Dec 13, Dog or Puppy Obedience Training Tips - Crate, Potty, Leash Training a Puppy

When you are looking for puppy obedience training tips, I am sure that you are looking for reliable, proven and easy to apply techniques.

I believe that you want to learn the dog training techniques that has been used by many professional dog trainers throughout the years.

So, here I will share what I know through reading articles by professional dog trainers and most importantly from my own experience on applying the techniques on my own dogs.

This guide should give you a very good start up right away.

Your dog will come when you call.
Your dog will sit when you give a trained command.
Your dog will not jump on people.
Your dog will not beg at the table.
Your dog will not act too excited when meeting new people.
Your dog will heel on leash and then later walk without leash.Your dog might whine (See: Stop Dog Whining) and beg for food.
Your dog might develop undesired behavior such as biting (See: Stop Puppy Biting) your furniture, shoes or even your hands.
Your dog might develop aggressive behavior later in life and could be dangerous to small kids.
Your dog could become dominate or possessive of certain things such as toys, bed, coach, food bowl and etc.
Your dog might have dog to dog aggression issue.
Your dog might develop separation anxiety.
Your dog might dominant over people, have excessive barking or issue like food aggression.

If you know the possible behavior problems your puppy might develop in future, you know that puppy obedience training is a MUST for your dog.

When you mention about puppy obedience training, most people will think it is about teaching a dog how to listen to your commands. Well, they are partially right because there are actually many types of puppy obedience training.

For example:

Before you start the puppy obedience training, you will have to prepare some dog supplies or equipments. This equipments will help you to train your dog more effectively and efficiently. You could have cut down the time to train your dog in half and use the extra free time to give affection for your dogs.

The equipments that you might need are:-
Dog crate
Dog house
Dog collar
Dog leash
Dog clicker
Dog treats
Dog obedience commands

There are many styles of puppy obedience training. Some are so-called "old schools" style, some are the new dog training techniques. I will share both the training styles so that you can choose which one that is suitable for your dog.

Generally, there are 3 styles:

Dog command training constructs the foundation to the other puppy obedience training. All these basic commands are important for a dog to learn before you move on to the other obedience trainings.

The following are a few basic dog training commands:-

If you allows your dog to be in your house, potty training is the only way to avoid him from messing around in your house. Some people keep their pet dog outside the house, potty training is still needed so that there is a specific location for the dog to release himself.

During the potty training, you will need to select a command to associate to the act of pooping. Example: "Go Potty" or "Potty Time".

Some people think that crate is cruel, and think that it is like a jail for dog. Crate Training your puppy or dog is not cruel, you have to understand that dog is different from people. It is possible to make dog thinks that crate is like his den if you know how to associate crate as a positive environment. The smaller a puppy, the less time you are allowed to put your puppy alone in the crate.

House Training Your Puppy or Dog is the combination of potty training and also crate training. To be successfully housetrain a dog, it could take time from a few weeks to a few months.

If you allow a puppy that is less than 6 months old in your house, you must always keep an eye on him. If you do not have time to look after the dog, he should be in his crate. If accident happened in the house when you are not watching, you are the only person to be blamed. We call this as "handler's problem".

Dog does not understand where he should and should not go to toilet until you teach him.

How long you will have to housetrain your puppy? It is all depends on your dog, your consistency and effort.

As you may know, there are many types of dog collar. Which one should you choose? Personally I like choke collar (during obedience training) and also buckle collar (during other time).

Choke collar is a good training collar. It gives you a better control of your dog behavior compare to other normal collar. It is also known as slip collar.

There are many types and different lengths of leashes as well. Leash training a puppy is never an easy job. Dog leash is not supposed to be pull by dog at her own will. You are the one who determine when she is able to get loose on the leash and when to stay by your side (heel).

Most dog owners conduct puppy obedience training with their voice (command) and body language. One of the problems of the dog training command is that your voice is always in use. This is especially true if you select command like "No" which you will use quite often daily. This makes dog clicker plays an important role in the dog obedience training. Clicker is a small device which will make a sound when you press it. Every time your dog or puppy has done something good, you just click. If you have train your dog with the clicker's sound for a reasonable times, your dog will do the action whenever you make a sound from the clicker.