Adding a new puppy to your family is exciting, but it's also stressful. Once you have all your puppy essentials ready and you have a puppy at home, you likely find yourself feeling overwhelmed, and maybe even a little confused about what skills you should be teaching your puppy. Puppies go through different developmental periods as they grow, and while they also need time to nap, play, and be puppies, here are step-by-step guides for what skills to teach your dog at different ages.

Key Takeaways

• Start training your puppy immediately upon bringing them home.
• Positive reinforcement training methods are the most effective way to teach puppies new skills.
• Keep training sessions short, fun, and playful.

Puppy Training Basics:

Training your puppy should begin the minute you bring your puppy home. Puppies are always learning from us and enjoy having the opportunity to bond with their people and develop new skills. Basics of training to keep in mind when training are:

Keep Training Fun

You might be in a hurry for your puppy to learn all the things but it’s important to keep your training sessions short and fun. Short training sessions multiple times a day are more effective than long training sessions where you are drilling various behaviors. Short training sessions with lots of praise, treats, and play help dogs to stay engaged with the learning process. These short sessions keep dogs from getting frustrated or bored and help them gain new skills.

Use Positive Reinforcement:

When training your puppy, it’s important to only utilize positive reinforcement training approaches. Leading dog training organizations like the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, and the American Veterinary Medical Association agree that aversive training including punishment, scolding, and training tools that cause pain are not effective ways to teach dogs and puppies.

Even if your puppy does something that frustrates you, it’s important not to scold or punish your puppy. Reinforcing behavior, we like, is the fastest way to teach. Using punishment as part of training can harm the relationship you have with your puppy. Instead, if your puppy does something we don’t like we want to redirect your puppy to more appropriate behavior.

Be Consistent

Puppies are quick learners, but they need consistent training. You can’t bring your puppy to a training class once a week and expect them to learn and remember new skills. Instead, puppies need daily practice. Consistency on your part will help your puppy learn new behaviors from basic obedience to advanced skills.

If you’re struggling to find time in your schedule to train your puppy, mealtimes work well for many people. You can use some or all of your puppy’s food as a training reward mixed with dog treats to reward your dog as they practice various skills.

Socializing Puppies

For training young puppies it’s important to focus on socialization. Socialization refers to the development window when young puppies are learning about the world. The experiences puppies have at this point can influence their behavior and temperament for the rest of their life.

The critical socialization window for puppies takes place when puppies are between three weeks old and fourteen weeks old. During this stage of life, you want your puppy to have positive interactions with new people, animals, sounds, and surfaces under their feet. This helps puppies to feel more confident with new experiences. Gaining confidence now will help your puppy grow into an emotionally secure and well-tempered dog.

Puppy Training Schedule:

Have a new puppy? Here are tips for what to focus on teaching your puppy at different ages.

8-12 weeks

Bonding

It's developmentally important for your puppy’s learning for you to spend quality time at this age bonding with your puppy. Don’t stress about doing a lot of formal training at this age. Instead, we want to prioritize gentle handling, getting your puppy used to being touched all over, cuddling, and playing. The goal is to make sure that your young puppy enjoys and feels comfortable being close to you.

Starting Routines

Developing routines is important for puppies at this age to help them adjust to life in your home. We want to create routines for what time we feed our puppies, as well as introduce them to crate training. You can help your puppy to develop positive associations with being in the crate by feeding meals inside the crate or providing your puppy chews and toys while in their crate. Routines for feeding time can also help with potty training. After eating your puppy should be taken outside to potty. It’s also a good idea to get into the habit of bringing your puppy outside to potty when they wake up from a nap.

Name Recognition

You’ll want to start teaching your new puppy their name as soon as you bring them home. Teaching your puppy their name is going to be a building-block for the rest of the training that you’ll do together. To teach your puppy their name we want to pair the name with something positive and rewarding. To do this, say your puppy’s name and give a small piece of dog treat your dog is excited about like Bully Max treats. Repeat over several training sessions. Quickly your puppy will be able to make the connection that when they hear their name, they get a treat. This teaches your puppy that the sound of their name is something to pay attention to.

Collar and Leash Introductions

Although at this age you don’t want to walk your puppy outside in public areas because they aren’t fully vaccinated, we do want to get them used to wearing a collar and leash. To do this, put a collar on your puppy, praise and give a treat to help your dog make positive associations with having gear on and ignore wearing it.

10-12 weeks

Puppy Kindergarten

At this stage, it’s a good idea to register your puppy to attend puppy kindergarten classes. Even before puppies are fully vaccinated, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior advises that it’s behaviorally beneficial for puppies to attend puppy classes. These classes are for puppies of the same young age, and are a great way to introduce your puppy to the basics of training including skills like: sit, down, and come, when called. The classes also help your puppy to learn to focus on distractions of other dogs and people.

Leash Training

To make leash training a positive experience for our puppies, use praise, toys, and treats to reward the puppy for being near you and not pulling on the leash. By using treats and play to reward your puppy for being near you, it’s making the puppy realize that staying close to you will lead to rewards. To teach loose leash walking, continue to praise and treat your puppy as you take a few steps.

Redirecting Chewing/Mouthing

A common issue that puppy owners struggle with is puppies chewing on things they shouldn't. Puppies are curious and explore the world through their mouths. To address this behavior, as your puppy grabs something they shouldn’t, get your puppy’s attention with a dog toy or chew. Then, praise your dog as they trade and start to play with their own toy.

Grooming Introductions

All dogs regardless of breed and coat type need regular grooming. To make a lifetime of grooming less stressful for you and your dog, we want to introduce grooming to young puppies. When your puppy is calm and cuddling, practice gently touching all over your puppy’s body. You can also introduce gentle brushing as well as nail trimming. For trimming your puppy’s nails, start with just one nail at a time so your puppy doesn’t get stressed or worried about the experience.

3-4 months

Training Basic Skills

Puppies are enthusiastic learners at this age and it’s the perfect time to teach your puppy basic skills. To teach your dog to sit on cue follow the next steps:

1. Take a treat your puppy is excited about and get your puppies’ attention.
2. With the treat, lure your puppy’s head up and back until their body goes into a sitting position. When your puppy’s bottom touches the floor, praise and treat your puppy.
3. After a few repetitions, you can introduce a verbal cue of choice like “sit” as your puppy goes into sit position.
4. After a few practice sessions fade out your treat lure by asking your puppy to “sit” without luring.
5. Then, praise and treat your puppy for sitting.
6. You can teach your puppy to down by using a treat to lure your puppy’s body down to the ground.
7. When your puppy lays down praise and treat your puppy. Now you can introduce a verbal cue of choice like “down” or “lay.”
8. When your dog is consistently going into a down position you can fade out the lure, and just treat your puppy once they are in the down position.

Explore The World

At this age your puppy should be fully vaccinated, making it appropriate to start bringing them more places. When you bring your puppy somewhere new, be sure to bring dog treats. These can be used to reward your dog while you are out. This is also a great age to continue taking training classes with your puppy. This is a great opportunity to not only teach your puppy new skills but also help your puppy learn to follow cues around distractions like other dogs and people. Because they are vaccinated you can also start to let your puppy interact with more dogs and people. Never force your puppy to interact, instead let them engage at their own pace.

Playing

Play is an important part of training and learning for puppies. As you’re teaching new skills, prioritize lots of playtime for your puppy. Use toys and play to distract and re-engage your puppy if they are doing something you don’t like. You can also use play as a reward when you’re training. Chase, fetch, and tug are all great toy games to play with your puppy at this age.

4-6 months

New Training Areas

At this age your puppy has reached adolescents which can lead to increased distractibility. While you are training with your puppy, continue practicing in new areas and around new distractions. If your puppy is struggling to focus, backup and add some distance from the distractions to help your puppy focus better. Then, slowly move closer to the distractions as your puppy gains focus and understanding. Be sure to always praise and reward your puppy when they follow cues especially around distractions and in new places.

Introduce New Cues/Tricks

Instead of drilling the same behaviors over and over be sure to continue teaching new skills and behaviors. This is a great age to start introducing trick training. Not only is trick training a fun way to bond with your dog, it’s also a sport that you and your dog can participate in wherever you live, and dogs can earn AKC Trick Dog Titles via video submission.

A fun and easy trick to teach your dog is to spin on cue! Follow the steps to teach sping:

1. You’ll want to get your puppy’s attention with a dog treat.
2. Then, use the treat to lure your puppy in a circle.
3. When your puppy follows the treat and completes the circle, praise and treat your puppy.

As you practice, remember to spin your puppy both left and right. When your puppy is consistently following the treat, you can add in verbal cues like” spin” or “twist”.

After a few practice sessions fade out the lure and just make a circular motion with your hand and treat your puppy after they complete the spin. Once they master “spin” your puppy is one trick closer to earning their Novice Trick Dog title.

Reinforce Not Mouthing People

Puppies explore the world with their mouths. This mouthy behavior increases as puppies are teething and losing baby teeth. If your puppy mouths at you the best way to change the behavior is to redirect your puppy to appropriate chews. Anytime your puppy starts to mouth at a person, use a puppy chew or toy and get your puppy’s attention. Soon your puppy will make the association that if they want to chew something it should be one of their toys and not people.

6 months - 1 year

Teaching Advanced Skills

Most puppies (except giant breeds which mature slowly) are starting to reach maturity at this age. In addition to continuing to work on basics with your puppy you can start to teach more advanced skills. This includes age-appropriate foundation skills for sports you are interested in like Agility. A local dog trainer will let you know if your puppy is an appropriate age to start attending advanced classes.

Reinforcing Routines

Just like teenagers, when puppies go through adolescence they may regress in behavior. With puppies this age you’ll want to continue practicing cues and skills that you have previously taught your puppy. Try not to get frustrated if it seems like your puppy has forgotten everything you previously taught them. Instead, take this as an opportunity to practice all your puppy’s known cues making sure to praise and reward your puppy for engaging with you in training.

Polish Behaviors

Now that your puppy is getting older and has mastered the basics it’s time to start polishing the basic skills already learned. For example, your puppy learned the basics of loose leash walking when you introduced them to the idea of a leash and collar it’s time to teach heel.

A formal “heel” cue involves a dog focusing on their handler while walking. Heel is a behavior that you’ll use if you and your dog ever want to compete in sports like Obedience or Rally but it also is a useful skill if you need to maneuver with your dog through a busy area.

To teach heeling, use a verbal marker like "yes," or a click if you are clicker training to mark and reward with a treat your dog for being in the heel position. Heel position involves a dog’s head at your side where the seam of pants would be. The heel position is generally on the left side of your body for sports like Obedience, but it's your choice what side you teach your dog to heel on. As you practice heeling continue to mark and reward your dog for being in heel position but begin to change the pace you walk and add in turns. You can also start to practice in more distracting environments.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do you socialize puppies?

We want puppies to have positive associations with new things. To do this we need to socialize young puppies to new sounds, people, places, and experiences. This means providing opportunities to learn about new people and places. Go at your puppy’s pace and let them get comfortable with new things without forcing the puppy to engage. Praise and reward your puppy for engaging with new people or environments. Positive early socialization can help create more confident and resilient adult dogs.

When should I start training puppies?

Training is a great way to build a stronger relationship with your puppy and we want to start training our puppies the day we bring them home. Start with easy skills like teaching puppies their name and work up to more advanced behaviors.

How long should I train for?

Short and frequent training sessions are most effective when working with all dogs, especially puppies. These short training sessions keep our puppies excited and interested in training and prevent them from getting bored. This helps puppies to learn new skills and retain them for the future. These short training sessions are also an excellent way to build bonding time with your puppy into your day.

If you have a puppy at home how is training going? What are you teaching your puppy?