Basic Puppy Training - What Should You Do?

 Having a new puppy in the house is certainly a wonderful experience.  They are such little balls of energy and they have so much personality that sometimes it's difficult to imagine that you ever lived without them.  There are several things, however, that will soon become necessary for you to do if you are going to live together happily.  Although it is not necessary for a dog to be completely trained, there are some basic fundamentals that you will not want to skip.  From that point forward you will have to decide how much formal training your dog will receive.

 The first thing that many people find is necessary for their new puppy is potty training.  There are several lines of thought for how to train your new puppy in this manner.  Some people use newspapers that are laid out near the door while other people just take their dog out frequently.  I prefer to use a combination of both of these methods.  Your dog should be taken outside on a regular basis, especially after it just finishes eating or drinking.  It will soon get used to the fact that it needs to go outside in order to relieve itself.  While it is still in its early stages of training I will spread some newspaper out at the door just to catch any mistakes that may happen.  Make sure that you do not punish your puppy because of mistakes that it makes.  You should reinforce anything positive that your dog does.  If you have a small dog that will be alone for long periods of time you can also train it to go on some special absorbent paper that is available.  I personally don't use this method but some people swear by it.

 While your puppy is young you will want to train it some basic manners.  These manners will include not biting, jumping on you, or barking.  Puppies will naturally want to nibble on you as you are playing with them.  Watching a pack of wild dogs while they are puppies will show you that it is normal behavior for a dog to do this.  That behavior, however, should stay in the wild and should never be allowed or encouraged in your new puppy.  Dogs also tend to jump on their owners in order to get their attention.  This is especially true in small dogs and puppies.  If you allow your puppy to jump on you in order to gain your attention you're reinforcing this behavior.  If your puppy grows up into a large dog then this could cause some obvious problems.  That is why it is important to handle this situation early in life.  One final thing is barking.  Dogs will bark for many different reasons but a dog that barks all of the time for no reason will become a nuisance.  It may take some patience on your part depending on the type of dog you have but your experience as a dog owner will be much more pleasant if they did not bark too much.

 One of the most important things for you to do is to enjoy your new puppy while it is still young.  A puppy will soon grow up into a dog and will become a loyal companion for years to come.  They will never go back to that young age, however, when they were so small and cute. So make sure you make the most of it before it slips away.