Best Ways to Train a Puppy

Obtaining a new puppy can be a wonderful experience for any pet owner, and by knowing the best ways to train a puppy a human companion can rest assured that their new baby will grow to be an obedient and well-adjusted dog. The old ways of scolding a puppy when it does wrong are not the best ways to train a puppy to comply, in fact they do often do more damage to good. A puppy that is treated too harshly will never truly connect with it's owner and will be perpetually confused as to it's position within the family. The best ways to train a puppy incorporate the use of kindness sprinkled with a stern position of inflexibility while the puppy is learning appropriate behaviors.

The best ways to train a puppy utilize the reward and praise system when the puppy does well, and the puppy is treated with patience and compassion when it misbehaves. It is never appropriate to hit or scream at a puppy regardless of what it does, as it can seriously damage the mental health of the animal. Instead, it is among the best ways to train a puppy to use your voice inflection to show your displeasure in subtle ways while shaking a finger at the pup. Believe it or not, the puppy will get the point without any further excessive measures.

Puppies are in one sense similar to very small children, in that until they test the limits of acceptable behavior chaos will reign. The best ways to train a puppy involve presenting an established routine and behavior pattern without deviation so the puppy will not be confused. A puppy will soon learn that there are choices and consequences to how it acts, and time-outs work just as well on puppies as they do on human children in driving your point home. In any case, it is impossible to train a puppy without a good game plan established well before the puppy is even adopted.

The best ways to train a puppy all require a human that is willing to do their part as a teacher and mentor for an animal that is attempting to figure out where it fits into the family social structure. A puppy make take well over a year to socialize to new surroundings, and during that time it takes a concerted effort on behalf of the humans in the home to train the puppy in a repetitive manner, heavy on affection and praise. To train a puppy takes a human that is willing to put in the work that is required for positive results - there are no bad puppies, only lazy, apathetic pet owners!