Spring has sprung! I’m pretty sure … And if you’ve been locked-up indoors with a new puppy…. Now is the time you might want to consider taking a training course or hiring a trainer. When you first got your puppy, your main concerns were about housebreaking and then the biting .. Oh the biting !! But once you got the housebreaking and biting under control. The next thing you know, you have a teenager on your hands and this is the time when you really need training!

I’m not 100% sure what the actual stats are but I can tell you from my own personal experience that a majority of the dogs in shelters today are somewhere between the ages of 8 – 18 months…. And the reason is because dog’s at this age/stage have been considered way too unruly and too much for their owner’s to handle. This is why training is so vital at this stage of a dog’s life. I would even argue to start at puppyhood and keep with it.

So now what? You need to go out and find a class or a trainer, who you feel will work well with you & your dog. Start by asking friends and family who have dogs and what classes they attended or if they know of any good trainers. You can also do a Google search as well for your neighborhood.

Once you have found the trainer or the class you will also need to understand that it takes about a year for you to have a well behaved dog (which means a dog that knows sit-stays, down-stays, recalls from inside and outside your home, and unwanted behaviors under control i.e barking, jumping, nipping). Thus my friends training doesn’t happen overnight and you might want to look at it more like it’s a practice – much like yoga.

Finally and most importantly, you need to make it fun for both you and your dog! If it’s not fun who wants to do it? We as dog owners get so much joy and pleasure out of watching our dogs doing something that they love to do! …. So why not make training something they love to do. Every dog was bred to do something whether it’s herding, hunting or staying on your lap …it’s still a job and training can be their new job!  Dog training doesn’t need you to commit to it for hours upon hours… it can just take 10 mins a day or more if you like .. It’s your call…. but like any relationship the more you put into it the more you will get out of it!

Don’t make dog training a should-do … Make it a fun-do!

 Thanks for reading  Have fun and keep training!

Sue-Ellen McIntyre
Owner of savvysnoots dog training
www.savvysnootsdogtraining.com