My daily ritual with Luka, my Belgian Shepherd Dog, sees us walking for about an hour in the late afternoons at Emmarentia Dam or Delta Park along the greenbelt in Johannesburg.
It’s a necessary ritual we both enjoy, and should my work see me still behind my desk, he will remind me it’s time. Being a high-energy dog, he demands to stretch his legs, meet other dogs and have a swim along the way. Luka loves the mental and physical stimulation, especially since I decided to incorporate some training as we go.
We practise a few sit-stays, retrieves, and jumps over the odd fallen tree and onto park benches. It’s a fun way to reinforce his training and give his brain the mental stimulation it needs. This is of great benefit to the dog, and it’s important to start early.
Puppies learn more rapidly during the first eight to 16 weeks
of their lives
Getting A Head Start
Training your new puppy is crucial to his happiness and well-being. The ideal time to begin is from as early as eight weeks. Puppies learn more rapidly during the first eight to 16 weeks of their lives than at any other stage, so it’s crucial to provide their training early on. The three key areas one must consider are basic obedience training, habituation to the environment and of course, socialisation. If focused on early, your puppy will be given the best start.
What we are ultimately promoting is a confident dog who will more easily try new things and won’t be fearful and/or reactive to other dogs, people and anything presented to him in his environment. Let’s cover each of these areas in a little more detail.
What does Your Puppy Need to Learn?
Socialisation
The critical period of socialisation refers to the timeframe between 8 and 16 weeks of a dog’s. It’s not exactly the same timeframe for each breed, and it also depends on his experiences from the neonatal phase, but for the most part it’s in that ballpark. This is the time of your puppy’s most rapid learning. Exposing your new furry friend to different kinds of people and other animals he will encounter in life will teach him social skills and to accept that these interactions are positive and fun. Meeting and playing with other dogs will teach him the appropriate manners and behaviours.
Habituation
This refers to exposure to the environments encountered frequently throughout life. Introducing as many stimuli early on will help your puppy cope and not become fearful and treat novel stimuli with suspicion. I always provide a long list I recommend puppies experience before their hazard avoidance instinct becomes hardwired.
These include thunder, fireworks, bicycles, plastic bags, cars, visits to the vet, people wearing hats, being in water, being handled all over and the like.
Basic obedience training
This is also best introduced early on. From eight weeks of age, dogs’ minds are just so open to learning, and boy do they learn fast. The maxim ‘you can’t teach on old dog new tricks’ doesn’t really hold true, but it does take much more time, repetition and patience. On that, repetition and consistency are the key to success. Although puppies’ concentration level at this age is very limited, you can train in short bursts (five to 10 minutes), up to about five times daily.
Weekly puppy training classes alone are often not enough. Here owners are taught to train their puppies, providing them with valuable tools and techniques to practise at home, but many owners start an eight-week basic training course with the best of intentions and fade out due to busy careers and family commitments.
Training At Home
To make training more convenient and consistent, owners can opt for home-based puppy and dog training. The cornerstone of successful training begins with teaching your dog to pay attention and focus on you. A familiar environment without distractions makes for focused learning at a fast rate. It also gives the trainer the opportunity to evaluate your home environment and suggest any adjustments. Negative experiences during the imprinting phase of a puppy (for example falling into the swimming pool as the owner arrives home) can cause behavioural problems associated with the owner later in life.
Valuable advice in altering your home environment to best suit and care for your animal companion is provided at home by your trainer. Think of it as a preventative mental solution; proactive rather than reactive. Problem behaviours start out with negative experiences and many occur at home where your dog spends most of his time. It’s far easier to build great behaviours than extinguish unwanted ones. With the help of your trainer at home, house-training is a breeze too. Every home is different, so their assistance in working out how best to set your dog up for success and avoid mistakes is valuable.