Puppy Training Help & Resources
Puppy Help: Get the Little Things Right Before They Become Big Things
Puppies bite. They pee on things. They bark, chew, jump, steal your shoes, pull on the leash and occasionally appear determined to launch themselves directly into danger.
Most of that is normal puppy development.
Normal does not mean we ignore it and hope your puppy magically wakes up at one year old knowing how to live in a human household. This is the time to teach the habits, communication and confidence you want your adult dog to have.
You Probably Do Not Need a Giant Puppy Training Program
A lot of puppy problems are things you can start fixing at home today once someone shows you what to do.
House training gets easier when the puppy stops wandering off unsupervised. Biting gets easier when we manage those little shark teeth and give them appropriate things to do. Leash walking starts before you attempt a two-mile neighborhood march. Recall begins while your puppy still thinks you are the most interesting person on earth.
So rather than make you dig through years of articles, I have pulled the puppy basics together here.
Teach the puppy in front of you today instead of waiting to correct the adult dog those habits eventually create.
What Is Making You Crazy Today?
Pick the problem in front of you and start there. You do not need to solve all of puppyhood before dinner.
That would make you a puppy parent. Visit my Top 10 Dog Behavior Help for the deeper troubleshooting sections on house training, crates, barking, chewing, jumping, leash pulling, door manners and recall.
I Actually Have Two Puppy Guides — Because They Do Different Jobs
This is where the relationship between K9Coach and WellOiledK9 makes sense. One guide is about raising and teaching your puppy. The other goes much deeper into raising that puppy with lifelong health and longevity in mind.
New Puppy Guide With Training in Mind
This is the practical puppy-life roadmap: developmental stages, training foundations, house manners, tethering, socialization, fear periods, handling, leash skills, recall, barking, mouthing, chewing, jumping, enrichment and everyday puppy safety.
Raising Puppies With Longevity in Mind
This is the deeper health roadmap: fresh-food nutrition, vaccines, parasite prevention, low-tox living, grooming, spay/neuter decisions, natural wellness and the choices you can begin making now for the adult and senior dog your puppy will eventually become.
Do Not Confuse Disease Prevention With Total Isolation
One of the most frustrating things I still hear is that a puppy should essentially stay home and avoid the world until every puppy vaccine has been completed.
I absolutely want you thinking about disease exposure. I do not want an unprotected puppy wandering around a dog park, pet-store potty area or other high-traffic location where you have no idea what dogs have been there.
But social development is happening at the same time.
Your individual disease risk depends on where you live, your puppy's health and vaccine status, and what is circulating locally, so talk with your veterinarian about those risks. But do not lose the entire developmental window because you thought “socialization” meant your puppy's feet could not leave your living room.
And remember: socialization is not about making your puppy greet everybody. I am much more interested in raising a dog who can calmly exist around the world without believing every human and dog is either their new best friend or something to fear.
Training Builds the Dog You Can Live With. Health Choices Help Build the Dog You Hope to Grow Old With.
If you only came here because your puppy is biting your ankles, I am happy to help you fix that.
But I would be doing you a disservice if I never mentioned that the first year is also when you are making some of the biggest health decisions of your dog's life.
This is where my two websites meet.
K9Coach is where I focus on behavior, communication and everyday life with your puppy. WellOiledK9 is where I go much deeper into nutrition, natural wellness and longevity.
I am not sending you somewhere unrelated. It is still me, still dogs, and still the same goal: raise the healthiest, most emotionally sound dog we reasonably can.
Growth requires real nutrition. Learn how I think about puppy food, fresh-food foundations, feeding amounts and building health through the bowl from the beginning.
Understand the decisions involved instead of treating a vaccine schedule like something you are not allowed to ask questions about. Work with your veterinarian and make informed decisions for your individual puppy.
How do we protect a young puppy from disease without missing important developmental experiences? This is where health and behavior genuinely overlap.
Think beyond the appointment itself and learn why your puppy's overall health, nutrition and condition deserve consideration whenever you are making preventive-care decisions.
If you would rather have the wellness side organized in one place, this is the guide I built specifically for raising puppies with long-term health in mind.
The Things I Care About More Than a Perfect Sit
Of course I want your puppy to learn useful commands. But some of the most important puppy work does not look particularly impressive on Instagram.
Learn to Settle
Puppies need sleep, quiet and the ability to come back down after excitement. Constant entertainment does not automatically create a better dog.
Learn to Be Alone
Your puppy should gradually learn that short, safe separation is normal. Being loved does not require being physically attached to you every minute of the day.
Learn to Follow You
Engagement, leash movement, recall and checking in with you are relationship skills we can build before the outside world becomes infinitely more interesting.
Learn That Handling Is Normal
Feet, ears, mouth, grooming, collars, leashes, car rides and veterinary handling should not appear for the first time when something is already wrong.
Learn Neutrality
Your puppy does not need to greet every human or dog. Calmly noticing something and moving on is one of the most useful social skills you can build.
Learn That You Are Useful
Play with your puppy. Train with them. Explore together. Become part of the fun instead of only becoming the person who takes away socks and says no.
Some Puppy Behavior Is More Than Puppy Nonsense
Normal puppy biting is not the same thing as a puppy who freezes, guards and bites when approached. Normal excitement is not the same thing as panic. A puppy who takes a few minutes to warm up to something new is different from a puppy whose world keeps getting smaller because fear is growing.
Do not automatically wait for a puppy to “grow out of” serious behavior.
If you are seeing significant fear, shutdown, resource guarding, repeated aggressive behavior, panic when left alone, escalating handling sensitivity, dangerous reactions to people or dogs, or behavior that is getting worse rather than better, I want to know sooner rather than later.
Early behavior work is usually much easier than trying to undo months or years of rehearsal after the dog is physically and emotionally mature.
That does not necessarily mean your puppy needs a huge training package. It means we should identify what you are looking at and decide whether this is a normal teaching problem, an emotional behavior problem, a physical-health concern or some combination of those things.
