Adding a puppy to your home goes most smoothly if you take a little bit of time to prepare. Puppy proofing your home to be sure of a safe environment is a great place to start. Begin by getting down on the puppy's level and look at your home from the puppy's point of view. Anything on a puppy's level can become quite inticing, so you want to be sure the enviroment does not contain hazards. Electrical cords, plants, and other potential hazards need to be moved out of reach. Use baby gates to block off rooms and areas where the puppy should not go.
Purchase a crate for your puppy. Crate training not only makes housebreaking a much simpler process, it also creates a safe enviroment for your puppy when your puppy is unattended. Crate training is far from cruel, it is the most humane and safe environment you can provide for your puppy. Every puppy needs to learn about crates. Dogs end up crated or caged at the veterinarian's office, the groomer, daycare, and boarding kennel. Your dog needs to learn to be comfortable when confined. A dog that is crate trained is easier to travel with, stay in a hotel, or even to find a puppy-sitter willing to take your dog into their home when you must be away. When traveling, the dog that takes his own bedroom along for the trip is much more comfortable on the trip. If you have children, a crate becomes an essential piece of equipment, providing your dog a safe haven away from the children.
Take some time to discuss the puppy's commands with the family. What are your house rules? Consider all rules as if the puppy were a full size adult dog. If he isn't going to be allowed on the furniture when he is an adult, set the rules now as a puppy. Teaching a steady set of rules from the beginning is much simpler than retraining a dog to a new set of rules later. It is very confusing for a puppy when the rules change depending upon the people involved, so be sure to set the rules across all family members. Puppies work best with a steady set of commands. Teach a puppy set commands, using each command precisely. He needs to be taught one word or short phrase for each command. While we automatically know that "come", "come here", "comere", "over here", clapping, whistling, etc are all asking the puppy to come to us, the puppy is busy learning a foreign language because the puppy does not speak English. Teach one consistant word and let the puppy become very successful at it. The puppy will learn slang as life progresses, but start by making things simple.
At Liberty Run, we teach a basic core of commands.
"Sit" means sit and remain sitting until you are released or asked to do something else.
"Down" means down and remain in a down position until you are released or asked to do something else.
"Stand" means stand and remain standing in the same place until you are realeased or asked to do something else.
"Take A Break" is our release command, meaning that you no longer have to do what you were asked and can go do whatever you want as long as you maintain proper doggy manners.
"Off" is our command for stop doing whatever you are doing. This is a very universal command used for everything. Many people use the word "NO", but since "no" is used so commonly in every day language, we use "Off". Off means everything from stop biting to stop digging, as well as stop chewing and get off the furniture. One simple command, many uses, very easily understood.
"Quiet" means be quiet. It doesn't mean never bark, but instead means thank you for telling me something is going on, it is time to be quiet now. Barking when someone comes to the door is a wonderful trait for a watchdog, but you do need the ability to quet the dog.
"Place" means go where you are directed (such as your bed) and stay there.
"Kennel" means get in your kennel or crate.
"Come" means come to who calls you, and "Come" also means to come with the person (such as on a leash).
"Let's Go" means come with me, but you don't have to stay right by me (such as when off lead walking, come closer, you are too far away). Using the come command would require the dog to come all the way to me and would have to be carefully monitored. "Let's go" creates a relaxed command that does not require the same precision as "Come". Another example would be to use this command when calling the puppy in from the back yard. You don't really want come to you, you really just want them to come inside.
"Go Potty" is a command for the obvious. By pairing the action with a command, you can actually trigger the action, thus allowing you to be sure the puppy goes before getting in the car, going to bed, etc.
"Load up" is a command for get in the car.
