I am regularly asked questions regarding leash training a puppy.  The number one question seems to be ”How old should my puppy be before I start leash training?”

I recommend introducing your puppy to the leash within a day or two of bringing your puppy home. Young puppies want to be near you and the tendency is to follow you around.  What better time to introduce the leash.

I am continually amazed at the number of dogs and their owners who have obviously failed leash training 101.  Dogs dragging their human along behind while going wherever their nose takes them. This behavior makes walking difficult and the outing less then fun.  These dogs have learned they are the ones in charge of the walk. 

In these cases I usually see the puppy or dog’s collar sitting at the base of their neck,  laying across the top of their shoulders.  This position takes away your ability to guide, stop or correct your puppy or dog.

The effect is the same as a dog leaning into a harness for pulling.

The slip collar should be placed correctly around the top of the puppy’s neck just below their ears.  I explain the correct way to put on a slip collar, the positioning and use in Lesson 9 of Puppy Training Secrets Revealed. 

The difference in your control with gentle corrections is amazing!

Leash training your puppy effectively starts with understanding your training tools and in this case the collar and leash. 

If your are struggling to control your puppy on lead then first check the positioning of the slip collar.  A simple adjustment may be all you need to gain control.

For more puppy training instruction, click here now.

Whether or not one should use a dog crate for training a puppy or dog seems to be a tough decision for most new dog owners.  Some of us even look at confinement in a crate as cruel where other owners think it is a waste of money to purchase a crate.

I continually tell clients to remember your puppy is a canine, not a human.  Dogs are den animals and love to curl up in a small, confined, and most importantly, secure spot to sleep. 

When used correctly a crate is a wonderful puppy training tool and I have yet to encounter a puppy or dog that didn’t come to love their crate and happily headed for it when tired.  Even given a good bone or a new chew toy nine times out of ten the puppy will head into their crate if available to enjoy some good old chew time.

Introduce a dog crate slowly and positively and you will have a dog with a life long love of their crate and the most useful training tool available.

Simple tips for easy crate training  can be found in Puppy Training Secrets.

Have fun with training your puppy.  The results will be rewarding!

If you are struggling with potty training a puppy then this post may shed some light on one of the reasons why.

I was not surprised when a couple I know rehomed their year and a half old Labrador Retriever puppy.  They had trained her to respond to many obedience commands.  Very impressive.  She was both smart and a real love.

So why did they give her up?

For one of the main reasons most pet owners do.  They were not able to break her of peeing in the house even after exercise and going potty outdoors.  The owners became frustrated and tired of cleaning up after their dog.

They now wish they had followed my puppy potty training instructions a little closer right from the start.

Their puppy was SO smart that they felt she should have the freedom to go anywhere in the house unsupervised after only a few short weeks.  By doing this the owners were making one of the MOST common puppy housebreaking mistakes.

They left their puppy for long periods of time to play and entertain itself throughout their house and did not take her outside to potty on a regular basis.

They were setting their puppy up to fail!

The puppy would of course have to pee more often due to her physical activity.  She would quickly go pee while out of sight in another room.  Even though the owners cleaned up the mess the controls on their puppy did not change.

Their Labrador puppy learned she could get away with using the indoors as a potty area when just a baby.  Hard habit to now break.

Simply restrict your puppy to whatever area in the house you happen to be in.  This way you can keep an eye on the puppy, controlling and directing their behaviour while they are learning the house rules.  After a short period of activity take your puppy outdoors to their potty area before an accident happens.

Keeping the puppy with you and observing it you can quickly learn the behaviour that indicates the puppy is looking to pee.  Yet still take charge by taking your puppy and heading out regularly when you feel the puppy has played long enough and may now have to go potty.

For the “How To’s” and more quick, yet important tips on potty training click here.

PS:  I did receive an update on this Labrador puppy.  The new owners restrict her as advised in their laundry room when no one is home.  A dog door was installed which gives her access to their secured back year.

With a little retraining, new house rules and controls there are no more accidents in the house!

 A good point to remember when training a puppy.

Maintaining a routine for your puppy or dog is very important.  A puppy develops confidence and will learn faster when they have a reasonably consistent pattern to each of their days.  A fairly regular time set aside for play, sleep, feeding all helps, especially with the potty training.

Note that I say a fairly regular time here.

I know people who have taken establishing a routine to the extreme.  Rigid with the times their puppy is to eat, sleep and play.  So of course the puppy, as it grows, becomes set in this rigid routine expecting to get up, eat, play or go for a walk at a definite time.  Canines have built in clocks I swear!

So along comes the time when the owners want to sleep in one weekend. Yup, they now have a very upset, whining, and finally barking dog on their hands.  Their dog’s internal clock is saying it is time to get up and get going!  This can happen with feeding times, walks and so on.

Establishing a routine is very important.  But you still must be a little flexible when training a puppy. 

Vary their feeding times by working up to 10 or 15 minutes either way and when older vary the times even further.  

Same goes with their time for getting up in the morning.  Vary that time slightly as well, gradually letting them wait longer once they are older and have good bladder control.

Occassionally change the spot you feed your puppy, the location of their bed and even where you take them for a walk. You will end up with a more adaptable adult dog that will handle small changes in their daily routine without a single whine.

So be sure to establish a routine that incorporates a certain amount of flexibility.

More tips are found throughout Puppy Training Secrets Revealed  

Reading about the breed bans in the news and on the egroups so much these days it is now even more important then ever to raise a puppy to become a well adjusted, socialized and stable member of our Society. 

Any puppy can be naturally aggressive, possessive or try to be dominant.  They are a canine.  They have to learn how to behave in our world. I cover the simple tricks and training techniques to acheive this in my ebook, Puppy Training Secrets Revealed.

A puppy should never get away with an act of aggression which can be as simple as grabbing an object from you and running away with it, growling or nipping aggressively.  Too often people find the growling “cute” or the “just nipped me” acceptable because it is just a puppy!  

This behaviour won’t be so cute when the puppy becomes a much larger adult.

The most effective action to take is actually gentle.  Showing aggression back by hitting or shouting can cause a more aggressive reaction back.

Should your puppy show any aggression you must quickly catch the puppy in both hands and hold the puppy down on the floor while you kneel over the puppy.  Do not allow the puppy to struggle up.  With a calm but firm voice give a command such as “no” or “manners” or whatever and continue to speak firmly with this command until the puppy no longer struggles against you.

Keep the puppy in this position until it is quiet and relaxes.  Do not release the puppy until it is calm.

Should the puppy show further aggression after release then repeat the above.  This simple method really does work as you are GENTLY but firmly reinforcing dominance and showing the puppy in a way he can understand that aggression towards you or your family is unacceptable.

More indepth instructions can be found throughout Puppy Training Secrets Revealed  

Definitely worth a read!

Louise Baldock

Don’t make the mistake of waiting to get started with puppy training. This means right from the FIRST MOMENT you arrive home with your puppy or dog.

Take charge as the confident leader and start shaping your puppy’s behaviour immediately.  

The minute you arrive home carry  your puppy to the area you have designated for potty training outside.  By this time, after much excitement and having travelled in a vehicle maybe for their first time, your puppy really will have to releave themselves. 

So don’t miss this opportunity to start the potty training.  Take advantage of this perfect situation to introduce your puppy to the outdoor potty area.

Encourage the puppy to stay in the potty area.  Be prepared to redirect your puppy back into this area even if you have to carry them back.  Usually they will go potty quickly at this time even with all the new sites, sounds and smells. 

Be sure to give a command as the puppy squats to pee then praise. 

Once a puppy has peed in an outdoor area they are quicker to do their business the next time out as they can now smell their own scent.  

Over a short period of time a puppy taken consistantly to the same outdoor area to relieve themselves will associate this area with going potty and their response will become automatic.   Quick pees and poos outdoors makes everyone’s life easier!

Take advantage of potential puppy training situations such as the first moment arriving home with your puppy.

If you’d like more tips on potty training your puppy quickly and easily, be sure to check out my eBook, “Puppy Training Secrets Revealed.”

 Louise Baldock

I was yakking with a new puppy owner and the usual question regarding leash training came up.  They wanted to know the best way to get started.

My advice was to Introduce leash training to the puppy by simply attaching a small, light leash to the puppy’s slip collar, drop the leash on the floor and allow the puppy to drag the leash around the house behind them.  Correct them should they grab the trailing leash thinking it is a chew toy.

If consistant with corrections it is amazing how fast the puppy will learn to ignore the dragging leash.

From there it is an easy step to actually introduce gently controlling the puppy with the leash. 

Here is a photo of a young German Shorthaired Pointer I was training.  Not a great picture but shows the puppy dragging the light leash.

The trailing leash is also a HUGH help with so much of the puppy training.  You can find all the steps of leash training and further tips using the trailing leash to teach your puppy in Puppy Training Secrets.

Louise Baldock

Puppy potty training seems to be at the top of most puppy owners list of “how to” questions and it appears to be a major stumbling block.  Yet I know the steps to achieve success are very straight forward and basic.

Over this weekend I was again asked by frustrated puppy owners for advice and direction.

The owners thought they were following my ten simple rules for housebreaking a puppy but realized they must be doing something wrong afterall.  But what!

After questioning them at length I discovered they were missing only part of one of the potty training rules.  It was that simple!

The potty training had been going along just fine for a couple of months.  Now the owners expected their puppy to go potty quickly, especially when the weather was bad.  When their puppy didn’t they became impatient and spoke sharply to the puppy.

When asked to describe their puppy’s reaction to their own negative behavior they said their puppy had developed the habit of walking in a small circle, stopping and staring at them while taking on a submissive posture.

You can see where this is going!

Unknowningly the owners caused the situation and with time compounded the problem.

The more uptight the owners got, the more submissive their puppy became and the longer their puppy took to potty and at times would not go at all.  The result was a nervous puppy reluctant to potty in front of the owners.  Accidents then started occurring in their house.

In this case the solution is to just simply and ALWAYS remain calm, relaxed and moderate your voice when taking your puppy outside to go potty.  Then praise when they do right.

Puppies and dogs are experts at reading body language.  This enables a canine to survive in a pack.  If their human pack leader is displaying what a puppy would interpret as aggression through voice and posture then of course the puppy will not be relaxed enough to do their business.

Stay calm and consistant.  Your puppy will be going potty quickly and on command.

The importance of voice and body language when communicating with your puppy is explained further in my puppy training ebook.

If you would like to learn the Ten Simple Rules for Effectively Housebreaking Your Puppy then be sure to check out “Puppy Training Secrets Revealed.”

Louise Baldock 

So often I hear people say they do not want a submissive dog.  If I force them to do what I want they will have no personality left.

NO WAY!  Training (which equals leadership) done right will have the opposite effect.

Training is the development of a language by which you will communicate with your puppy.  Through puppy training you not only end up with a trained puppy but also a confident puppy.

A voice or hand command by you and the required physical response by the puppy is communication.   You and your puppy have developed your own lauguage, basic as it may be.  Your puppy now knows how to get a positive response from their pack leader.  

Both puppies and dogs want to do right by their pack leader.  They want to receive praise and rewards.  When they do they are happy and confident.

Here is a picture of our Elvis at only 10 months of age.  Still a puppy.  This is one weekend of working with me at a dog show.   There is no way he could be submissive or not have learned communication and win all these awards.  Yes…just one weekend he won all those beautiful ribbons.

He is an example of a puppy trained from a baby.  Elvis knows what I expect of him through puppy training and he loves to do right!  Elvis is confident because he understands what I want of him through my voice and hand commands.  We are communicating.  And we are having a blast doing it.

He is a happy, look at me puppy that out performs the adult dogs even.

So don’t think for a minute that strong leadership, high expectations and training will lead to a submissive, unhappy dog.  Nope…just the opposite.  Look at Elvis!

Take the time to read my ebook, Puppy Training Secrets   You too can learn to develop communication  and confidence with your puppy or dog through my puppy training.   You will be headed towards some fun times with your puppy!  Guaranteed!

Louise Baldock

I had a message waiting for me on the phone this past week.  The call was about hiring me for a few weeks of puppy training.  The following could be ANY BREED of puppy or dog.

These callers have a 4 1/2 month old Golden Retriever who is out of control with excitement and energy when they get home.  She won’t settle down and just won’t listen to them.  What little attempt at training is going badly.

This puppy is confined a good part of the day while the owners are at work.  So of course she is going to be beside herself with excitment and ready to play the minute they get home.

To get a handle on her basic puppy training all they needed to do was exercise her first.  Burn off some of that pent up energy.  

Exercise sounds simple but it is effective! 

I told the owners to get her racing around their back yard chasing after a ball and dog toy.  With that type of exercise most puppies will run out of steam real fast.

Once the puppy has slowed down and showing signs of tiring, calmly bring the puppy under control and start with the short, quick training session as covered in my puppy training ebook.  A slightly tired puppy is easier to control and it is WAY easier to get their undivided attention. 

Puppy training should ALWAYS start with some fun exercise to burn off excess energy.  Then end the training session with a favourite game.  Puppies will actually enjoy the obedience training sessions.  

Added bonus is the evening spent with a far quieter, in control puppy that is just plain easier to live with!

I recommended the owners give this a try for a time before giving up and handing her off to me for puppy training.  I know they will be surprised at the difference. 

Check out my ebook, Puppy Training Secrets for help to successfully train your own puppy.

Exercise is not only good for your puppy’s body and but also their mind!  So get out there and have fun together!

Louise Baldock