Puppy Training Tips From Our Experiences As Service Dog Puppy Raisers

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“Sharing our puppy training tips and experiences as guide and service dog puppy raisers.”

Over the years we’ve written hundreds of articles sharing our experiences and most importantly our puppy training tips as guide/service dog puppy raisers.  Below you’ll find our best and most helpful blog posts.

5 Must Have Puppy Products

I wanted to get you guys started with 5 puppy products we can’t live without.

1. Snuggle Puppy Toy – the Snuggle Puppy is a plush toy that includes a heartbeat and heat pack to help comfort your puppy his first nights away from his litter mates.
2. Midwest Dog Crate – a dog crate can be a great tool for keeping your puppy out of trouble and can help when house training your pup. We crate train all of our puppies.
3. Best Bully Sticks – Puppies love to bite and chew. One of our favorite products for redirecting this unwanted behavior are bully sticks.
4. Rocco & Roxie Stain and Odor Remover – There will be accidents! Make sure you have an enzymatic cleaner like Rocco & Roxie to remove the entire smell of urine otherwise your puppy may go back to potty in the same spot.
5. The Puppy Primer – It’s imperative to have a good understanding of your puppy. The Puppy Primer is a great starting point for any new puppy owner.

Those are 5 items we use with our new puppies on a daily basis, but the list doesn’t end there…check out our full New Puppy Checklist for all the puppy products we recommend before bringing home your new puppy.

Puppy Training Basics

So you just brought home a puppy…now what?  Here are a few puppy training basics to get you started.

• How To Handle Your Puppy’s First Night Home – So you just brought home your new puppy.  Everything is going well until it’s time to go to bed.  Low and behold your puppy will not sleep.  He barks, whines, howls, cries, shrieks, and pretty makes every ungodly noise imaginable.  We’ll tell you our story and give you some tips on what you can do with your puppy during his first night.
• How Much Should I Feed My Puppy – As a pirate would say the feeding chart on a bag of dog food is more say what you’d call guidelines.  Take a look at how we determine how much to feed our dogs and puppies.
• What’s The Difference Between A Command And A Cue? – During clicker training we always hear the term “cue” instead of “command”.  Do you know the difference between these two words when training your puppy?
• 6 Essential Tools I Use When Training My Puppy – Since I started clicker training my puppies these are the 6 tools I always have with me.

Potty Training

#1 on our list of puppy training problems would have to be potty training.  You have the questions.  We have the answers.

• How To Potty Train A Puppy – This is our basic guide on how to potty train your puppy.
• My Puppy Pees Outside Then Pees Inside – STOP THE MADNESS indeed!  No my friend you have not gone mad.  Puppies do this all the time and we’ll tell you why and what you can do about it in this article.
• How Can I Get My Dog To Stop Peeing In Her Crate? – Does your puppy or dog pee in her crate?  Here are a few tips to help stop that unwanted behavior
• A Beginners Guide To Crate Training Your Puppy – Most puppies have at least some adjustment period when getting used to their crate.  Our article on crate training puppies shares tips on how to best get your puppy used to his crate.

Puppy Behavior Problems

We’ve yet to bring home a puppy who was perfect from day one.  Puppy behavior problems are as common as they are cute.  Biting, Chewing, Jumping Up, Barking, and Digging all top our list.

We’ve answered a few of these questions and we plan to answer a few more in the coming weeks/months.

• The Ultimate Guide: How To Stop Your Puppy From Biting And Nipping – Do you have a mouthy puppy?  Does he bite or nip?  Are you tired of getting bitten by those little vampire teeth.  Take a look at our ultimate guide to find out how to best deter this puppy behavior problem.
• Why Does My Puppy Bite My Older Dog’s Face? – If this is a common problem for you then you may not have heard of Archer’s favorite puppy game known as “Bitey Face”.  We go into detail about Bitey Face and what you should do about it.

Obedience Training

When thinking of puppy training I think most people think of obedience training which includes basics such as sit, down, stay, come, and name.

• How To Teach Your Puppy His Name – Teaching your puppy his name may be one of the most important things you teach your pup.  Check out how we teach our guide dog pups their names.
• Common Puppy Training Mistakes – Unfortunately, I still make some of the mistakes included on this list.
• Train Your Dog Like A Guide Dog – Have you ever wanted to raise a guide dog puppy? Learn to raise your dog like a guide dog puppy raiser!
• What Commands Do You Teach A Service Dog? – When I started raising service dog puppies I noticed the list of commands was much longer then the list from the guide dog school.  In total I counted 30 command which I included in this article.

Socializing Your Puppy

One of the most important aspects of puppy raising is socialization.

As puppy raisers it’s our job to take our puppies in training nearly everywhere we go including movie theaters, grocery stores, restaurants, shopping malls, amusement parks, and many other places.

If you want a well-balanced puppy then it’s equally as important for you to socialize your puppy.

• Puppy In Training TV – We put together an entire video series about our third guide dog puppy in training, Dublin chronicling his adventures which included many of the outings that helped mold and socialize him as a puppy.
• Puppy Socialization Ideas For Guide Pups In Training – We used to plan all of our Orange County Guide Dogs of America outings.  Here’s a list of 5 of our favorite outings including the awesome flier we made for our puppy raisers.
• Socialization for Puppies In Training – We share some of the things we’ve been doing to help socialize our guide dog puppies in training

Puppy Health

It’s inevitable.  Somewhere along the way you and your puppy will run into some type of health woes.

• 5 Nasty Parasites Your Dog May Already Have – We don’t like to think about fleas, ticks, worms, and other parasites, but when your dog starts itching you may be coming across one of the little critters mentioned in todays post.
• 10 Remedies To Help Alleviate Dog Skin Problems – Stetson had skin allergies.  We were desperate and would try anything under the sun including the 10 remedies included in this article.  Lucky for us Stetson’s dog skin allergies have dissipated since we wrote this article.
• My Older Dog Is Disoriented, Unbalanced, And Confused – If this sounds like your dog then he may have old dog vestibular symptom.  Click through and be sure to check out the many helpful comments.

Product Reviews

Sometimes we are approached to do sponsored reviews and sometimes we do them just for the heck of it (usually because we really like or really hate a product).

However, whether it’s sponsored review or not we only share and review products we’ve had the chance to use with our dogs and puppies.  All of our reviews are honest and not influenced by the sponsors or any other outside influences.

• Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy? – Several years ago deer antlers for dogs became a very popular chew toy (at least it was in our area).  However, the guide dog school had some reservations about them as a chew and we wrote a little about them and asked our readers what they thought about them as a chew toy.
• KONG Wobbler Video Review – Check out our video review of the KONG Wobbler.
• Top 3 Slow Feeder Dog Bowls – If your dog eats too fast then you’ll want to check out this list of our favorite slow feeder dog bowls.
• Midwest Life Stages Metal Dog Crate – We crate train all of our puppies and since we brought home our first puppy, Linus we’ve used the Midwest Metal Dog Crate.
• A First Look: Furbo Dog Camera Review – This might be the coolest dog product to come across our desk.  Doggy camera, treat tosser, listen to and talk to your dog remotely…plus a cool design.  Check out our video review.
• Carlson Portable Pet Pen Review – This worked great for our litter of Golden Retriever Puppies, but also works well on any outdoor adventure with you and your dog.

These are a handful of our very best puppy training blog posts.

If you have any questions about raising, training, or socializing your puppy then please leave us a comment in the comment section below and we’ll do our best to get you an answer.

Who knows maybe you’re question will end up right here on our puppy training tips page.

Visit this page often as we plan on updating on a regular basis.

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Top Picks For Our Puppies

1. BEST PUPPY TOY
   We Like: Snuggle Puppy w/ Heart Beat & Heat Pack - Perfect for new puppies. We get all of our Service Dog pups a Snuggle Puppy.
2. BEST DOG CHEW
   We Like: Best Bully Sticks - All of our puppies love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Bully Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors.
3. BEST DOG TREATS
   We Like: Wellness Soft Puppy Bites - One of our favorite treats for training our service dog puppies.

Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.