Raising Puppies: Weeks 5-8

We are well into our sixth week of raising a beautiful litter of chocolate puppies. What never ceases to amaze me is how quickly they mature. It seems like it was only yesterday that they were snuggled up closely (and quietly) next to their mother. Now they are like miniature dogs with their own unique personalities and funny antics. No doubt, we are in full puppy mode!
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In the first four weeks we really focused on a variety of socialization exercises, which will continue until they go home with their new families in a couple weeks. In these final weeks we have expanded our work with them to include potty training, name recognition, crate familiarization, and teaching commands like “sit” and “down”. The puppies’ brains are like sponges, so starting to work with them on these exercises now will help to ensure that they have a positive foundation to build upon when they go to their new “fur-ever” homes. 
Here are the steps we use to begin teaching them the “sit” command:

1. You will want to begin teaching any command with a treat to help lure your puppy into whatever action you want her to take. Make sure you have plenty on hand when beginning to teach any new command.
2. First, we establish a cue word to use when recognizing the puppy’s good behavior. We use the word “yes”, ensuring we say it with enthusiasm.
3. Whenever we see the puppy sit, we say “yes” and then give her a treat. We repeat this step a few times until she realizes that she gets a treat every time she sits.
4. She will usually paws, jumps, and nips at our hand in order to get the treat. We say “no” and wait for her to sit. Once she sits, we say “yes” and give her the treat. 
5. Once she fully understands that when she sits she gets a treat, we begin using the word “sit” to associate it with the behavior, always following it with the cue word “yes”, followed by a treat, to recognize the good behavior. 

​It does not take more than a few of these early training sessions before the puppies begin to grasp the “sit” command. We work on this in a variety of settings to not only introduce them to this fundamental command, but also to discourage jumping and to help encourage overall good manners. As always, it is our goal to help build a foundation that helps our puppies to be adaptable in all the situations they will encounter in life.

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