Welcoming a new puppy into the family is the most exciting time, but it’s also filled with trepidation, a lot of pressure and immense responsibility knowing you’ll be caring for another species for the rest of its life! It’s quite common to feel overwhelmed with the desire to get things right from the beginning.
We naturally discuss the things you should focus on doing to get results, but let’s take a look at the common mistakes people can make which hinder their success:
1 - Too much freedom
2 - Being too stingy with rewards
3 - Setting high expectation
4 - Giving too many Instructions
5 - Underestimating Time
6 - Not consdering Consequences
7 - Misunderstanding socialisation
8 - Not considering the future
9 - Not exploring their diet
10 - Not letting them BE a puppy
TOO MUCH FREEDOM
Not having puppy proofed areas/playpens and giving puppy free access to the house and garden as soon as they arrive is a recipe for DISASTER. We want our dog to be able to roam and explore, but not having boundaries at the start makes it much harder for you to monitor your puppy, teach them what behaviour is expected in each area and prevent them from getting into mischief.
Creating one room or a playpen area helps you to have control over where your puppy is allowed to go. You can ensure those areas are free from danger, don’t contain items that shouldn’t be chewed, are easily cleanable in case of any toilet accidents and provide a safe environment for short periods of alone time. Creating an environment where only behaviour you WANT to encourage can happen means they only learn what you want them to and don’t have the opportunity to practise unwanted behaviour.
When starting to enjoy walks, many owners are keen to get the puppy off-lead as soon as possible, normally before they’ve developed a strong recall. Puppy is allowed to run over a larger distance, run up to people and dogs and potentially learn ‘rude’ or ‘unsafe’ behaviours.
Having an element of control over how far they can go, by utilising long-lines or fenced dog fields allows you to practise learning recall with a high success rate and teach them what behaviour is polite in a variety of situations. This again creates a safe situation where puppy can practise the things you DO want them to learn whilst minimising the opportunity for unwanted behaviour, and ensures you are only reinforcing wanted habits.
BEING TOO STINGY WITH REWARDS
Many new owners are reluctant to give out food rewards to their puppy, either because they think they will become overweight or are worried about only giving them their main meal diet and not adding in extras. Therefore, food rewards are kept as their boring biscuits and are fed sparingly – this does affect results! Expecting your puppy to work for praise and praise alone will not cut the mustard! Would you work hard for a tiny wage?
Puppies have to learn everything! We don’t speak dog so one of the main ways to communicate ‘well done’ is by offering a reward. The more you reward your puppy, the more they gain valuable feedback and work out which behaviours get rewarded and, therefore, are worth repeating.
Your puppy is not being spoilt if you feed them too many treats. As long as you keep to healthy foods and cut them to a size that is appropriate to the size of your puppy you’ll be ok.
Puppies/dogs often ‘perform’ better for one human parent than the other and this normally correlates with who is the most generous with rewards.
SETTING HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Expecting your puppy to know what to do, how to do it, and what is right and what is wrong is simply unfair. We place a lot of expectation that puppies ‘know’ what we want….. NEWSFLASH - They don’t read a puppy manual before coming to your home!
Until they join your home, the majority of their day is spent with other puppies learning how to communicate in their own ‘dog’ language and their main human education comes when they join your family. Therefore, you cannot expect your puppy to instinctively know what is and is not allowed or expected in a human world.
Remember your puppy is a baby. They don’t know the rules or what you expect from them - It is YOUR responsibility to teach them everything you would like them to know! Lower your expectations, take baby steps forward and the success will follow.
GIVING TOO MANY INSTRUCTIONS
Expecting your puppy to understand English and giving them verbal instructions BEFORE you’ve taught them what it means! This often leads to people repeating a cue multiple times, whilst a confused puppy tries a few different things until they finally get the right one! Puppies do not come pre-programmed knowing a long list of verbal instructions or ‘cues’
People like to talk - and it’s no wonder given that one of our main ways to communicate is through speaking/listening. But here’s the thing, dogs primarily communicate through visual cues and body language - therefore we need to incorporate that into our learning, use their language first and foremost, and then slowly incorporate words.
Before you tell your puppy to sit, leave, come – ask yourself if you have TAUGHT them what that word means, rather than repeating it in the hope the penny will drop.
UNDER-ESTIMATING TIME
Whatever time you think it will take to train a puppy, double it, add 6 months, and then double it again – then you might have a more realistic timeframe!
How long have you sat staring at your puppy so far, yep! We can certainly spend (waste) a lot of time just watching them sleep.
Most people underestimate how much time it takes for puppies to settle into the home (months not days), how much time training and supervising actually takes, and how much time it takes them to grow develop and mature. Puppies (and dogs) require a lot of your time. Growing and training isn’t something we can rush.
Successfully training a puppy takes years not months. Take your average Labrador – they’ll reach emotional maturity around 3 or 4 YEARS old. The main learning happens in those first few formative years and even beyond that they continue to be capable of learning new things (good and bad!). So be prepared to train for the long haul!
NOT CONSIDERING CONSEQUENCES
Not ensuring the correct consequences and made from their and your actions will create unwanted problems. But something we forget is how we react to a behaviour or action also has a consequence.
All actions have consequences – that is the main basis of training.
If your dog performs a behaviour and it is rewarded, they will repeat it. It’s worth noting that rewards are NOT just getting a treat, if the consequence is enjoyable, fun, got results – it’s a reward.
If your puppy wees on the floor and we shout at them, the consequence of weeing in front of a human is 'scary' people – puppies won’t stop weeing in the house, they just won’t wee in your eyesight!
MISUNDERSTANDING SOCIALISATION
Letting your new puppy say hello and play with every dog it sees and getting cuddles from every person, letting children roughly pet them and exposing them to as much as we possibly can. It’s the easiest way to create a boisterous teenager who wants to jump and pull to say hello to everyone – not good!
Socialisation is actually so much more than just interacting with everything and everyone we see – in fact it is about creating appropriate (positive or neutral) emotions and responses to the world we encounter. Watching the world and NOT interacting with it is important and also ensuring that every encounter has a positive or enjoyable outcome.
NOT CONSDERING THE FUTURE
When you have a puppy its’ easy to get caught in the moment and forget than one day they won’t be as cute and cuddly anymore. We allow them to get away with things because they are still small – jumping up at people, running around the garden with your washing, pulling on the lead.
Remember that one day your puppy will be fully grown, what is cute now might not be cute then. Set them up for success and show them what you want from the start. It’s much easier to learn good habits than to break old habits.
NOT EXPLORING THEIR DIET
Most owners keep their puppy on the food the breeder sent home with them and never research what diet options are available and whether those may be more suitable for your puppy and your lifestyle. Many breeders will feed a cheaper (or free) food – I’m not surprised with so many mouths to feed!
Research the different types of diet available, kibble, cold pressed, cooked, raw and look at the nutritional rating of each brand. Pick one that suits you and most importantly your puppy enjoys eating.
A great impartial resource is
www.allaboutdogfood.com
NOT LETTING THEM BE A PUPPY
High expectations, micro-management, perfect behaviours. Sometimes we want to rush and have everything now! Remember puppies need time to grow and develop, they need to go through all the various stages of development and challenges to give them experiences and allow them to grow into a content dog.
Let them just be a puppy, don’t try to do (or expect) too much too soon. Give them time to explore, develop, grow, learn and sleep! Sit back, enjoy the ride and take lots of photos!
Potter Paws is a dog training school in Buckinghamshire.
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Hear more about this topic on our Podcast - The Dynamic Dog Owner