Week 4 Of Training
Duration: 1 Week
Welcome to the fourth week of training with your puppy! You will be working on training goals in each of the below sections simultaneously. Though these training goals typically coincide with training a new puppy, they can also be adapted to 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 cue differentiation and variable reinforcement for the following cues: here, sit and kennel.
Developmental Goals: You will also be working on secondary goals with your puppy which include continuing to condition nail maintenance and other physical handling goals, as well as continuing to work on appropriate play behaviors. Keep in mind to maintain the realistic expectations you set for your puppy as well as continue socialization. We will also continue to work on retrieving with your puppy.
Complimentary Goals: You will need to maintain the routine that you created for your new puppy which 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 few videos of GSPs and not retrievers or flushers… however, the same expectations and obedience behaviors can be applied to all breeds!
Obedience Goals
Cue Differentiation & Variable Reinforcement
Overview: Now that you have taught your puppy how to recall, sit and kennel you are ready to incorporate multiple cues into a training session. It is important for your puppy to be able to differentiate between the cues they know.
Frequency: You should spend time making sure your puppy can comply with each of their obedience cues in different sequences and patterns. We want to make sure your puppy has a full understanding of each of the behaviors you have taught them and can demonstrate each of the cues when asked.
Key Takeaway: Be sure to only reward your puppy when they demonstrate the behavior you have asked for. It is important that they can distinguish between the different cues and know which cue means which behavior.
Clicker Training
Developmental Goals
Nail Maintenance/Physical Handling
Overview: Continuing to develop a puppy that is comfortable with being physically handled will help not only 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 continuing to get 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
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 don 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 maintain the realistic expectations you set for your puppy in order to continue 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.
Maintain realistic expectations
Retrieving To A Platform
Overview: There are two parts of retrieving:
~ The desire to go out and pick something up and carry it around in their mouth
~ The cooperation to come back to you with that object in their mouth
Sometimes your puppy may need help and encouragement to come back to you with their retrieve. That’s when getting creative and incorporating a platform into your retrieving session may be beneficial.
Frequency: It is important to keep retrieving exciting and not overdo this exercise. If your puppy gets bored easily with retrieving games you will want to decrease the amount of retrieving you are doing with your puppy. Typically 2-3 retrieves a session and 3 sessions a week is a good starting point.
Key Takeaway: Keep in mind you want to quit the retrieving session before your puppy wants to quit the retrieving session! This will help you build drive and desire for your puppy to retrieve.
Retrieving
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. Maintaining the realistic routine you have created will set your puppy up for success because they will continue 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 maintain a routine that you apply to each day so your puppy knows to expect a general flow to the day. Remember 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.
Maintain A Routine
Things To Include In Your Puppy’s Daily Routine
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
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 time will decrease as your puppy develops.
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 4
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!