How to Raise a Well-Behaved Puppy

Posted by Ana Walsh in Puppy Training on February 13, 2010 | no responses

Raising a puppy can be a fun and rewarding experience. Unfortunately, too many puppies grow up to be misbehaved dogs because the owners let them get away with bad behavior as a puppy because it was ‘cute’. Or, they just didn’t know how to raise their puppy to be a well behaved adult dog. There are a few crucial things you need to do.

First of all, you should never take a puppy away from its mother and litter mates before it is 8 weeks old. Taking the puppy before 8 weeks can lead to behavioral problems down the road, because they missed that crucial developmental period with their litter mates.

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Second, begin housebreaking your puppy right away. Don’t wait. Even if it’s only for a few days, your puppy can develop some bad potty habits that are hard to break. Also, avoid paper training if possible. I recommend teaching them to go potty outside right from the start (if that’s where they’ll be going potty in the long run.)

Third, never let your puppy nip at your hands or feet, even if it’s just playful. This is a common mistake owners regret in the long run. Always use toys to play with your puppy, never hands or feet.

Fourth, recognize that dogs still have their natural instincts, and your dog expects there to be a leader of the pack. You need to establish yourself as what is called the ‘alpha dog’.

Your puppy expects to have a pack leader. If you don’t establish yourself as the leader, they will, and it’ll cause numerous behavior problems down the road. Do a search online for more information on this if you don’t know what it is. It’s important to know and use this information.

And last, but for sure not least, it’s very important to gradually and carefully expose your puppy to new and unfamiliar sounds, people, things, etc. These experiences should be positive ones. Carry some delicious treats along with you and make sure to provide a lot of enthusiastic praise.

Thanks for reading and I hope this article has given you insight on how to raise a happy, healthy, well-behaved dog. Follow the tips provided here and you’ll wind up with a great companion.

Get more tips and tricks to train a dog at DogBehaviorExpert.com, where I provide information to solve all types of dog behavior problems.