How to get her interested in training

Hi all,

We adopted our baby, Piper, on February 7th at 12 weeks old. I've enrolled her in a puppy kindergarten class that starts in late March (its the only one available in our area) but I'd like do something with her in the meantime. She picked up on house training right away and she seems very eager to learn. I know this is big learning period for her at this age and I don't want it to go to waste. Any suggestions on how to give her a good head start, and/or what we can work on until we do the basic sit/stay/come stuff in class? Thanks!

Meg

Here's Piper with her duck

i would start now with the sits and start recall while in doors lots of nive smelly treats will help you hun all basic stuff you can do now before classes.

So agree. Sit, recall, lead training, leave, wait all can be fun indoors. Then the pup will look good at classes. They can see that some training has already gone into pup have fun

id PLAY, lots, get her really into you & a "special" toy that you can use for training.

Get her to know that treats come from your Left hand & try to get her to follow that hand.

Also teach her a "get it word" for when she can break off & get the food /toy

Lots of great advice! Thank you guys


That's a really good idea to teach her that treats come from the left hand by the way, I hadn't thought of that but I can definitely see how that will help with her training.

I've never trained a puppy before so little tricks like that will be a lot of help Thank you again!

Don't forget games...we spent some time to get our Aussie's to catch a frisbee...time well worth our efforts because now they are 3 it can take off the edge of some of their energy! Also, go thru some books and see what kind of playing you'd like to explore. One of the Aussie's loves to be within my eyesight when off leash/outside and so Hide N Seek is great for her...her sister could care less but has a high Prey drive so we learned different games for her. The reason why I say to start while she is a puppy is that it gives you a chance to have established GAMES with her and you learn alot about your individual dog!

Lot's of games and fun stuff, that makes her really interested in you so you have a better chance of her listening to you when she's surrounded by other pups or is outside with distractions. It's never too soon to start on the basic commands either.