“When should I begin training my new puppy?” is a question I get asked a lot, both from people that want to compete, and folks that get a new pet. If you ask 10 trainers this question, you will get 10 different answers, and the only thing 9 will agree on is the 10th is wrong. So here’s my take on that question, and it has worked very well for me and my competition dogs as well as our pets.
When I get a puppy I let them be a puppy. While I will do household manners types of training, I hold off on any FORMAL training for several months. I use this time to bod with my dog. I do of course house train her and teach her to walk on a leash, and other “quality of life with a dog” types of training, but that’s it.
To help with the bonding with her I will do “Brain Games” with her. If you have a high drive dog, like a Belgian, Border Collie, Sheltie or any other high drive dog, you know you have to keep them engaged. With my Belgian Tervuren puppy, I would feed her with a “Snuffle Mat” to stimulate her brain. I taught her to fetch and take her out often to play, but I would add new twists to the game as she mastered what we were doing. When we first began she would run to the object I tossed and then just look at it, willing it to move. I let her do that for a while, then I coaxed her to pick up the object, then we began adding more for her to do. Now she goes out gets the ball, brings it back, gets on a box and hands me the ball. By training her to get on the box, I have added an Agility component into our play without Lola even realizing.
Sometimes some of the most common objects can be used to stimulate the mind, like an empty box and filler paper.
By spending many months building a relationship with Lola, she now looks to me for “Fun”. Lola is now 13 months old and I took her to her first Agility class. Because she is focused on me she doesn’t care about the other dogs in the class. Not only that but because I spent the time to build us up as a team, on our second class I had her off lead running a small course. That includes doing equipment that she had never been on or seen before! With this being said, I want to reiterate that there WAS training going on from a young age, but it was done in the form of play. We are only now moving into FORMAL types of training, where she is required to work more. Because we did so much “Play Training” she is much happier to work for me and tries to figure out what I want. Not only that, when it comes to Agility equipment, Lola has trust in me that I will not ask her to do things that will harm her. That trust allowed her to work through her fears very quickly on obstacles like the teeter totter and elevated dog walk. That trust will allow her to advance quickly through her training.
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