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It is important to begin puppy training as early as possible either at home or at the park to avoid your dog developing bad habits that can be hard to shake. Puppy training can be a great bonding experience with your new mate as there can be a real sense of achievement when you accomplish a trick together. Have patience and celebrate your puppy's achievements with treats and pats.

Good manners are something that's important to start teaching early and is a big part of training. This involves things like teaching your dog how to react in certain situations and to socialise with other animals and people in an acceptable way.

The best part is you don't have to be a qualified dog trainer to be able to train your puppy. Patience, perseverance and reward will contribute to a well behaved BFF (best furry friend). There are many great books and DVDs on puppy training that will help but puppy training classes are super important for many reasons.

Most of all, please take your decision to get a puppy seriously. Each year, several million dogs are abandoned, given to shelters and euthanized, almost entirely because easily preventable and utterly predictable puppy problems were allowed to develop into much more difficult adult behaviour, training and temperament problems. Please remember that every unwanted adult shelter dog began his life as a perfectly normal puppy. The time to rescue unwanted adult dogs is right now, when you are searching for, choosing, and deciding how to raise and train your puppy. Please, DO NOT CREATE YET ANOTHER UNWANTED SHELTER DOG! Dogs are abandoned or surrendered to shelters because they misbehave. Dogs misbehave (act like dogs), simply because no one taught them how to behave appropriately when living with people.

The sequence of events is predictable and much too common. A new puppy is given too much freedom and too little supervision. Not surprisingly, the puppy makes house soiling and chewing mistakes. The puppy is confined to the yard, where he eliminates and chews indiscriminately and also learns other bad habits-digging, escaping, and excessive barking. Neighbours complain of the barking and the adolescent dog is confined to the garage or enclosure, which the dog destroys. In solitary confinement, the dog quickly dissocialises and become afraid of people in particular and life in general. By six to eight months of age, the dog is surrendered to a shelter where the dog is confined to a cage. Shelter workers try to rehabilitate and re-home unwanted dogs. Some get a second chance, some don't.

Please take the time to learn how easy and enjoyable it is to train your puppy to be a sociable and well manner canine companion, who will enjoy his entire life in his original home - yours.

Crate training is a fairly new concept for many but is a very effective training tool for adult dogs and puppies. It may take a little time and effort to train your dog to use the crate, but it can prove useful in a variety of situations. For instance, if you have a new dog or puppy, a crate is a fantastic way of teaching it the boundaries of the house and keeping it safe. When you're traveling in the car, visiting the vet or any other time you may need to confine your dog (e.g. after surgery or if it has been injured), it's much easier and safer if your dog has been trained to enjoy being in a crate. Dogs learn to love their crate as their very own special place/den.

It becomes a familiar and secure place, whether in the car, at a motel or a dog show, visiting, or just at home. Never close a crate door on a dog that is not currently relaxed. Never push a dog into the crate; get your dog to walk in on its own. Otherwise, you will create issues where the dog feels confined and trapped, seeing the crate as negative. Spend a lot of time calmly trying to associate the crate with a good thing. Just how you do that will depend on the dog and what works. Perhaps let the dog eat in the crate or give it a bone or toy to play with inside the crate with the door open. Spend time with the door open making the crate into something positive. Never close the door until the dog is relaxed and comfortable. This is a general crate rule that applies to both puppies and adult dogs, not just when in training, but every single time you put a dog in a crate.

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