How to Make Your Relationship with your Puppy Easier
Updated: Mar 29
Teach your puppy or dog these 4 fun lessons
Teach dog to heel
Teach dog to sit
Teach dog to stay
Train dog to walk on leash
How to teach your Dog to Heel
Teach dog to heel or teach puppy to heel, sounds pretty simple and fun. But did you know it’s harder than people imagine. I have simplified the process to teach the dog to heel or teach the dog to walk with you without pulling. The magic of doing my umbilical training, which is having the leash around your waist and the clasp hooked up to the dog’s martingale collar, a hands free dog leash. The best part about my training is you can do it anywhere, anytime, anyplace, during almost any activity.
How to Teach a Dog to Sit
Teach dog to sit or teach puppy to sit. Here is a secret most people are unaware of. Puppies love to sit when they are 8 to 11 weeks of age. At this age most people think the puppy is trained when you ask the puppy to sit. Surprise, the puppy is tricking you to believe something that’s not really legit. Often people stop educating the pup to sit when they are 3 to 6 months of age. The trick to teach your dog to be successful during the early puppy stage is to begin teaching the word sit and praise the puppy with firm scrunches and pats. Keep food away from any of this training because the pup will not do the sit for the right reason. Now the other amazing part about getting the pup to sit is to lengthen the duration of the sit. Start with 5 seconds and build up to 3 minutes. This will help educate the puppy about being chill and relaxed with you. Also, don’t forget about some good solid pats to the puppy while you use positive reinforcement with touch not food.
How to Teach Your Dog to Stay
Teach dog to stay or teach puppy to stay, this request or expectation actually goes hand in hand with Teach dog to sit. The secret behind the success to get your puppy to stay is to work off of the longer sit I just mentioned. Once the puppy learns a 1-minute sit stay, it becomes easier to educate the puppy about Stay as a command and therefore you continue to structure the teaching process is multiple steps. When teaching Stay a simple thing to remember is not to be moving around or shuffling your feet. Work with a win/win and lots of praise and positive praise using touch. Reiterate to the puppy when they are 8 to 11 weeks of age the verbal word for sit. A cautionary tip is to not repeat the word you use for sit or stay.
How to Leash Train a Puppy
Train dog to walk on leash or train puppy to walk on leash, harder than it looks or easier said than done or is it pretty simple. I will share one of my secrets to allow the puppy to learn to walk on leash or teach an adult dog to walk on leash. As previously mentioned about introducing the umbilical method which is actually hand’s free dog leash training. When teaching a puppy or a dog to walk on leash it is most important to maintain your line of direction or your path. If and when the dog begins to pull you forward, back or to the side. You must walk a straight line if you are moving forward. Introduce easy to use obstacles like benches, trees, poles, mailbox, this will help teach your dog to pay attention to where you are going and to walk nicely.
How to Train Your Dog to Sit and Stay
Bonus: tip for Teach dog to sit and Teach puppy to sit and stay!
I often use adult mature educated dogs to educate puppies. This is an example of (Left to right) Bodhi who was 10 months, Layla who was 8 years and Rocket who was 4 months, waiting outside a restaurant. Layla is demonstrating a sit, and a stay. Notice Rocket the puppy is doing as Layla is doing. Younger dogs generally look to an older, wiser dog in their pack for leadership and behaviour lessons.
Written by Brad Pattison, Dog Behaviourist & Vancouver Dog Trainer
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