The most crucial time of your dog's life is when she is a puppy. What happens to your dog as a puppy will have lasting effects. Avoid some of the common mistakes that new puppy owners make.
Mistake #1 Waiting : I would have to say that one of the biggest mistakes that I see over and over is waiting. Waiting until the puppy develops a behavior problem. Waiting to socialize the puppy, waiting to train the puppy. For a long time dog owners have been told to wait until the puppy is six months old to do anything. Big mistake.
Solution: Start early. You can start training a puppy as young as eight weeks old. You can prevent problems before they ever start. Always train puppies using positive training techniques.
Mistake #2: Not Socializing: If you do nothing else with your puppy, make sure you start socializing your puppy early. When a puppy is not properly socialized they are more difficult to train and are much more prone to developing problems based on fear. Undersocialized dogs also have a much higher chance of developing aggression problems.
Solution: Socialize your puppy with other puppies, with people other than your own family. Bring your puppy to the beach, the woods, the city, make a quick happy visit to your vet's office, and the groomers. Basically you want to expose your puppy to a lot of different people, places, and other puppies.
Mistake #3: Rewarding the Wrong Behaviors: A lot of puppies develop jumping problems because it has been encouraged since a young age. A lot of puppies are also very mouthy and bite hands and feet because it also has been encouraged. It starts off as cute and then becomes more and more of a problem.
Solution: Keep in mind that the small, cute puppy that is in front of you today may be a 90 lb. big dog within just six or seven months. Keep in mind that if you don't want that 90 lb. dog jumping on you, don't encourage it. Prevent your dog from jumping regardless of how cute she is. If you don't want your dog chomping on your hands and feet all the time, don't encourage it.
When you understand what some of the big mistake are you can take steps to avoid them. Start training today, include the whole family, decide what behaviors you want your puppy to learn. This will make your dog much more fun and enjoyable to be around.
Eric Letendre the author of The Amazing Dog Training Man invites you to visit http://www.amazingdogtrainingman.com for leading edge dog training tips, instructional video clips and articles that will help you train and understand your dog. You can also get free dog training updates with a free Smart Dog Newsletter subscription, available at http://www.amazingdogtrainingman.com
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