Teaching Your Dog To Obey In Every Situation
I remember teaching Oliver to sit pretty quickly.
Im not going to lie, I was a little proud of how fast he learned, but when we took him to my parents house and I tried to show him off, he would not sit no matter how hard I tried to get him to.
Then when we returned home that night, he was sitting perfectly every time!
Dogs dont generalize well, meaning that even though Oliver knew sit means sit in my living room, he didnt know that sit means sit in my parents living room as well.
Eventually, he learned that sit means sit no matter where we are, but then we faced another problem: whenever other dogs were around he wouldnt pay attention to me and sit when I asked him to.
So heres how to get your puppy to obey you in every situation, even with distractions: practice.
Practice in different rooms in your house, in the backyard, in the driveway, on your walks, at the park.
Also, practice with different distractions around, like around other dogs or people.
And heres a note for when you practice: take baby steps.
You want your dog to obey you every time you ask them to, so slowly teach them new behaviors in new environments, and slowly add in new distractions.
For example, if you just taught your puppy how to sit in the living room, teach them to sit in the kitchen next, not at your local park.
And if your dog is great with obeying while there are no other dogs around, take him to a park, stay 100 feet away from other dogs, then try to get him to obey.
Training A Golden Retriever: The Complete Guide
Whether you are thinking of becoming the lucky pet parent to a golden retriever, or already have a golden fur baby at home, its important to educate yourself and your family on how to train a golden retriever at any age. Not all golden retrievers enter their new families while puppies some are lucky enough to be rescued in their adolescence, adulthood, or even senior ages.
To Potty Train Your Puppy Establish A Routine
Puppies do best on a regular schedule. The schedule teaches them that there are times to eat, times to play and times to do their business. Typically, a puppy can control their bladder one hour for every month of age. So if your puppy is 2 months old, they can hold it for about two hours. Don’t go longer than this between bathroom breaks or theyre likely to have an accident.
Take your puppy outside frequentlyat least every two hoursand immediately after they wake up, during and after playing, and after eating or drinking.
Pick a bathroom spot outside, and always take your puppy to that spot. While your puppy is relieving themselves, use a specific word or phrase that you can eventually use before they go to remind them what to do. Take them out for a longer walk or some playtime only after they have eliminated.
Reward your puppy every time they eliminate outdoors. Praise or give treatsbut remember to do so immediately after theyve finished, not after they come back inside. This step is vital, because rewarding your dog for going outdoors is the only way to teach what’s expected of them. Before rewarding, be sure theyre finished. Puppies are easily distracted and if you praise too soon, they may forget to finish until theyre back in the house.
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Use Crate Training To Help With Potty Training
Crate training is also effective for adult dogs. Like puppies, they do not like to eliminate where they sleep or eat, so they will avoid eliminating in a crate they have come to call home. The crate you use to train your dog should only have enough room for them to stand up, turn around, and lie down.
While you are potty training, your dog should be crated during naptime and bedtime, and whenever your dog cannot be directly supervised. Never use the crate as a means of punishment. It is important to note that adult dogs may take more time to adjust to a crate. If your dog is showing signs of stress or anxiety with crate training, contact your veterinarian for other options.
Limit Your Pups Access To Your Home
One of the most successful ways to house train your pooch is to restrict their access to your home until they can be trusted.
They will have fewer opportunities for mistakes, which will create more positive experiences. This will allow for a faster and cleaner road to success when house training, and as an added benefit, your puppy will develop impeccable house manners a lot more quickly.
Dogs will instinctively keep their den clean.
Your task will be to convince your puppy that the entire house is their den so they wont eliminate anywhere inside.
Start by restricting your puppy to just one room of your home. When they are reliably keeping that clean, you can slowly expand the area where your dog is allowed.
Dogs dont generalize well, which means that even when they learn not to eliminate in the kitchen, they wont understand that the same rules apply to your bedroom. Each part of your home is a separate place to your dog.
If you start small, and keep the whole experience positive, your puppy will eventually think of each new area as part of their living space that theyre supposed to keep clean. Not only will this speed up the house training process, but it will also reduce the number of accidents and the number of times you have to deep clean your carpets. Who can argue with that?
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Consider Using A Crate
Crates can be a great tool in your training arsenal. Theyre a catch-all piece of gear.
A crate can be used for house training, obedience, and safety. If you ever have to leave your puppy alone, the crate will ensure that they cant get into any trouble.
Its recommended that you use the crate at night as well.
Over time, your puppy will start to see the crate as a place of comfort. Theyll go to it whenever theyre scared, tired, or just want to be alone.
This can prove to be useful whenever you need to take your puppy to the vet or on an airplane.
Typically, owners will stop using the crate full-time once their puppy has reached adulthood, using it only when its necessary.
The Warning Signs That Your Golden Retriever Puppy Needs To Go
Since your puppys mannerisms are unique, it will take some time to learn how your puppy displays signs that they need to go potty.
Until youve got that down, here are some of the more common signs that puppies display when they need to go:
- Walking around in circles
- Sniffing the ground a lot
- Trying to get attention. This can include things like barking, pawing, biting, or nipping.
- Sitting by the front door or scratching at it.
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At What Age Should You Start Training A Golden Retriever Puppy
When it comes to Golden Retriever training, the best thing you can do is start early and train young. But how young should they be?
Golden Retriever puppies should start training as soon as you bring them home, usually around 8 weeks old. It doesnt mean that older puppies or adult dogs cannot train it just means that its much easier to train dogs when theyre young as theyre more receptive and eager to learn.
When bringing a Golden Retriever pup home, the first key milestone is around eight weeks of age, as soon as they have left their mother. Its an important time to lay the foundation for your puppy to integrate into the family.
At 8 weeks old, your Golden Retriever has most likely interacted with several situations and is eager enough to learn and follow your house rules.
A recent study scientifically proved that 8-week-old puppies are quite capable of learning at this young age as they quickly learned to open a puzzle box lured with food and could even remember the skill an hour later. Interestingly, these puppies learned the task better from a human rather than their mother.
Other studies have also proven that its beneficial to socialize and teach puppies new skills for their future behavior. In this study, puppies who attended a command and socialization training class for one hour a day for six months responded better to strangers than adult dogs who attended the same classes.
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Recognize When Your Puppy Needs To Go Out
Constant supervision is another important part of successful potty training a puppy. Learning the clues or signals that indicate that your puppy needs to eliminate will prevent unnecessary accidents in the house. Most dogs will sniff, make circles, wander off, whine, or sit by the door to indicate they need to go to the bathroom.
Put Your Puppy on a Leash for Potty Breaks
You should always put your puppy on a leash when you go outside for a potty break. This will not only help get them comfortable with being on a leash, but you will also be right there to reward the good behavior. After giving a positive reward, play with your puppy outside for a few minutes to avoid creating a negative connection with returning inside.
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Signs Of Maturity Phase
Training:
While this should be a well-engrained protocol by now. If basic obedience/performance titles have not been earned, now is the perfect time to focus on those. Working together becomes fun and enjoyable.
Growth Milestones:
By two years, the breed has usually finished growing, although males may take another year to put the finishing touches on their physical maturity, especially head development. In this stage, males and females who are not participating in Conformation should be neutered/spayed. This is around the time you should transition to an adult Golden Retriever dog food.
Maintaining breed standard weight may be tricky because of the caloric needs of adolescent energy. They may require more calories, but just as they are peaking with the need for more calories, their metabolism changes and weight management becomes a challenge.
Exercise demands continue to be high for this Olympic athlete. The personality and traits of the dog come into full bloom now, which may have gone underground during the previous stage. With a potpourri of emotional, physical, and mental changes in the first 1½ years, occasionally special personality traits take a hike. This is when the puppys head reattaches to the body just like a Rock em Sock em Robot, add Lewine and Cochran. But, dont despair, all of the pieces come together at the 2-year mark.
Purpose:
Grooming:
Dont Punish Your Pup For Having Accidents
When you punish a dog for having an accident, he will learn to fear you. Instead of yelling at your dog when you catch him peeing or pooping in an inappropriate place, simply clap your hands so he knows hes done something wrong, then take him outdoors to finish doing his business. Never rub your Goldens nose in any pee or poop you find, as this is inappropriate and will not solve the problem.
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Are Golden Retrievers Easy To Train
Yes, golden retrievers are intelligent dogs that are easy to train. Its not easy, but with expert guidance, you will be able to do it successfully. Its never too late to start training your goldie. The K9 Training Institute, for instance, trains dogs of all breeds as old as 13 years and as young as 6 weeks.
Although some old goldies might be a bit slower in responding to and obeying your commands, eventually, they will transform into what you desire them to be. You only have to stay consistent, whether it is adult or golden retriever puppy training.
How To Start Training A Golden Retriever Puppy: Tips And Advice
Yes, theyre irresistibly cute. But thats not the only reason you see Golden Retriever puppies on dozens of TV commercials. Golden Retrievers are a famously people-friendly breed. They also famously have a lot of energy. However, puppy training a Golden Retriever may not always go off without a hitch.
Though Golden Retrievers are relatively easy to train, it helps to have a plan.1 You can teach a new dog new tricks but you may have to learn some tricks yourself first. Read on to discover ways you can make training your Golden Retriever pup a little easier.
Videos Of Summer Brook Trained English Golden Retriever Puppies
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million. Below are a few videos that show our puppies at work. In addition to the videos on this page, there are dozens of other videos on our Youtube channel. Our most recent videos feature entire litters of puppies going through our training program. You can find examples of our training on YouTube of over a hundred puppies. The few you see below are not just isolated cases of a few well-trained puppies.
Video of an Overview of a Summer Brook Trained English Golden Retriever Puppy
The first video is of a puppy in 2018. Though this video is old and our training in some areas has changed a bit, it does cover most aspects of our training.
Video of a Litter of Summer Brook Trained Golden Retriever Puppies Heeling
How To Train Your Golden Retriever To Stop Pulling At The Leash
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Who Should Use Umbilical
If you like constant-supervision training, but want the added security of not losing track of your pup, umbilical-cord training may be a better option. Again, you must be able to keep your puppy with you wherever you go during the day.
You must also be physically able to restrain the puppy on the leash if he pulls after spotting your neighbors cat.
Feed On A Schedule So You Can Predict Your Puppys Bowel Movements
Because the time it takes to digest certain foods is quite consistent, and youll be feeding only one food type, if you feed your puppy the same times every day they will eliminate at roughly the same times every day.
Conversely if you feed your puppy randomly throughout the day, they will defecate just as randomly. They wont adhere to a predictable schedule and your life will be that much harder.
When your puppy is young, food travels quickly through their digestive system. As they grow, the digestive process takes longer and longer.
When you have an idea of when your puppy needs to eliminate, you can make sure theyre in the right place at the right time. This will give you a much higher success rate than if you didnt stick to a routine, and fewer mistakes means more opportunities for praise and quicker learning.
Your puppys body will also learn to expect and follow the schedule you set for them, which will result in far fewer accidents.
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Begin The Training Process As Soon As Possible
Its never too early to start training your puppy. In fact, the earlier you begin, the easier it will be to develop good habits.
Most dog owners bring their pups home at around six to eight weeks of age.
While you may be tempted to let your dog have a few days of worry-free living when you first bring them home, its not a good idea.
Your puppy may start to develop bad habits straight off the bat. If you dont address these issues, your dog will see that there are no repercussions to their actions.
Start building that trust as soon as possible. Golden Retrievers are very intelligent creatures, so theyll have no problem picking up training techniques at only a few months old.
How To Crate Train A Golden Retriever
How do you crate train a Golden Retriever? For effective crate training, follow the guidelines below:
Crate training requires a great amount of compassion from you as a dog-owner. You must recognize how uncomfortable of an experience this can be for your dog, and adapt the process as needed to achieve the best results.
Although the guidelines below are general, in the sense that they can be applied to any dog, you must ensure that your dog is comfortable with the training sessions to ensure a safe and positive experience for you both.
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Taking Your Puppy To The Bathroom Spot
In a perfect world, you would take your puppy to their designated spot, where they would empty themselves quickly and completely on command, and be ready to move on. This can be a reality , provided you follow these tips when using the bathroom spot.
Use a cue word. When you bring your pup to their designated bathroom spot, you should always use a cue word that will help them know whats expected of them. When your pup is young, you should use the cue word whenever they use the toilet in the proper spot. When they are older and understand the word or phrase, you can say it when you want them to do their business, which will lead to faster results.
Keep your puppy on a leash when toileting. You want to make sure your pup is focusing on the task at hand, and the best way to do this is to keep them leashed so they cant wander.
Dont speak until your puppy starts to go. Young puppies are easily distracted, and if youre talking to them, they wont do their business. Be boring, and just hold the leash until they start to go.
When they start to go, say your cue word quietly, and dont be distracting. If you get too excited when using your cue word, your puppy might not finish, and will end up emptying inside your home. Say the cue word once, and stand still while they finish up.