Puppy Training by Age and Week

A new puppy can be exhausting and this 24-hour schedule shows us why! They need lots of activity in short sessions but not over-doing it either. As you get to know your puppy and their needs, days become easier! Give your puppy a chance to be a baby, which is exactly what they are. The first two weeks are all about building confidence, building a relationship with you, having them learn that being with you is the best thing ever, and getting them used to handling and learning how to relax. Their attention span is very short and they get tired and bored easily. Be consistent, be reasonable, and follow through with your boundaries and expectations.

Review the attached 24-hour schedule and realize that your puppy needs lots of sleep and short sessions of other activities. An over-stimulated puppy can become cranky just like infants. They can become so over-amped that they cannot settle or rest well.

8 Weeks or Their First Week At Home:

• 100 percent supervised when not in a crate or “playpen”. Puppy proof your home as much as possible and keep contained in a safe area (puppy gates, etc.)
• Introduce and use a houseline (a 5 ft long lightweight piece of cord or leash with the handle cut off) and start potty and crate training from day one.
• Potty training: Upon waking up every time they have been asleep, within a few minutes after each meal, and after they have been playing.
• Crate training: make it their safe and peaceful place. A place to call their own and a place to relax. The crate and bed are OFF LIMITS to children and other dogs.
• Hand-feed using their regular food with their name often.
• Introduce the important verbal marker (YES!) followed by a reward. A reward can be a praise or treat reward.
• Have them follow your hand around by luring them with food. When they follow for a short distance, reward!
• Get them to follow you by stepping (running) backward and then rewarding and playing with your puppy.
• Introduce the first part of the learning process…
  1. Choice or Lure > Behavior > Marker > Reward! (do this until the behavior has become consistent with the lure of choice.)
  2. Cue –> Choice or Lure –> Behavior –> Marker–> Reward! When they are doing this about 90% of the time – fade out the lure gradually until they are being consistent with the behavior from a cue about 95% of the time.
  3. Cue –>Behavior –> Marker –> Reward: behavior with just the cue about 90% of the time to gradually fade out the reward (this does not mean you cannot ALWAYS tell them “Thank you!” or “Good pup!” when they have done the behavior you want.

9 Weeks or Second Week Home:

Confidence and curiosity begin and they become bolder, close supervision is very important!

• Increase their challenges a little. Continue with hand feeding, name & special food, and play or reward. Coming to you is SO much fun!! DO NOT dilute it by making them do another task.
• Make the lure more challenging, lure (always at the nose) in a circle, lure between your legs, and teach “Middle”! Handle their collar a lot.
• Handle them all over! Legs, paws and toenails, ears, mouth, and tail when they are in a relaxed state. Use the reward when you are handling certain body parts NOT after you have let that body part go. You can teach “relax”. This builds confidence and teaches them an off switch.
• Introduce a lightweight leash but do NOT take them for long walks. This is all about teaching them that they do not need to pull and that walking on a loose leash next to your side and checking in with you is awesome!
• Teach eye contact, known as “Watch” by capturing their attention (not by putting your hand up to your eye).
• Start introducing your puppy to odd objects, different surfaces, shiny objects, and things overhead. Different noises, some loud and some vibrational, people wearing clothing that they usually do not see, and well-behaved children. THIS is socialization, versus simply playing with other puppies and dogs.
• Start figuring out what toy they love the best! (a tennis ball, a cloth disc, a certain type of squeaky toy, a rope tug, etc.). Use this to make your training even more fun!

Weeks 10 thru 16 and on:

• Continue with 100% supervision when out of the crate or contained area. They are becoming much more active and curious and WILL get into trouble. They will start becoming more trustworthy.
•  Continue with all of the above relationships, recall and lure building skills above as well as potty and crate training
• Continue to work on “Watch”, “Yes!”, and gaining your pup’s attention. By now they should have a good idea of what these mean.
• Work on “Wait” by having them learn to wait before eating and as they go through any exterior door.
• Teach “Sit”, “Down” & “Stand”. Give verbal cues. THEN give the stimulus or lure, THEN give the reward when they give you the behavior (butt on the ground for sitting, elbows on the ground, hip and back level for the down, standing squared up). Be sure you deliver the lure/reward when they are fully in the position you asked for.
• Teach “Touch” every few days making it a little more challenging. Eventually, they will Touch when you hold your hand high, low, right, left, between your legs, etc. This is an excellent tool to get your dog to refocus on you when they are distracted. It should be one of their favorite things to do! Make that favorite toy one of their training rewards! Put it away unless you are working with them and use it as a reward. Especially for the recall (“Come”).
• Start adding a little more difficulty in loose leash walking. Adding more in the way of distractions and distance, making it more challenging a little at a time. Baby steps!
• When they are doing the Sit, Stand and Stay cues consistently, start using the verbal cue only without the food lure but position your hand as it is when you give the food lure. After your pup has done the behavior without the food lure several times, try it without the hand signal, using the verbal cue only. Continue to always reward, being careful with when and where you deliver the food reward.
• You can start introducing the “Stay” behavior at about 12 to 14 weeks. Do not make the mistake of adding too much difficulty too soon.

16 weeks and older:

Increase the challenges and distractions with all of their skills. Increase duration and distance. ALWAYS follow through. At about 5 to 10 months most puppies become defiant teenagers who want to push their limits, and yours so don’t stop training! This period can last well into their first year.
Continue the challenges and new learning skills. They are old enough to understand that when given a cue to sit, do or stand, it is a given that they are to remain in that position until given a release cue (such as: “OK, that’ll do, all done”, etc.

REMEMBER:
Anytime your puppy shuts down, becomes confused, or becomes overwhelmed it is time to back off and take a couple of steps back to something more basic.

ALWAYS set your puppy up for success. Always end on a positive note even if that means going back to a known skill!

Puppies learn at different rates and are motivated differently just as human children learn differently.

There will be steps backwards during the puppy training process. This is okay and NORMAL! Don’t get frustrated! They may be going through a growth spurt or another stage (such as a fear stage), and may need some refresher days.