Kennel Training Your Puppy
So you want to kennel train your puppy but not sure where to start? What is kennel training? How do I kennel train my puppy? What do I need to get started?
Just to put you at ease, kennel training a puppy (or crate training) is simply training your puppy to enjoy his time in a kennel or crate. All puppies naturally like a den, or their kennel but you have to introduce your puppy slowly and train him right for him to enjoy the experience inside his kennel. REMEMBER, each puppy is different even within the same breed, where as one puppy might love his kennel another one might take a lot more kennel training to enjoy the experience.
Slowly introduce your puppy to his kennel for a few minutes at a time by throwing favorite dog toys or small dog treats in the kennel with the door propped open and reward with praise. Possibly put his favorite blanket in the kennel or an article of your clothing that smells like you. After your puppy has spend some time in the kennel build up to 15-30 minutes at a time between potty breaks.
One of the best ways for successful kennel training is to keep a schedule of the feeding and watering times for your puppy between breaks outside the kennel. After waking up from a nap, 5-15 minutes after eating, and after drinking puppies need to be removed from his kennel and walked outside.
A great way to kennel train your puppy is to walk him outside in the same area each and every time. He will become more comfortable with the routine and know what is to happen when he is removed from his kennel and walked outside.
Remember to be persistent and consistent is the fastest way to train your puppy to use the kennel and to be house broken. Training your puppy to use the kennel will not happen in 1 day, however it will happen if you keep to walk your puppy on schedule and feed and water him on schedule too.
So as a reminder:
1) Make your puppy at home in his kennel when you are training him
2) Start slow 1-5 minutes to start
3) Throw treats in your puppy’s kennel and praise him when he goes in the kennel
4) Keeping a schedule of eating, drinking, and walking times adjusting to kennel train your puppy best
5) Be patient and Be consistent when kennel training
Easy Puppy Teaching Tricks
There are kinds of puppy teaching tips and tricks. Puppy teaching is about finding out what tricks you desire of a puppy. Teaching your puppy to beg a certain way can be good fun, but there is a method to do it. Different dogs can learn different things. Though begging may not necessarily be a desired behavior to some people, whereas other people think begging can be cute; there are ways you can teach your puppy to either beg in a cute way or not to beg at all. Many people find it cute to see a small dog, such as a Shih Tzu or a Toy Poodle stands on his hind legs with its front paws hanging down. Other people like it when big dogs give a handshake with their paws or do other tricks. Whatever trick you want your dog to do, you can teach him easily through rewarding him with a treat upon performing the desired trick.
Puppy Teaching Trick #1 – The paw shake trick is one of the most common tricks people like teaching puppies. The typical puppy teaching command for getting a dog to shake his paw with your hand is done with the command “SHAKE!” Teaching a puppy to shake is done by first getting him to sit and then gently lift one of his front paws and tell him “SHAKE!” Using the verbal puppy teaching command should also be done simultaneously with a hand gesture. The typical hand gesture in getting the dog to shake is by tapping the floor with your hand in front of the dog’s front paw. Encourage your puppy to lift up one of his front paws to get to shake. As you repeat the verbal command “SHAKE” and do the hand gesture, and every time your puppy complies, give him a treat. It’s that simple with puppy teaching.
Puppy Teaching Tricks #2 -Teaching your puppy to sit is another important command that many people like teaching puppies. You need to remember that puppies are highly energetic and can be rambunctious, therefore you need to get him to calm down in certain situations. What better way than teaching your puppy to sit. Like teaching your puppy to shake, teaching your puppy to sit on command can be done with a simple puppy teaching verbal command, “SIT,” and the simultaneous hand gesture. Typically, the hand gesture for the puppy teaching “SIT” command should be either your hand or finger first pointing to your puppy and moving downward. The first few times, get the dog to recognize the verbal command with the hand sign by gently making him sit by pushing his hind end down to sit. A great way of puppy teaching is as soon as the dog sits on command by himself, give him a treat to reward him every time he obeys your command.
Puppy Teaching Trick #3- Begging can be cute or can be annoying, depending on the person. Eventually dogs will be near the table and will begin to beg for food. Some people who come and visit might not like it if your dog begging by putting his chin or paw on your guest’s leg. Other dogs can beg vocally by lying under the table and moan or bark or both. This kind of begging is obviously undesirable and should be curbed, however, small dogs might beg in a cute manner by standing on its hind legs. However you put it, you can either encourage your dog to beg or not to beg.
1. Teaching your puppy not to beg can also be done very easily. First, why does your puppy beg? Simple. It wants what’s on the table and will do something to get what it wants. If you give your dog a scrap from the table every time it does some kind of begging, it will continue. If your puppy knows that every time it moans or barks it gets some table scraps, it will continue this behavior because it has the desired affect. It it’s ignored, it knows that it will not get anything and will stop. If your puppy gets very obnoxious when begging, tell him firm “NO” as a puppy teaching command. You need to be firm and you need to do this repetitively. Sometimes, take your puppy away from the dining table when he begs and tell him “NO!” Putting puppy in training crate for some time and then let him back out.
2. Teaching your puppy to beg is not difficult. If you want your dog to do a particular trick while begging, such as standing on its hind legs or you see it does something else that’s cute, such as the sad “puppy dog look,” give it something from the table every time it does that particular trick. Again, puppy teaching is about rewarding desired behavior.
There are many different ways in puppy teaching. Obedience schools specialize in puppy teaching, but with some of the simple tips in this article, you can do the same thing as obedience schools do and you will have a well behaved and obedient puppy without spending the money for obedience training.
Puppy Lead Training Tips & Tools
Lead training your puppy is training your puppy to walk on a lead or a leash. Puppy lead training should be done at an early age and when you first walk your puppy. Furthermore, you should walk your lead train you puppy as soon as possible after bringing him home to get comfortable with a lead and following your commands. You should play with him first and then walk him. The first step in puppy lead training is put him on a lead and take him out so that he learns to do his business first. As he gets used to walking on a lead, you can train your puppy to walk at your pace, not to pull, and to do other things that make your walk nice and in an orderly fashion.
Puppy Lead Training Tip #1 - The first tools you needs to start lead training your puppy is a collar and a leash. Not all puppies do well with lead training at first so here is a secret! This may be a little silly, walk backward in front of your puppy with the puppy lead in your hand. You want to talk in a high pitched sounds as you walk backward. Your puppy that is on the lead will follow you without any additional effort. Yes, it does sound strange to do this but trust me teaching your puppy lead training this way WORKS!
Puppy Lead Training Tip #2 -Teaching your puppy lead training and to heal is very important on the walk. All puppies need to learn to heal during lead training. There may be some situations in the walk where it would be desirable for your puppy to heal, safety being the primary reason. When lead training your puppy and you want him to heal, this means that you want your dog to walk close to you and on a short leash. It is important when puppy lead training to teach your puppy to heal when you are crossing a busy street, intersection, or where there are passing vehicles.
To teach your puppy to heal, you need to pull back on the lead and firmly tell your dog “HEAL!” As your puppy heals, give him a treat. When you want your puppy to heal, you should roll the extra leash around your hand to hold it short and prevent your dog from going out of the heal regime until you decide whether the situation is safe to continue the walk in a normal fashion.
Puppy Lead Training Tip #2 -Teaching your puppy to sit is also crucial to have an orderly walk. When puppy lead training this should especially apply to those of you who live in urban areas where there are many busy streets and intersections that you might have to cross with your dog. As you wait for traffic signals or for traffic to die down enough to safely cross the street.
When training your puppy to sit while lead training, you should get your puppy used to sitting after hearing you tell him to “SIT” in a firm tone of voice. The first few times, you may need to gently push down on the rump of your puppy to get him to understand that you want him to sit. As he sits after you say the command, give him a treat. When you stop, tell your puppy “SIT” and pull back on the base of the lead with your right hand and push your puppy’s rump down with your left hand. This may take dozens of tries, but your puppy will understand what walking on a lead means and sitting as well.
Teaching your puppy to lie down is great for those situations on your walk when you stop to talk to a neighbor or a close friend. To train your puppy to lie down, tell him either “LIE DOWN” or “DOWN!” You should first teach your dog to sit before you lie down. As your puppy sits, gently pull on his collar and lead with your hand or foot. He will be forced to follow with his head and bring it to the ground and eventually lie down. As your dog lies down on command, again give him a treat.
When you train your puppy to walk on a lead early, you will have a well behaved dog who will obey all your commands and some dogs will get accustomed to your walking routine quickly and learn to do everything without you having to say any command. I had a dog who would automatically lie down every time I stopped to talk to someone on the walk. She would lie there and wait until I was finished with the conversation and as she sensed that the conversation was about to end, she would get up and we would continue to walk. This would be the ideal behavior for your dog and you can get your dog to behave like that by following these simple steps mentioned above