tearing apart furniture while you’re out, crate training can be an effective tool for keeping your puppy in line while also creating a safe space for them. Make sure to take the puppy’s crate inviting, include a toy and a blanket, and line the bottom with a pad. As positive reinforcement, you might line treats into the crate. If you go the approach of looking into trained puppies for sale, you may not need crate training. 

Basic Training Commands

As your puppy gets comfortable, you can begin incorporating commands like “stay,” “come here,” and “sit.” These commands will be helpful during walks and when you want them to behave around other dogs. Guide your dog based on the command and say “good job” with a treat when they succeed. 

These positive reinforcements encourage the behaviors to continue and allow the puppy to get familiar with commands. With trained puppies for sale, they will already know commands. 

Guide Your Puppy 

Review the above steps to guide your puppy down the right path for training and continue to stay educated on training techniques. Dogs are easier to train when they are young, so start your puppy’s training soon or research trained puppies for sale to get the best outcomes!