Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 9 | Week 11 | Week 13 | Week 17 | Week 21 | Week 25 | Week 29

Week 1 Of Training

Duration: 1 Week

Welcome to the first week of training with your new puppy! You will be working on training goals in each of the below sections simultaneously. Though these training goals typically coincide with bringing home your new 8 week old puppy, they can also be adapted to the first week of training with any dog, no matter their age!

Obedience Goals: This week you will be working on obedience training sessions via clicker training during meal times. You will work on building good eating habits and food motivation during meal times by charging the clicker.

Developmental Goals: You will also be working on secondary goals with your puppy, which include conditioning nail maintenance and other physical handling goals, as well as working on appropriate play behaviors. Keep in mind to set realistic expectations for your puppy as well as continue socialization.

Complimentary Goals: You will also be setting the stage for your puppy coming to their new home. You will want to create a routine that includes important things like playtime, potty time, training time, exercise and crate training.

Be sure to check out our Supporting Documents at the bottom of the page for helpful links to a recommended training items shopping list, sample weekly training schedule, daily training journal and training checklist. As well as a way to schedule a video training consult.

Note: Yes, there are a mix of videos of GSPs, Labs and English Cockers… however, the same expectations and obedience behaviors can be applied to all breeds!

Obedience Goals

Charging The Clicker

Overview: This is another great example of charging the clicker.

Frequency: We recommend feeding your puppy twice a day. You should utilize each meal for a training session. Therefore you will be able to have two formal training sessions per day. Each training session will last as long as your puppy is able to focus, but shouldn’t last longer than 15 minutes. If your puppy loses focus during a training session, pull the rest of their meal and resume their training session at their next meal.

Clicker Training

Developmental Goals

Charging The Clicker

Overview: It is important for your puppy to learn good eating habits. This will not only instill in them food motivation, but it will also teach them to eat when meals are offered and will help them understand how to work for their meals during training sessions.

Nail Maintenance/Physical Handling

Overview: Developing a puppy that is comfortable with being physically handled will not only help with nail trims but vet appointments and tailgate checks as well.

Frequency: Though your puppy will not need their nails trimmed every day, spending time getting them comfortable being handled and put into a nail trimming position will help them become more tolerant of physical handling. You should work this into your daily routine.

Nail Maintenance & Physical Handling

Puppy Biting

Note: Yes, this is a video of a GSP and not a retriever or flusher… however, the same expectations and obedience behaviors can be applied to all breeds! There will be a few more videos that feature GSPs and not retrievers or flushers, but keep in mind the same training goals and applications apply to all breeds.

Overview: Puppy biting is a normal behavior. But even though it is normal for puppies to use their mouths to explore their world, they need to learn that biting us is not an OK behavior.

Appropriate Play

Proper Interactions w/ Dogs & People

Overview: Puppies love to play! But it is our job to teach them how to play appropriately with other dogs and interact properly with people. It is a common thought process to “let dogs sort it out amongst themselves”. However, we prefer to help mediate those interactions and help advocate for both the puppy if the older dog is playing too rough and for the older dog if the puppy is pestering too much.

We also need to develop proper interactions with our puppy and how they interact with us. Keep in mind that anything your puppy is doing consistently they are conditioning themselves to. So if your puppy is getting attention for jumping up on you or you are allowing your puppy to get the zoomies in the evening and you don’t interrupt that behavior those behaviors are going to become habits.

Key Takeaway: Anything your dog is doing consistently they are conditioning themselves to, whether that is good behaviors or bad behaviors. So put in the time now to develop the dog you want so you can enjoy them for years to come.

“The dog you pet is the dog you get!”

Socialization/Exposure

Overview: It is important to continue exposing your puppy to new things and environments throughout their development. This will help your puppy be well-adjusted and easily able to deal with new experiences and environments without being overwhelmed. These experiences and environments can include:

~New People/Dogs

~New Environments

~New Activities

~New Smells/Sounds

Frequency: Try to incorporate a few new things a week to continue socialization and exposure to new stimuli.

Key Takeaway: Proper continued socialization is the foundation for a mentally stable and well-rounded dog. This will allow them to be well-adjusted and able to easily bounce back from startling or stressful situations. This ability to recover quickly will be very beneficial as you continue to develop and train your puppy.

Keep in mind that if your puppy does get started by a new experience do not coddle them. Comforting them and telling them “it's okay” only reinforces that what they were unsure of, or startled by, was actually scary and they exhibited the correct response to be startled by it.

Socialization

Develop Your Puppy Properly

Overview: It is important to set realistic expectations for your puppy in order to properly develop them to become the adult dog you will want to live with and enjoy for years to come. Make sure that the expectations you have for your puppy are fair and consistent in order not to cause confusion.

Set realistic expectations

Complimentary Goals

100% Supervised Time

Overview: Puppies need 100% supervision. This allows us to help develop good behaviors and habits and interrupt naughty behaviors with proper timing. Creating a realistic routine will set your puppy up for success because they will learn to know what to expect throughout the day. Your puppy’s daily routine should include:

~Playtime

~Potty time

~Training time

~Exercise time

~Crate time

Frequency: It is important to set up a routine that you apply to each day so your puppy knows to expect a general flow to the day. It’s not a set schedule with specific times, but more of an overview of the day. They will learn they get an opportunity to potty every time they come out of their crate, they will also know they get opportunities to play, train and exercise throughout the day.

Key Takeaway: If you can’t give your puppy your full focus you should crate your puppy. You need to give your puppy 100% of your attention to supervise what they are doing so you can praise good behaviors and interrupt and correct bad behaviors. If you are unable to supervise them they need to be crated.

Creating A Routine

Sample Of A Daily Routine

Overview: This is a sample day in the life of one of our puppies.

Things To Include In Your Puppy’s Daily Routine

First 24 Hours

Overview: It’s important to set your puppy up for success by incorporating normal day to day activities from the get go. That includes:

~Playtime

~Potty time

~Training time

~Exercise time

~Crate time

Key Takeaway: Make sure to slowly introduce them to the rest of the family including children and other family pets. Remember to start crate training right away from their first night home and clicker training with your puppy’s first meal!

Crate Time

Overview: Have we mentioned that your puppy should be 100% supervised? So what should you do when you can’t 100% supervise your puppy? You should crate them!

It’s important to think about the crate as a safe place for your puppy to be and not as a punishment. It may take time for your puppy to get comfortable in their crate, but it is very important that they do so! Crating your puppy will not only keep them safe from getting into things they shouldn’t when you aren’t watching them, but it also keeps your things safe from your puppy!

This also allows you to make sure your puppy isn’t learning any naughty habits when you aren’t focused on them, because they will be spending that time in their crate!

Frequency: Anytime you aren’t able to 100% supervise your puppy they should be crated. This includes:

~Overnight

~While you are at work

~While you are distracted working from home

~ANYTIME YOU CAN’T 100% SUPERVISE YOUR PUPPY

Key Takeaway: It is not unreasonable for your puppy to spend most of their time in a crate while they are learning how to behave and interact properly in your home as well as while they are potty training. As long as you are providing quality time for your puppy while they are out of their crate that involves both mental and physical stimulation they can spend as much as 16 hours in their crate. This length of crate time will decrease as your puppy develops.

Potty Time

Overview: Your puppy will need to learn that they go outside to potty. Again you will need to be supervising your puppy 100% of the time they are outside of their crate in order to help them be successful with potty training. This will allow you to learn the signs of when your puppy needs to potty and also will allow you to interrupt your puppy in the act of going potty inside… because they are puppies and accidents WILL happen!

Frequency: Puppies have tiny little bladders with limited bladder control. It is important to give them plenty of opportunities to go potty outside to build on success. They should get an opportunity to go potty outside:

~Anytime they come out of their crate

~Anytime they go back in their crate

~Anytime they wake up from a nap

~During inside playtime

Key Takeaway: Keep in mind that if your puppy has been playing outside for a long duration they may have gone potty immediately when they went outside but not gone potty again since. This means, if you bring them back inside to play or even go in their crate there is a good chance they truly will need another opportunity to potty!

Play Time

Overview: We know puppies love to play! So we need to make sure to include plenty of supervised playtime for your puppy in their daily routine. However, that needs to be supervised time. It’s easy to give your puppy a pile of toys and say “here you go, entertain yourself for a little while”, but that is the time when puppies can start playing with and chewing on the wrong thing or have a potty accident!

Frequency: Puppies have fairly short attention spans so keep playtime just long enough for your puppy to get to play and burn off some puppy energy, but not so long that they get bored! Work playtime into your daily routine a few times a day.

Crate Time Tips & Tricks

Overview: There are many ways to help your puppy get used to being in their crate. It is important to help them get comfortable in their crate so they can spend time in their crate when you can’t supervise them.

Things to consider for crate training:

~The proper type & size of crate

~Special rewards/treats during crate time

~Ambient/background noise

~Creating an enclosed space

~Mental & physical stimulation

~Creating a routine

~Being with/away from you

Key Takeaway: Make sure your puppy settles down in their crate before you let them out of their crate. If you put your puppy in their crate and you know they just went outside to potty but they start barking right away DON’T let your puppy out of their crate! If you do that will just reinforce the behavior of barking to be let out of their crate!

Crate Time Tips & Tricks

Overview: Prevent separation anxiety by using crate time consistently and appropriately. If you introduce the crate properly and make it a comfortable, safe space and not utilize it as a place for punishment your puppy will learn to enjoy spending time in their crate.

Key Takeaway: Crate time will vary as your puppy ages and develops. As they are trained to stay on a dog bed and their bladder control matures they will eventually be able to replace some of their crate time with place training on a dog bed time.

Supporting Documents

Here are some links that will be helpful for this week’s training goals:

Shopping List: Week 1-4 Of Training

Sample Training Routine: Week 1

Daily Activity Journal

Weekly Training Checklist

Schedule a Video Consult

We would love to set up a consult with you. Please sign up here to schedule a video consult. This is a great way to connect with us to ask questions about the training goals for this week or to schedule a video check-in to show us where your pup is at in their training journey. We look forward to answering your questions and working with you and your pup!