When should you start puppy training?
With dog ownership becoming more and more popular - puppy schools and puppy training are also becoming more and more popular.
With it, come a lot of unknowns. One of the first unknowns is knowing when to start training puppies.
If you look online, then there are many different opinions on when to do what and it might get overwhelming at times.
Especially if you have a really energetic and chaotic puppy who just doesn’t want to calm down.
Common consensus
The most common answer from everyone is that you technically can start training your dog at around 8 weeks old.
That is when your dog’s brain has developed enough to even start understanding you. Before that, it would be like trying to have a conversation with a new-born.
But while this is technically the place where you could start, at just 2 months, dogs are still very very young and childish.
Don’t have big expectations, or really any expectations at all for such a small puppy. They are still very-very young at that age.
Practical approach
Here is our recommendation: At 2-4 months, start training everything that is not a “trick”.
Instead of trying to teach your dog words like “Sit”, “Down” and “Come” - focus on the things your dog experience from day to day.
Start making a “Going out” routine for potty training.
Start letting your dog experience all sorts of things in a positive light, for example the vacuum cleaner.
Start taking your dog into different places to relax and have a good time.
Start introducing people to your dog in a calm and positive manner.
Start leaving your dog alone for 5 to 10 to 15 minutes to prevent future separation anxiety.
etc
For example, here is one video from YouTube Poppt1 which we really like. This person isn’t a dog trainer, but they very well could be, because they did everything correct with their puppy.
Getting your dog used to many things takes time. And “getting used to” often even means making things boring, not making things exciting with treats, for example “Door training”.
Real training starts
At 4 to 8 months is when we would say people can really start investing their time into real dog training.
Don’t get us wrong - everything is still a game at this stage and your puppy still needs to grow. But, at least at this age, puppies are finally old enough to start learning how to be a little patient and how to focus.
This is the perfect age to start learning tricks one by one. Starting from “Focus”, to “Sit” and so on and so on.
You can also start slowly learning and bringing in techniques and routines from advanced things, such as Loose Leash Walking.
Not everything will turn out perfectly starting from day 1, but it’s good if you at least understand how to do it, so that when your dog reaches the next stage, you’ll have already done a lot of groundwork.
Full training
Once dogs reach 8+ months, then that’s the point where we can say that every owner can and should train their dog 100%.
This is the stage where dogs are grown enough for owners to start doing physical exercise with their dogs, such as running. (Puppies can’t, because their joints are weak)
And, this is the stage where you can start setting real boundaries with your dog. For example, no playing during working hours, but instead, let’s play thoroughly after 5PM.
Here is where dogs’ minds and bodies are developed enough, for owners to have little limitation, when it comes to healthy dog training.
The teenage years that follow are considered to be the most challenging for many owners - so be prepared to put in a lot of effort both mentally and physically.
But apart from age related physical and mental limitations, there really isn’t a wrong time to start training your dog.
Dog training in practical terms is first and foremost owner training.
It doesn’t matter if you think your dog is too young or too old to start training - you can start learning today.
The internet is full of useful articles and videos for you to check out and slowly start expanding your dog training horizon.
Of course, we recommend trying out free dog training app as well - Pocket Puppy School. It has a lot of useful information starting from Potty training, all the way to really awesome tricks, such as “Searching for treats”.
We hope that you have fun training your dog, and if you have any questions, let us know!
