Group Puppy Training-Train and Socialize Your Puppy

October 13th, 2009 at 9:39am

Getting an early start to training and socializing your puppy with group puppy classes is a great idea. You can get started early-puppies as young as 6 weeks of age are able to learn new tricks. In addition to learning basic obedience training at the best time, your puppy will get valuable benefits from socializing with the other puppies and their masters.

Once I started taking my puppies to group training classes I saw that my dogs grew up to be much better behaved than the puppies I had previously neglected training until they were much older. Before I started taking puppies to class early, I had 2 different aggressive dogs. Unfortunately, I didn’t even start training them until they had already had enough time to develop aggression issues. Since taking my pups to group training classes and socializing them better, I haven’t had any more aggression problems.

When the puppy is still living with his Mama and siblings he gets constant lessons in socialization. During the time a puppy still lives with his Mama and litter mates, he gets continual socializing lessons from them, and if he gets out of line, they will let him know it and put an end to it. A Mama dog will hold him until he relaxes, becomes calm and submits. Puppies normally will learn their guidelines in this way. Puppies are like kids, and they need some guidance to learn how to behave.

Once you have taken your puppy away from the litter he no longer has the benefits of socializing from his Mama and siblings, so it is up to you to make sure he is exposed to enough other dogs and people to not grow up with an aggression problem towards strangers. Dogs are social animals and need companionship to be happy. It is easy to see why it is that a puppy or dog that is kept confined and away from interaction with other puppies or dogs or people is much more likely to become aggressive. I feel that the 2 aggressive dogs I had earlier became that way due to isolation.

Getting started with puppy training in a group class is the smart time to begin his training-you are training your pup before he has picked up any bad behavior habits. In addition to socializing your pup you will be learning the basic commands and hand signals so you can continue your puppy’s training daily at home. My aggressive dogs learned their obedience tricks, but they hadn’t learned how to be social creatures. A well balanced pet needs to know how to behave in all situations, not just at home.I have seen from personal experience that a puppy with the benefits of going to a group training class-he is going to be more comfortable in later social situations with people and dogs he hasn’t met before.

Puppies are ready by 6 weeks of age for their group class-they can already soak up new things like a sponge. You should check out the amazing videos on YouTube of little puppies doing all kinds of tricks to see how early they can learn.

If you follow this one important tip and bring you puppy to a group training class you will be glad you did. Check out the puppy training classes in your area, and find one using only positive reinforcement techniques. Not only did the early puppy group training do the socializing and training I wanted my puppy to learn, but we also had a lot of fun going to the classes.

Click her to read my complete review of Secrets to Dog Training to learn more about their program.

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