When To Start Training Your Dog
Mother dogs start training their pups almost from the time of birth. You will be able to start puppy training just about as early, although it is a good idea to let the mom take care of things for at least the first few weeks. By the age of five weeks, a puppy is ready to start responding to commands and treats. This is at least a week shy of the normal whelping age for a puppy. In general, you should start to train your puppy just as soon as you get it.
The critical age for socialization of puppies to humans is between eight and sixteen weeks. This might seem early as they are still very much puppies at that age, but it is a critical period in development, and their brains are busy wiring themselves up for life. You should expose your puppy to handling, human interaction, human voices, and things like car rides and strangers during this period. This can be the most important time for making sure that your puppy grows to be a well-adjusted dog. Prior to eight weeks, the puppies are socialized to its littermates and its mother. This is also an important learning period for puppies and removing puppies from their litters prior to eight weeks can interfere with this process.
At the age of four to six months old, your puppy will be ready to have formal training sessions. You can either hold these sessions yourself or take the dog to some sort of Puppy Kindergarten, or early obedience training. At this age, the puppy will have a short attention span that you should be aware of. Dogs can attend for longer periods, but puppies may only have a few minutes to give you before they get bored, tired, or distracted. Only work with your puppy when he is attentive.
Between six months and a year old is a very important time for training. During this time, the puppy might start to question your authority so it is imperative that you take the time to establish your status as pack leader. This is also the time when the puppy's adult teeth are growing in so you will really need to focus on what are and what are not acceptable chewing toys for your dog. This is a wonderful time to take your dog to basic obedience training classes because they will be attentive and enthusiastic about learning.
One to two years. After about two years old, your puppy isn't a puppy anymore, and it will be hard to establish dominance or gain respect if you haven't done it yet. Look for inappropriate behaviors such as aggression or barking during this time. If you note any inappropriate behaviors, correct them right away. If you are unable to correct the behaviors yourself, you should consider behavior modification training for your dog. Bad habits that exist past this stage are probably going to be bad habits that the dog keeps for life. Make sure that you extinguish these behaviors before your dog reaches two years old. This is also the time to start working with working dogs to teach them the exact nature of their jobs. Search and rescue dogs, police dogs, avalanche dogs, and service dogs typically begin to learn the specifics of their jobs during this time and usually go into service, fully trained at about age two. This might be the most important stage for your dog's training.
Over two. Dogs over two can be taught new tricks, but some characteristics will be ingrained by this time. If your dog has ruled the roost to this point, it will be hard to usurp his authority. Behavior patters are so ingrained by this time that the only way to change them is through behavior modification training.
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