How to Train a Puppy

Nov 20th 2009

A puppy is a blank slate. It's entirely up to you to instill its good habits, break its bad ones, and of course, teach it a few tricks!

No matter what specific tasks and tricks are on your learn-to-do list, your training method is what's going to make the difference between a pup that's a star pupil and one that's a slacker student. How well it performs is based entirely on how well you teach.

With that in mind, here's a primer on a few different schools of dog-training thought.

Nothing In Life Is Free: The N.I.L.I.F. training philosophy works on pups and older dogs alike. (Yes, you can teach them new tricks!) In short, the N.I.L.I.F. belief is that your dog can enjoy as much attention and as many treats, tummy scratches and furniture privileges as you, the owner, want to give him, but you must make the dog earn those things before indulging him. So, a hungry dog earns its meals simply by first obeying your command to sit and wait for the bowl to be placed on the floor. The dog can enjoy a game of fetch, but must heed your "down" command before you will toss the stick. Because N.I.L.I.F. positions you, the owner, as the decision maker in all aspects of the dog's life, it is effective training for both shy dogs and authoritative dogs.

Clicker Training: A clicker is like a toy noisemaker that emits a short, chirp-like noise. The owner keeps the clicker on hand and clicks it when the dog exhibits positive, desired behavior, whether that involves potty training, socialization or learning tricks. By "marking" the moments of desirable behavior with clicks, the dog's learning environment is safe, low-pressure, and positive. (Bonus: It's also known to work on cats!)

Sirius Puppy Training: In the 1980s, Dr. Ian Dunbar began teaching group classes for puppy training. Before his classes, the conventional wisdom was that you couldn't train a puppy younger than six months. Dunbar believes in training puppies not just in groups (the better to increase positive socialization) but to do so while all dogs are off-leash. Dunbar was also an early advocate of "lure/reward" training: positioning an edible treat (the "lure") to move your dog into positions such as "sit," then rewarding the dog with the lure. Sirius puppy schools are operated only in the San Francisco area, but there are many highly-praised books and videos available.

What puppy methods have you found to work best? Let us know in the comments!