6 Common Puppy Training Mistakes You’ve Already Made

48 Comments

1. My son’s puppy is being trained by him with the active support of a private certified training organisation as a support dog for his complex PTSD. Although I am pro-crate training we deliberately did not crate his pup at night because his pup needs to sleep with him to help calm him when he wakes from nightmares. It has been very effective even though his pup is very young still. If some people would like to have their pup sleep with them this is our setup for preventing puppy oopsies at night.

   My son has a king size bed surrounded by a pen and the floor is lined with heavy rubber flooring in case of accidents. The pup sleeps on the bed, but has his own ramp leading down from the bed as we don’t want to risk injury by him jumping off the bed. The whole bed, plus a bit of the room, is basically inside a penned area with the puppy’s crate and water bowl so he can go down to the floor and have some water or just lie in his crate if he so chooses. That way he has the ability to do his own things without getting into trouble by chewing on inappropriate things if he wakes at night. We did train him initially to use an indoor puppy loo and it is still available to him at night, but he was never very keen on it and at 10 weeks is fully potty trained.

   Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big proponent of crate training, but I just wanted to mention that in some cases sleeping on the bed is needed because it encourages the kind of attentive relationship and behaviour we cannot train for in dogs that have to support people with conditions like diabetes, PTSD etc. Because his pup sleeps with him, the pup is able to respond instantly to my son needing him during the night without my son having to wake up completely and look for his dog while he is still anxious from his dreams. As the pup is a golden retriever and they get hot easily I have no doubt his pup prefers the cool floor to the bed most of the time, but as he’s still little this setup allows for him to be close to my son when he needs to him and vice versa. Incidentally this puppy has not cried a single night since coming home and has an exceptionally close bond with my son which I believe is due to sleeping on the bed with him.

2. These are great tips. We are currently owner training (with the help of a trainer) our puppy to be a service dog for my daughter.
   I do have a question though, and I do not seem to be able to find the answer anywhere. When you catch your puppy in the act of peeing in the house what are you supposed to do?
   I know you dont scowled when you find the mess afterwards, but when you actually catch them doing it, besides a quick/sharp ‘yelp’ to get their attention, what else is there?
   Our puppy doesn’t seem to care when we yell Hey, or NO, or anything. She just keeps peeing lol

3. I love this article! These are such great tips for puppy owners. It’s refreshing to see a great accurate article on puppies. My husband has been a professional dog trainer for 20+ years, we run a business together training dogs in California. We see so many new clients who have behavior issues in their dog’s adolescence and adulthood that might have been easily prevented if owners were educated with good advice like this! While all the advice is good… #5 is a big one! (You don’t start training your puppy from day one.) The majority of dogs that we see requesting Behavioral Evaluations are from unhappy pet owners wanting to just begin their training at 6 months of age! I definitely don’t fault anyone though, and definitely advocate training at any age. You’ve inspired me to start and article as a continuation with #7… Leaving your puppy unsupervised with the kids and little ones. While many of their play behavior is cute as a puppy (play biting, paws-on, running around the house and snuggling), they quickly become problem behaviors as adults. It’s a shame because there’s just so much misinformation about what the right thing is to do with puppy out there. Thanks for a great read. Can’t wait to start on your other great advice to share with clients 🙂

4. My boyfriend and I picked up our puppy Piper almost a month ago, and the crate has been a godsend. We messed up at first, since she cried all night the first night we took her out and let her sleep where she wanted (she chose the hardwood floor, dogs are weird!). After about a week of that, however, she chewed our drywall while we slept and we realized the crate was necessary. After a few nights of crying (her) and frustration (us) she now sleeps through the night. She’s a Great Pyrenees mix, so she’s big for 12 weeks, which is great because she can now hold her bladder all night and doesn’t wake us up for pee breaks. She’s also mastered sitting and lying down on command, though we’re still working on the “off” command (she keeps jumping up against the counters and table.) Shes also part Catahoula so she’s very vocal and has recently started howling if we crate her while she’s really worked up. Anyway, short version is that I’ve totally made these mistakes but correcting them has been very worth it.

5. There is a lot of controversy with crate training, but we don’t know what we would do without our crates. Nowadays we leave them open throughout the day and with four dogs and two crates theres not enough space. Archer will sometimes double up with Raven…

6. I had to convince my husband to crate train our dogs when we first got them. He thought it was cruel. Instead he wanted to leave them in the back yard all the time. We live in Florida and it gets very hot. I won and our dogs are crate trained and they love their crates. This also give us a place to keep them when it’s too hot or rainy outside. They are indoor/outdoor dogs and after 7 years I can’t imagine life without them.

7. Hi Lorena,

   Sorry for the late response. We had some troubles when we were crate training Stetson. Here’s an article we wrote on crate training puppies that might help you out: https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/.

   Good luck!
   Colby

8. I just got puppy and our first night they told us to start crate training as soon as we brought him house its the first night an he has cried all night help i feel bad and my husband don’t want to hear him cry so he took him out because he too feels bad how do i stop jim from crying cause he wants out any suggestions would be great

9. Yes, and it’s tough not to pamper a cute adorable puppy. I notice this a lot with the toy breeds.

10. Old habits die hard. It wasn’t until I got a puppy of my own and started puppy kindergarten and obedience that I realized these were old and incorrect ways of training. Some are just plain mistakes. I really enjoy using praise and positive reinforcement when working with my dogs.

11. Pampering: It’s extremely difficult to not want to pamper and spoil your adorable little fur ball. This however, is another most common puppy house training mistake that people make; especially, when it comes to food. If your puppy refuses to eat what’s put on his plate, don’t keep offering him treats until he shows an interest in something. Dogs will not starve themselves. Sooner or later, your puppy will eat what’s given to him whether or not he thinks it tastes like pepper steak. Giving him what he wants at the puppy stage will ensure you have a full-fledged spoilled brat of a canine companion with seriously expensive dog-food bills to boot.

12. I’m glad you find some of our information useful. I’m constantly reading about new ways to train my pups and post most of the information here on the blog. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.

    Have a great weekend!
    Colby

13. Hi Angel,

    That’s awesome that you’re training Volt and so wonderful of you to adopt Riddick. I’m glad the training is going well. I still make all kinds of mistakes during training. the good news is usually catch myself in the middle. Saying the same command more than once is a tough habit to break.

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Colby

14. Hey Colby! Another great post 😀 We read puppy training books before we got Popcorn too and like you we hope to train Popcorn the best way we know how. That’s why it’s always wonderful to read your posts. We continuously learn about new tricks, training techniques, and puppy/dog related know hows from you here. 😀 Thanks for sharing with us valuable information about Training! 😀

15. I never had my own pup until we joined the SA Guide-dog Association (http://www.guidedog.org.za/) puppy walker programme, and brought Volt home. SAGA sent home a manual that I studied furiously in the first few days and I had no idea just how intensive his training would be. They had told me to start his training the moment we got in the car however, so there was no waiting, but I wanted to kick myself every time I found something in the manual that I had been doing wrong or hadn’t done!
    Volt is now 8 months old and doing really well in the programme, and we adopted 3 month old Riddick a little while ago. He’s not going to be a guide-dog as he was born (at SAGA ironically) without pupils in his eyes so he’s mostly blind.

16. Hi Bob,

    That is a good quote from that blog post. Thank you for sharing it here.

    Take care,
    Colby

17. Hi Pamela,

    It’s really convenient having your pups crate trained especially when their just little guys. We have to constantly watch our guide dog puppies and every once in a while I need a little break (and so do the pups).

    Take care,
    Colby

18. Another important thing to understand when puppytraining is that positive reinforcement works much better than negative reinforcement. It was not uncommon in the past for individuals to strike an animal or yell at it when it made a mistake. Even today, owners often rub a dogs nose in a mess when it relieves itself indoors.

19. Although the most important piece of advice I ever got relates to your rolled up newspaper tip: “For the most part, we don’t potty train puppies, they are training US to understand when they have to go potty!”

20. Great post, Colby. My biggest mistake was not using a crate with my first dogs, Agatha and Christie. As a novice dog person, I assumed they wanted to be together when actually, they would have benefitted mightily from having their own secure place to go away from each other.

    Honey is fine with her crate and it was a lifesaver when I was taking her to work with me for socialization and house training. No, it was less to keep her out of trouble and more to keep my clients from getting distracted by the cute puppy when I was trying to help them fix their credit or figure out how to afford a new house. 🙂

21. Hi Haopee,

    No problem, thanks for linking to my blog post. Yes! Someone else feels my pain…my parents (the grandparents) love spoiling my dogs. I even caught my dad giving Linus a french fry…arrrggghhh. That’s why they never get to watch the guide dog puppies.

    Colby

22. Hi Jessica,

    I have a wire crate that adjusts in size. My lab pups start off with only about 1/4 of the crate and I increase the size as they grow. I usually don’t make the crate dark like a den unless my puppy is having some adjustment problems in which case I’ll usually try just about anything to get him to go to sleep. Here’s a list of 14 things I’ve tried (and some I haven’t) when crate training: https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies-14-useful-tips/.

    Thanks for sharing your experiences. It does not surprise me that different things work for different dogs.

    Colby

23. I totally agree. I’m always strict for the “NO Begging” rule and so far Peanuts and Chooey have followed them excellently.

    But then, my mom looked at Chooey and thought of how cute she was. And since she’s so tiny, she didn’t seem like a threat when it comes to being given food. Now my mom is driven crazy by the thought of Chooey always tagging along by her side and whining to get in her room.

    By the way, I hope you don’t mind me linking you in a thread. http://petskeepersguide.com/forums/Thread-Colby-Morita-s-6-Common-Puppy-Training-Mistakes

    Huggies and Cheese,

    Haopee

24. I use a crate with my Dachshunds. The thing is though, I don’t follow the “rules”. I know they say to get them a crate just big enough for them to stand up and turn around. Also, they say to make it like a den – dark. Well, my dogs were totally freaked out by these things. Now they each have their own “big dog” wire crate with plenty of space (covered entirely with a bed) and light and they are fine.

    As for comforting your dog, that is my first instinct. I also tried the “avoidance” technique where I put more distance between her and what was bothering her when she started to bark or growl. With her, both ended up reinforcing the behavior. Since my goal is to increase her confidence and positive interaction with dogs I have been working with her to stay near the situation but distract her with treats so she learns that the “aggravatior” is actually a good thing for her.

25. Hi Roberta,

    I never heard of the Dr Dodman’s suggestion of a small crate (bedroom) inside a larger crate. That’s very interesting. We follow strict rules for our guide dog pups when it comes to crate training, but it’s definitely something to think about if I’m ever working with rescue pups or my own personal pets. Thanks for stopping by!

    Take care,
    Colby

26. Hi Martin and Yzerman,

    Thanks for the link to the video. I’m watching it as we speak! Regarding the wire vs plastic crate I’ve heard varying opinions about the 2 types of crates. I’ve used a wire and plastic crate with my puppies and I haven’t really had a problem with either. However, I’ve also heard that some pups like the plastic crates or the wire crates with a blanket over the top because they feel more enclosed and secure. Over the years I’ve come to realize that every individual puppy is a little bit different so if one thing is not working then you might try another. I usually start with the open air wire crate, but if my puppy is crying all night I’ll try throwing a blanket over the top or try my smaller plastic crate. I will try just about anything when my pup is howling in the middle of the night and just in case you decide to get another puppy here’s a list of things I’ve tried (and a few I haven’t) when crate training my pups: Crate Training Puppies.

    Thanks!
    Colby

27. Hi Lindsay,

    That’s definitely a hard habit to break. I usually catch myself, but I still make that mistake too.

    Take care,
    Colby

28. Hi Haopee,

    You brought up one of the most difficult parts about dog training…getting everyone else in the house to follow the same rules. I originally trained Linus not to get on the furniture or beds. I went on vacation for a week while my parents took care of Linus and when I came home he was jumping all over the furniture. It’s tough to stay consistent with your training if everyone else in your family does not follow the same rules.

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Colby

29. Hi Snoops!

    I’m glad you liked watching Dublin when he was a puppy chomping on his food. When I rescued Linus we used the crate until he was house trained. After he was house trained we stopped using his crate, but he continues to go into the crate even today. We only have one crate that we use with Apache, but Linus is always in it taking a nap.

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Colby

30. Hi Erin and David,

    Thanks for the additional resources. I’ve actually not had too many problems with the guide dog puppies I’ve trained (they’ve all been very confident). Linus is a rescue dog and he has always had fear issues. We’ve worked with several different trainers and while I think we’ve made things better for him I’m pretty sure he’s always going to have some fear issues. I’ll check out the groups you mentioned.

    Thanks,
    Colby

31. Hi Carey,

    Thanks for letting us know about your puppies. Have you talked to the guide dog trainers at your school about what you should do in these situations? I agree with you that there are lots of mixed opinions when it comes to this subject as well as many other areas in dog training.

    Thanks,
    Colby

32. Hi Erin & David,

    Thanks for the links! I’m going to go through all of those later tonight.

    I also just replied to a comment and my response was very similar to what you said regarding putting distance between the dog and the fearful object. As I mentioned to Jen I’m going to check with our trainers to see what their stance is on this subject.

    Thanks,
    Colby

33. Hi Jen,

    Thanks for the example. When raising our puppies we follow the directions from our guide dog school. I’m going to check with our trainers to see what their current thoughts are on reassuring our pups when they are scared. However, every scary situation is a little bit different, but in general we usually try to redirect our pups attention by giving a command like “sit” or “down”. If our pups are sensitive to something like say the garbage truck (because it’s big, noisy, and smells funny) then we try to introduce them at first from a distance where they are not afraid and give them praise for being confident when seeing, hearing, smelling the garbage truck from a distance. Over time we slowly move them closer to desensitize them to whatever object they are afraid of.

    I agree this discussion would probably make a good blog post.

    Thanks,
    Colby

34. Of course, I cuddle and support my thunderphobic dogs; I would do the same for children. I don’t over-due it but to me, it’s common sense. I make sure they know they are safe and if that means some stroking, so be it.
    Crates allow me to control my puppy, house train them (the last one I adopted out was perfectly house-trained by the time she left); I use Dr. Dodman’s suggestion of a small crate (bedroom) inside a larger crate – I then am able to put potty pads behind the bedroom crate and her food in front of it. Works wonderfully: she has space to move and when she realizes I’m not putting her in my lap, I watch her go into her bedroom to sleep :).
    This same puppy knew sit, down and wait before leaving at 3 month of age.
    People are shocked when I tell them to start training from day one; use their nose! Lure them to where or what you want them to do; it may take a bit for them to understand but practice, practice.
    Thank you for dropping “no.” If I don’t want my dog/puppy to do something, I don’t use their name and say “leave it” consistently.
    Very good post.

35. Hi John,

    I’m glad you like the list. I’ve also received many tips and advice from many different sources. Even the #1 tip on this list is being challenged in the discussion area which I think is great. Thanks so much for stopping by!

    Take care,
    Colby

36. Colby,
    You made a lot of sense here. One thing I would add is that when I bought my first dog crate it was a plastic air crate and he couldn’t see out of it. After a few sleepless nights I got him a wire cage and he did much better. He was potty trained in a week and most importantly, I lived with roommates. If I didn’t get up, he wouldn’t cry, no matter what hour my roommates came home. Now Yzerman is 3 and if he wakes up and is concerned, he’ll get me up. If I go back to sleep, he will too. Besides you’re advice I have taken this to heart as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOW0IKO_zfM
    Thanks for all the Help Colby and Puppies!
    -Martin and Yzerman

37. The mistake I still make all the time is repeating commands. I really have to catch myself. My dog definitely waits for the second or third command at times. Bad human!

38. Ah yes, the age old mistakes. I guess the first time I had a dog… I had so many of those. Back then, I didn’t have that much of a say in the matter especially since my mom wouldn’t allow me near them so I would need to sneak out while she would be busy doing chores. We were never allowed to have pets inside, either.

    I think I’ve perfected the sit sit sit to just one sit. But now, I have to teach everybody at home about almost everything you’ve said because if they’re not following these set of rules, that’s a training set back.

    Huggies and Cheese,

    Haopee

39. Hey Colby,

    I just loved watching the video of Dublin – I can’t believe how quickly he ate his food, he makes me feel slow! 🙂

    Some great tips here, though I never did get to liking my crate, I think I’d have liked it a lot more if there wasn’t a door on it, I like to be independent and I proved even when I was a young pup that I could be good if I didn’t have to go in the crate, Mum’s not sure if that was the right thing to let me do, but I’m glad it lives in the garage! 🙂

    Wags to all

    Your pal Snoopy 🙂

40. Working with a fearful dog is a on going process. There isn’t a quick fix. Right now her emotional response to the “scary stuff” is to attempt to get away, or get it away from her. We have to change her emotional responses using counter conditioning, and desensitization.

    I have a dog whose first reaction to things that scary him, is to bark, lunge and bite. His actions are based off of (unfounded) fears, but yet they are still there. In a nut shell, we had to teach him that the appearance of those things he’s found scary weren’t bad. In fact treats appeared when ever that scary thing appeared, slowing changing his reaction from one of scared to one of enjoyment, as when ever dogs appear, I get food. Thus making the appearance of other dogs a good thing.

    I’ll admit I’m not an expert in this field at all, but there are plenty of groups on Yahoo who have lots of people who are! If you really are interested in helping your dog become less fearful, check out the links I mentioned above (especially the first couple) or check these groups on Yahoo. Shy K-9, Clicker Solutions, FunctionalRewards, Pos-4-Reactive. Just to name a few. :))

41. My puppy is often fearful and nervous. I have been told losts of advice, sometimes conflicting. Don’t cuddle, distract, flood (exposing her to lots of what she gets nervous about), ignore, thundershirt, exclude etc etc. All have been marginally good but her response of nervousness and fear keep returning eventually. She also barks and lunges if she thinks she is being cornered/trapped by these scarey things. Trainers are still perservering but I think there are pretty bamboozled too. Would love to see what you find in your research.

42. I too must mention something about number six.

    I too have heard many trainers I trust advise not to “comfort” a fearful animal, so not to reinforce fear, and for a while I believed it. Now that I’ve learned different through experience, I find I don’t understand how that conclusion was reached.

    Petting more than likely won’t increase your dogs anxiety. It may not make him less scared, but it won’t make him more scared either.. and at least the humans will feel good in the process. 🙂

    However there are other things we can do as human, such as put distance between the dog and the fearful object, don’t force the dog to accept the object, teach the dog the object can be fun, desensitize the dog to the object, reward the dog for just looking at the object.. etc..etc..

    http://fearfuldogs.com/the-process-of-working-with-a-fearful-dog/

    http://fearfuldogs.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/go-ahead-comfort-that-scared-dog/

    http://www.thebark.com/content/both-ends-leash-fear-reduction

    http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=153&A=1612&S=0

43. Granted, I would also not cuddle a puppy in the typical example scenario that’s given: walking a small dog or puppy, and when a crowd of children appears. Dog is afraid and starts growling and barking. Cuddle or no? I would not cuddle. Barking and growling out of fear aren’t behaviors that I want to reinforce, and I will redirect in those sorts of instances.

    I do think it would make another good blog!

44. Thanks for listing these! With my puppy I am pretty sure I made all of these mistakes. It’s difficult to know what to do and what works – as you get told so many different tips and techniques from so many sources! Plus what doesn’t help is my puppy is quite stubborn, so I sometimes think my training methods just aren’t working!

45. Hi Jen,

    Thank you for the link to the article. I have heard that “You Can’t Reinforce Fear”. However, I have heard from several reputable dog trainers (people that I admire and trust) that you should not cuddle and reassure your puppy when he is scared. I have also been given the same advice from the guide dog organization I volunteer for. Sometimes there are conflicting opinions in the dog training world. I’m going to do some more research into this topic and see what I can find. Maybe it will be good for another blog article 🙂

    Thanks!
    Colby

46. That’s a good one: “…not to let your puppy train you.” If you’re not training your puppy then your puppy is probably training you. It was great meeting you too! I hope to see you again at next years BlogPaws.

47. Great list! It still amazes me that otherwise rational people are willing to put a dog’s nose in a mess during the potty training phase.

    On the topic of cuddles, I think it depends. Patricia McConnell wrote an entry entitled “You Can’t Reinforce Fear”: http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/you-cant-reinforce-fear-dogs-and-thunderstorms

48. Thank heaven for crates! We’d never have survived Kuster’s early puppyhood without one. We also learned not to let your puppy train you. When he was a very little guy, Kuster learned that an accident in the ex-pen earned him a hall pass. It took weeks of moving him to either the ex-pen or crate after an accident to teach him that it wasn’t going to get him what he wanted after one or two times of just letting him out. Live and learn! lol The crazy thing was he knew to go outside really quickly and would always go out there, he just saved a little to try to get out of the pen!

    It was nice to meet you at BlogPaws! 🙂

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.