# Puppy Training



## God of Thunder (Oct 18, 2020)

Hey everyone,

My puppy is just over 10 weeks old and I was just wondering what training/commands are best to start teaching at this age. So far he has mastered sit and touch and he knows his name. At 8-9 weeks he knew stay (for treats, not meals) but for some reason he seems to be too excited to do this and may have forgotten it. He also comes to me if I ask but if he's feeling particularly cheeky he may not always do it first time. I've attempted paw and lie down but he just seems very un-interested in training lately. Lie down he isn't grasping at all and just stands up instead from a sit. With paw I've always physically picked his paw up while saying the word but he has never voluntarily offered me his paw for a treat. I'm wondering if I'm trying too much too soon? Is it better to wait a few weeks? I try to teach leave it and down if he's jumping or biting something I don't want him to but again it seems to fall on deaf ears.


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## Pennylogic (Aug 28, 2020)

We have a 11 week old as well and picked him up a few days ago. He's great with sit, small increments of stay (not too far away), "kind of" knows his name, crate training is solid now, and is now letting us know when he needs to go outside to potty. We also have 2 other small dogs, 1 is getting much better, but the other one is still terrified of the V.

I just have small training sessions with him not when he's zoomie or hyper, but at the end of that when he's more calm and receptive with very low expectations. I've tried outside, but V's noses are so strong that I've realized this is not the right place. 

Hopefully we're just planting seeds at this point and it'll eventually click, also realizing that commands already taught might come and go with time. 

I think you're on the right path, just like the forum says; be patient, low expectations, and realize that you're planting seeds for later on!

I haven't tried touch, maybe we'll do that today!


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## The Leo (Oct 19, 2020)

My puppy around same age with yours, he knows sit, down, hand, stay, come, spin, watch me, but like @Pennylogic said they don't listen well when he is outside. LOL
Hand I just close my hand with a kibble in it, and he wanted it so tried to put his paw on my hand then I give him the treat and said hand. Then he gets it quick.
For lie down it took me couple days of trying too, end up I found online and this worked for me still took awhile tho, but he got it after couple time and few days of practice.
"Sit on the floor, or on a blanket, with your legs in front of you, bent up at the knee. Use a smelly treat to direct your dog to crawl under your legs. When their back end goes to the floor, praise them and reward them with a treat." 

My kitchen is fixing and some rooms are a mess so I just keep him in our back room, I bring him out potty from time to time, but he doesn't seem to know how to give us the hints! or ask us to bring him out at all. But he only have 1-2 accidents in the crate.


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## joav (Aug 10, 2018)

always be training, always be training, always be training...

lots of small sessions, thought the day, goal is always a very high success rate.
i tried to keep things always positive between george and myself -
not always easy, but, couple years later, think the dividends have been amazing.

at that age, i focused on name, come, stay, sit, drop it, down, and leave it,
probably in that order...

the variety of situations you need to reinforce those in are endless -
inside, outside, you in front, you behind, far away, close to,
with people, with animals, etc..., so...
i wouldn't venture far from that core until they all become automatic...
start close and with no distractions, gradually add on.

if you have to say a name, command, etc... twice,
you probably need to make the situation less challenging,
the last thing you want to train is that ignoring you is cool,
i found that this part of tempering my expectations,
and reframing a situation for his success was the hardest part of my training...

also, i heard that early on, that hand signals worked much easier much earlier than spoken commands;
seemed true in our case, and work much better at long distances when you both get advanced...

george will hold a stay reliably @ 100 yards.
but i still will ask him to do it in the back yard for no reason...
is easier to do something for the 10,001 time than the 1st, so,
good habit to establish when the stakes don't matter...
by lots of small sessions, i literally mean like just two to five commands,
you just want to establish that listening to each other is what we do...

last thing i'd say is to be careful with commands like touch / paw -
in nearly all situations, you usually don't want them thinking put a paw on a human,
so, can get confusing for them to understand what the right thing to do is,
least at an early age....


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