Once you bring your dog home, you may be wondering when you can start training her. The answer is “Now!” If you have a puppy, you may be astonished at what your dog is capable of learning at a very young age. And if you have an older dog, recall that the cliché “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is completely untrue. No matter what your dog’s age is, she’ll be ready to learn from you from day one. Dogs crave human interaction to feel complete—remember, they were bred to work with us.
There are two main types of training sessions: primary ones, in which you attempt to teach something new to your dog, and secondary ones, which are more spontaneous, casual training sessions that arise due to specific circumstances. Either way, here are a few things to keep in mind when you start training:
• Don’t expect unrealistically fast results. Sure, your dog will learn some things like “sit” very quickly; however, others skills, such as ignoring distractions on a walk, can take much longer. The slower you go, the faster your results will be. For the first six to eight weeks, establish a rough draft of the behaviors you want. Then you can spend the next six months to a year refining your dog’s behavior to a point that fits your family’s lifestyle, needs, and ultimate goals.
• You won’t have linear, successive progress. You will have a few bumps in the road, and that’s perfectly normal. Do you remember ever learning a concept in school and feeling like you understood it, but when you got home and had to do homework related to that concept you were totally lost? Dogs seem to experience the same thing.
• Never blame your dog. Remember that when you minimize your mistakes, your dog will learn faster.
• Dogs learn best after exercise. One big frustration point for many of my clients is that their dogs won’t listen when they introduce new concepts. That’s primarily because most people with hyper dogs don’t know to exercise their dogs before primary training sessions. Remember, dogs like this cannot absorb new concepts until they burn off their excess energy. If you have a dog with lots of energy, engage in a vigorous activity with her, such as fetch, before you start training.
• Be flexible! Things are not black-and-white when it comes teaching your dog. It’s time to throw out the overgeneralizations about your dog’s breed or mix and focus on her as an individual.
