Stages of Training
We pride ourselves in educating owners to help them be successful in their pet journey. This timeline is an overview of optimal development and training stages. It also offers some common behaviors that often develop during these stages.
Your puppy arrives home. He’s already had his first set of vaccines and will need three more trips to your vet to complete. Now is a great time to work on sit, eye contact, leave-it and wait as well as bonding and socialization. It’s not recommended to have your puppy around any dog you’re not 100% sure of vaccine status. This means refrain from dog parks and other places where your puppy is likely to encounter strange dogs.
Your puppy is a sponge for learning. Foundations for all basic obedience commands should be mastered (leash walking, sit, stay, leave-it, wait, place, sit, recall and extended distance commands).
Your puppy will start going through puberty, testing boundaries and limitations, and first signs of independence will be seen. Reinforcing all basic obedience commands and introduction to impulse control and distracted listening should be mastered. Off leash training begins.
Your puppy is progressing through adolescence. Ideally, basic obedience is mastered and work can begin in increasingly distracted environment. Everything that your puppy learned inside with very predictable distractions can move outside and then to public spaces as learning progresses. Females will have their first heat around this time and males begin testosterone driven behavior such as marking. These often lead to another round of testing boundaries and limitations.
Your puppy has the basic foundations for obedience and off and on-leash commands. This means that, with reliability, your dog is obedient in crowds of people, at the local Home Depot and around things like playgrounds. Continuing to work in higher level distractions will enhance your dogs’ socialization as well as manners. This is also the age where many dog owners see more protective and territorial behavior emerge.
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