Training new puppies
If you are a dog trainer, you already know you have a pretty fun and fulfilling job. You get to train a lot of furry companions and meet them on the regular. Meeting dogs on a regular basis is any dog lover’s perfect dream. In addition to this, you also get to experience the happiness that comes with seeing a dog grow in mannerisms and months as you train them. The pet parents’ happiness and gratitude when they realize that their dog is very obedient, easy to handle is also something to look forward to as a dog trainer. A lot of the times puppies are brought in for training when compared to the number of times older dogs are brought in. This is because pet parents are often recommended to start training their dogs when they are quite young. Puppies can be given basic training and taught basic commands as young as 5-6 weeks of age. This means as a dog trainer, not only are you put in a position to train new, young, and extremely inquisitive minds of the puppies, you also have to be careful in maintaining and handling their energy to a large extent. Although due to their usually quick reflexes and eagerness to learn, puppies can be very easy to train – they are quite a few factors that might make it a little difficult too. Moreover, you will have the added pressure of meeting the expectations of the pet parents and ensuring that their puppy is safe throughout the training process. You might have to remember a few tips as a dog trainer while training puppies, here are some –
- Start socialization early – We all know how important it is for puppies to get used to people early on. As a trainer, you can recommend to parents that they ensure that they are introducing their puppy to several different people early on. Of course, it becomes important to take precautions and tell them the right ways to do it in a controlled environment.
- Be consistent – Consistency is extremely important to make the puppy feel secure and happy. While they are undergoing training, since they are quite young, they are also discovering living from scratch. This means they can be quite impressionable and when that is the case, being consistent when it comes to both commands and session durations becomes extremely vital for them. Do not leave too much gap between the sessions as they might forget the reason they come to you and often times forget what they have been taught. Additionally, teach them to respond to commands after saying it only one time – if you keep repeating commands until they follow it, they might end up learning that it is okay to (or that they are specifically required to) not follow the command until it is repeated several times.
- Change environments – Instead of limiting dog training to the house of the pet parent, or any other particular location, you can always switch up locations so they are accustomed to following instructions in general and do not associate one particular location for following instructions.
- Keep sessions short – Since the little ones’ attention spans are usually very short, if you want to ensure that they are learning and gaining the maximum out of your training sessions, keep them short.
- Teach bite inhibition – This becomes one of the most important things during dog training, start teaching them to bite inhibition early on so they know how to control the intensity of their bite. One of doing it can be by using toys and reinforcing them positively when they learn to not put any pressure when they are biting it down.
