What should be the first training classes that a puppy with no previous knowledge should follow? Next, we will break down what should be the first puppy training classes you should give to your puppy to start a proper education for them from the first day.
What We Must First Teach Them
The first thing we have to do is teach our pets to keep calm even when hungry. To elaborate on this, when puppies are young they tend to be hyperactive so if we start training and they jump on ourselves we must not allow them to do so. If they do not stay still, then you must teach them to be calm in your presence.
For these cases, you should spend 30 minutes to an hour in a room with your dog. You can be at the computer, watching TV, on the phone, reading a book, whatever you want, but remember that regardless of the activity you are doing in that room you must ignore your dog. Every time he approaches you, you must reject him.
We must be very clear about this. It is not five or ten minutes. Depending on each dog you will notice that there will come a moment in which by not paying attention to our dog, he will get bored, and eventually, he will sit or lay down. This is sort of a sign that they are starting to become calm.
Once our puppy is calm with us what we have to do is start to create a bond with them. For this, all we have to do is to capture their attention with something specific. We recommend that we start the puppy training classes by capturing his attention with a food reward. We show it to our puppy so he can see it and appreciate it and then, we give it to him.
In the beginning, we want to offer three types of treats: voice treats (positive reinforcement), petting treats, and food treats. The idea is to practice with our pet by guiding them to pay attention to a point, if we start by showing them a reward in our hand we can later make him follow our hand, even if we don’t have food in it, as long as we reward him with a caress or a few positive words.
Animals learn by repetition and reward, so we recommend at least 10 minutes of practice every two hours so that your puppy gets used to following our commands quickly from the first day. It is also important to clarify that this basic training can be done without his collar, harness, or any other training accessory. It is important that our dog feels free and comfortable with us.
Normally when our dog is in our presence he will get used to follow us and follow the patterns we have been teaching them, they will be attentive when we want to offer him a reward. Regardless of whether it is food or not, the important thing is that our pet understands our actions as something positive.
Now we can start with the first command that our puppy will learn, which is also the most important for us. Can you guess? Indeed, responding to his name is a command that we expect our puppy to respond to every time they hear the vibrations we emit when we pronounce their name. It is very common to see untrained dogs being called by their name and ignoring their trainers as they simply do not know that they have to respond to that call.
Once we have practiced enough with our puppy to get him to follow us and keep his attention on us we just have to start calling his name when giving them the treat. If our dog still cannot concentrate on us we must show him a physical reward for him to follow when we call his name.
It is very important to have a lot of patience with our puppies since they perceive our positive energy and when they feel comfortable with us we can form a bond quicker. We have to keep playing with them and incorporate calling them by their name into their routine, this way they will eventually respond naturally to each call.
It is important to say their name strongly and firmly as this will capture even more of our pet’s attention, we should seek for the moment they are distracted to call them clearly, making eye contact to show them that they are recognized. If we have problems for them to maintain eye contact with us, we should reward them in the moments when he does, even if it is briefly and we have to guide him with our hands, this should eventually improve.
To have an ideal relationship with our puppy they must look at us to the eyes, not at our legs or feet. We can try to make strange sounds to call their attention and make them recognize us more easily if necessary. The reward should be given at the exact moment he performs the desired action.
After our pet begins to respond by their name, we can continue with other commands such as asking them to sit. The basics of canine training are based on conditioning our pets to do what we want them to do through positive reinforcement. Following this formula, we just have to start performing this command.
Eventually, after our puppy feels comfortable in our presence and responds to their name we can implement our training routine asking them to sit while we indicate them to sit with our hands and voice. If we want to get positive results it is imperative to be very patient, each dog learns at its own pace so we should not despair if it takes us some time.
At the end of the day, it is all about creating a bond with our canine friends. With the information provided on this website, you can start with your puppy’s first training classes. The sooner you start bonding with your puppy the faster you will create a strong connection between the two of you. Training our pet does not have to be frustrating, we should see it as quality time with our puppy and enjoy it for the best results.
