How old for puppy training?

The question: "How old for puppy training?" is often asked by new puppy owners, especially first time puppy owners.

Normally when someone asks that question, he is actually asking "how old should my be puppy be to be taken to a dog training school?" Most dog training schools also offer puppy classes and puppy can be taken to puppy class as soon as it had all its vaccination injections. The age would normally be around 10 weeks. Dog obedience training classes, which normally start with a 8 week basic obedience course, are more for puppies and dogs from 6 months and older.

But to get back to the original question: "How old for puppy training?"; most professional dog trainers would agree that a puppy should not be taken away from its mother before he is 8 weeks old. Many dog breeders (not the responsible one's) give the puppies away when they are only 6 weeks old. Whatever the age when you receive the puppy, puppy obedience training should start the moment the puppy enters your house. Training a 6 week old puppy or a 8 week old puppy, should resemble the way the mother dog would train the puppy.

The mother dog would for example growl at the puppy when he bites her too hard. She would growl and if necessary grab the puppy's mouth with her mouth (without hurting it) when she does not agree with the pup's behavior. We would learn much about dog training if we would tale the time to sit sit down and observe how a mother dog trains her pups. Many of the behavior problems that we face would not even have started if we copied the mother dog.

So apart from teaching the puppy some ground rules like not biting, the puppy should undergo toilet training, but mostly a new puppy owner should focus on bonding and playing with the puppy. Consistency is very important from the very start.

Happy training!