Almost daily I am asked when you can start training a puppy. Well, that actually depends on what kind of training you’re talking about, whether you’re talking about formal obedience training or whether you’re talking about potty training.
When can you start potty training? Potty training is something that should start right away when you bring your pup home. This is also the perfect time to teach your pup not to chew on your personal items. Personally, I like the home training crate method of training. I feel it is the most effective and has long lasting effects. While using the crate to train your dog, it also serves as a way to eliminate a tremendous amount of chewing. Eliminating chewing at this point is very important. I tell people that if you have a six-month-old puppy that chews, you’ll have a six-year-old dog that chews, so we want to stop that bad habit now.
How old does the puppy have to be to start obedience training? I have found that the perfect age for formal obedience training is 16 weeks (four months). At 16 weeks their minds are like little sponges and they are capable of absorbing everything you want to teach them.
Very often I am asked if we can wait the training until the dog is one year old. The answer is sure you can, the only problem is that in that year your dog will develop a lot of bad habits. By starting early, hopefully the pup won’t develop those bad habits.
Another question that arises is a dog too old to train. We’ve all heard that expression that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, that’s not true, you can teach old dogs new tricks.
Getting your puppy used to his leash and collar is very important, so when your puppy is around 8-10 weeks old, get him a small collar and leash and start getting him used to walking on a leash and collar around the house. and on short walks
Now last but not least, do I need a professional trainer to help me train my dog? The answer is no, you don’t need a professional trainer. However, it would certainly make your life easier to have one to guide you through the rough patches and teach you proper training methods.