As you lay in bed staring at the ceiling, you are listening to the new little ball of fur you recently got howling in its crate. It's night two of your new adventure, and you are running on three hours of sleep. You toss and turn before you get up, flip on the light, and march over to the little crate you purchased at pet smart. Finally, your puppy stops howling to stare up into your eyes with his big brown ones. Between the irresistible eyes and his momentary silence, you give in. "Fine, you can sleep with me. Just for tonight." You groggily unlatch the crate, scoop up the puppy, and climb into bed.
WAIT!
Read this before going any further in your new life with your new best friend! It will make your life so much easier! Now, to continue our story. You wake up the following day after a peaceful night of sleep. But all that changes when you sit up.
You look down on the floor to see the big ball of fur looking up at you happily, tail wagging. You cannot express the same emotions. Around the room, you find shredded pillows, blankets, and paperwork, along with lots of puppy pee and poop. The room is such a mess you don't even know where to start.
If you have made it this far, you have seen the title of today's blog post. I am going to give a spoiler! The answer is NOW! But, before you get overwhelmed and click out, read this post. We will be talking about some essential training checkpoints for your puppy. So, let's get started.
Eight weeks - Most people get their puppies around eight weeks of age. At this point, you should have three main focuses working on crate/potty training and helping your puppy learn their name. For more info on crate training, click here and click here for name training. You are probably wondering, what's the third thing? It is socialization! This needs to be done carefully. While getting your puppy used to pretty much anything and everything is crucial, you don't want to sensitize your puppy to things either. You also must be careful because they haven't had all their booster shots at this point. That being said, you may want to stick to doing socialization in the comfort of your own home at this stage. Here is a link to some DIY puppy socialization.
Twelve weeks – You can add in some basic obedience after you have a good start on name training and crate training. Some obedience skills you might want to teach your puppy include sit, down, heel, come, stay, and place. These will all take some time, so don't lose patience. Try not to ask too much of your puppy too quickly. You also want to set them up for success. Keep training sessions often but fun and short. Also, remember, if you aren't having fun, your puppy probably isn't either.
Sixteen weeks – Now, you are probably still working on all the other things I have already given you. There is so much for your puppy to learn, see, smell, and feel. However, now that your puppy probably has all its booters, you can start taking your puppy out and about. As the video/article said, make sure to introduce your new puppy to everything and tread with caution when it comes to fears. Don't push them too far, but don't let the fear worsen. Use treats and praise to lure your puppy towards the "scary" object.
Twenty weeks – Now that your puppy is five months old (nearly half a year old!), you should have a great start to getting them integrated into the world. Of course, your dog's training is far from over. Dog training is a journey, not a destination. But if you continue advancing all the things we talked about in this article, you should have one well-trained puppy!
So, congratulations on your new puppy! Enjoy them while they are young! With any more puppy raising questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us here at Caspian Canine today! Thanks for reading! Look out for us on the next blog!
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