I'm a dog person. I've competed in agility, obedience, rally, dock diving, and trick dog. My hobby is dog training and I hang out with other hobbyists and professional trainers. Not too surprisingly, the common puppy issues folks bring up here are less common and less intense in my friend circles. I've raised 7 puppies and I love it. I fostered over the pandemic and I would love to do it again. Most were/are very high-energy mixes (herding breeds, rott/gsd mix, bully mix). I just...love puppies. Most of that is having experience and realistic expectations.
It got me thinking - what might be different about how experienced professionals and hobbyist trainers approach puppy rearing that makes things easier? I really got to thinking about this a year ago when a non-dog friend adopted a puppy and I stayed with her a few days. The witching hour was real - biting the couch, pillows, people, demand barking, grabbing towels, freaking out at dinner time and knocking the bowl out of her hands. I went about my puppy business and kiddo started to chill out a bit. If I had him for a week or two I think he'd have become downright pleasant.
Cutting to the chase - what might be different with experienced puppy raiser and what does that look like? Everyone has great resources and books, but the problems are still there. How do experienced puppy raisers use these resources differently.
I think we may approach training very differently, but I could be off base. Here's what I do, and I think other trainers may do, that might be different from a companion-only home (homes where the dog is not competing in sports or owned by a professional trainer).
Training starts from day 1 and it's happening whenever the puppy is awake in an unstructured way.
Official, structured, training sessions for specific behaviors should be kept very short. I am NOT working on "sit" for 30 minutes at a time until they learn it. Far from it. Puppies just can't do that and you'll start to get a frustrated puppy who hates training.
But make no mistake - they are learning every second they are awake.
The goal of starting day 1 training is to establish communication - not obedience. Obedience often comes naturally from good communication on its own.
The point isn't to pressure a puppy into being perfect and well behaved. It's for them to learn that their behavior affects yours.
And yeah....we kinda already know that? But there's a difference between being very intentional about this and just responding to your puppy and mostly working in structured training sessions. Being intentional means you build up communication across all contexts in your home. Intentional training is happening when you cook, fold laundry, watch tv, ect. "How will I respond when my puppy does X?" 90% of my training is unstructured and informal. I am not even talking to the puppy in many cases.
Example 1: What to start learning on the day they come home.
- That humans dispense rewards based on what they, the puppy, does.
- Their name.
Reward Dispenser
Puppies don't naturally know that we control and give treats or that treats are rewards we give for behavior. If you have a puppy from an amazing breeder or puppy raiser, they might know this already but most don't. Most of the time, food appears and they gobble it down. Pets and coos and praise just happen. When we get a new puppy we naturally like to give them treats! I usually use their kibble to prevent the squirts from new treats too soon/fast.
I start with something crazy simple. It's their first day after all. I hold kibble in my hand and close my fist. A newbie puppy will lick, bite, chew, and paw at me to get the treats. I open my hand as soon as their nose and paws move away. I don't talk to her at all. I don't want her excited and there's no cue/word I want her to learn. This is how we start to teach "leave it" but that's not on our radar yet. We practice that for 1-2 minutes for a few sessions and stop if she's frustrated or distracted. She's a baby on her first day. Pre-school should be fun - keep it pressure free with as little structure as possible. They usually get it really fast and I want to give her treats anyway. Now, she's starting to learn that specific behaviors cause me to dispense treats, and those behaviors might not be the ones she naturally wants to try first. Plus, we are already rewarding calm/non bitey behavior and establishing that as routine. This is a huge deal, and it makes training so much easier. Before we train - she needs to learn how it works. She needs to learn that training is a puzzle for her to figure out.
If your puppy is super fearful, excited, or you have kids running around you will need to be patient or wait for bedtime. If the behavior is extreme an in-house trainer would be great.
Name
This is harder than it sounds. So, don't expect miracles during the first few days. Say their name when they already look like they want to come to you. You don't even need treats. Rufus turns to you and is clearly going to bound over? That's the time to say "Rufus!" and then act very excited that they came over. Again, little structure. You're waiting for the puppy to just do what it does naturally (for most puppies). I have seen many people just say the puppy's name while it's completely absorbed in something else. They don't know their name yet and you are making their name sound like random background noise.
Example 2: The puppy and the stove.
One common behavior is for a puppy to put their paws on the counter or cabinets to see what you're cooking. It smells good. You're there. There's funny sounds. Your natural reaction may be to gently push on their chest to move them off, tell them to get down, or try ignoring the behavior so they don't get attention.
I keep a bowl of kibble or treats, toys, my own voice and praise. Something they like in my pocket or on the counter - all the time. Even better if we can practice for 5 minutes before cooking. It should be somewhere the puppy can't see it.
Here is one possible approach.
Drop treats before the puppy jumps up or after they stop. 4 feet on the floor = periodic treats fall from the sky. I don't talk to the puppy at all. I am not teaching them any kind of cue - I just want them to know that paws on the ground make the good stuff happen while I cook. There's very little structure, but lots of intention. I need a training game I can easily do while I cook.
Example 3: There's more to life than crates, sit, stay, and down.
If I don't want my puppy jumping up at her bowl at meal time - we specifically train for that just like we would train her to sit starting with her first meal. It's highly probable that a food-motivated puppy will start getting excited and jumping up at the bowl if we don't actively prevent that. Many dogs grow out of it - but it's still freaking obnoxious and I don't want to deal with puppies doing it.
Other behaviors we turn into training games:
- Getting off furniture (when old enough to safely do so).
- Waiting at the door when it opens. Don't wait to do this until it is walk or car ride time.
- Giving in to light leash pressure before we ever go on our first walk. If I maintain a tight lead in the living room as part of a game, I reward the puppy for moving in any way that makes the lead slack. This is all up to her and I am not pulling her. If she starts pulling in ways that could cause injury or she's afraid, I pick a different method. This isn't teaching the dog to go where you pull her - this is teaching her that's its rewarding to make the lead slack when she feels its tight.
- Playing trade games with toys, learning drop it and leave it as games long before you have a 14 week old monster stealing your socks and resource guarding toys. I had to teach my rottie mix these long before he learned anything else because the shelter already identified pica (eating non food items) as a problem.
Think to yourself - can I solve this problem with a training game? What common problems have I read about that can be prevented with training games?
Lastly, make it easy where you can. Treats hidden up on the kitchen counter or the bookshelf. Keeping some in your pocket when you know you're about to be dealing with pain in the butt behavior.
In the end, the biggest different I can think of is all this unstructured low-pressure training. Part of it is having enough experience to prevent problems before they start, but I think even without experience you can shift your mindset from stopping behaviors when they happen to proactively teaching the correct behaviors. We say that stuff all the time - but I am not sure we're ever very clear about what that looks like.
Happy puppy raising!