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Dog Training - When To Start Training Your Dog Is there a good time or bad time to start training your dog? Well no, it's just that there are better times that work for your dog obedience training and for you. You can start them very early, in fact as early as four months. You may enroll them in puppy socialization classes (like kindergarten if you will) so long as you are not expecting a fully trained pup when you're done. These classes are all about the wee ones interacting with other pups, and getting some puppy survival manners along the way. For more serious dog obedience training, you usually wait until about 6 months of age, (make sure your pup has all the required shots for ANY class) because he is just then starting to get an inkling of what "no" really means. At six months you can teach the very basic manners – the sit, down, heel, come, stay, stand – but don't expect him to retain all this information. Instead, expect him to have brilliant moments when he does what he is asked, and then tears off for a new adventure. Work with what you've got. He has puppy brain and won't find one (brain that is) until he turns 2 years old. That isn't to say you can't teach him diddley, it just means you need to work with him consistently and fairly over time to reinforce the basics. There's no hurry to do your dog obedience training in any event because you have his whole life to teach him things. And he has his whole life to learn. So if you start with socialization classes, work up to basic obedience and then into advanced obedience work, you can decide what other areas you would like to explore with your canine companion. Decide based on your dog's personality and what type of activity would suit him. Do you ever stop training your dog? No, you don't, but this doesn't mean you actively each and every day have lessons for the rest of his life. Tune ups are good, new classes for a brush up are good, but remember this – every day we live with a dog is a day where we have taught them something. They learn from our body language and our tone of voice, from our overt actions and from the ones we don't even know we're telegraphing to them. If you find your dog doing something goofy that you swear you did NOT teach him, think that one through. Dog obedience training takes place consciously and unconsciously – what have you passed on to Fifi without really knowing you did? |
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