ASK THE TRAINER: HOW DO I TRAIN MY PUPPY? 3 Critical Tips for Successful Puppy Training By Andrew C. Sherwood, Professional Dog Trainer with 25 years of experience. https://youtube.com/shorts/avIeMyo0ylc?feature=share Essentials: Puppy training basicsReading time: 7 minutesBest for: New puppy owners, first-time dog parents Key Takeaway: Clear communication starts with your puppy’s name, respect is built by reserving resources for leadership, and true bonding comes from structured activities done together as a team. So you got a new puppy and you are wondering “now what?” Welcoming a new four-legged family member to your Tucson household is an incredibly exciting milestone. However, navigating the transition from a cute, tumbling fur-ball to a well-behaved companion can feel a bit overwhelming. Whether you are trying to raise a focused pup in the Catalina Foothills or looking for the best dog training Tucson has to offer, let me give you three things that will help make you better puppy parents right from the start. WHY IT HAPPENS To raise a reliable companion, you must first understand how a dog’s mind processes human communication, pack rank, and emotional needs. Proper Use of Names: Make sure you use his/her name correctly. Remember that I define anything not done in a wolfpack as abstract, so yes, names are abstract. We want to be extra careful on how to teach and utilize abstract concepts with our dogs. In the wild, canine communication is built on body language, energy, and scent. So, use the puppy’s name only as a name and not a command. Claim the High Ground: Most pet owners have a very informal relationship with their pets. Dogs now spend their lives indoors, sleep in our beds, have toys in all directions, lay on the couch with the family, and often have “free feeding” of food. All of these are good things in some capacity, as we’ve come a long way from the yesteryear America which kept dogs outside. However, by including our pets into all aspects of our homes and providing unlimited access to resources and eliminating formerly upheld boundaries, we’ve lost the signs that previously helped define ourselves as the pack leaders. Mother nature does not govern the dog pack the way that we often attempt inside our homes. The existence of rank inherently means the existence of inequality. Thus, top-dogs will have different things which lower dogs do not; resources and boundaries. Meaning, when you extend an equal playing field of resources and boundaries to your new pack member you lose rank—so much so, that it can often become perceived as lower rank, as this is the only explanation for such behavior (in your dog’s mind). Quality Time: Now that you’ve got your puppy, you need to schedule some activities for you and your dog. While a fishtank is simple enough, in that you only need to provide food, maybe some rock features inside the tank to swim around and regular cleanings, dogs require one extra ingredient—you! If you agree that dogs are social animals, then by extension, you must recognize that dogs have emotional needs. These emotional needs are satiated through a combination of physical and social activities. When pet parents think one dimensionally about the dog’s needs, they lose the bigger picture. Consider this, when a parent teaches their children how to change the oil or cook a potroast, they don’t just think “it’s good my kid has that skill now”. Rather, they understood that the teaching/learning experience was an opportunity for bonding, which is something that is good for families. And it is a type of bonding that rarely happens outside of the family. So when a pet parent thinks “my backyard is better for bathroom breaks than me leashing him up for a walk”, this person is thinking one dimensionally about potty breaks. COMMON MISTAKES When raising a new pup, owners frequently make critical errors across names, boundaries, and social time. Name Misuse: If the dog’s name is Shadow: DO: Use his name exclusively as a preparatory command, a label, which indicates whatever is about to come next is directed to the dog. Example: “Shadow, come!” DON’T: Call him to you by using his name as a command. Example: “Shadoooowww!!” DON’T: Reprimand him by shouting his name in a scolding manner. Example: “SHADOW!!!!!” DON’T: Threaten him by changing the inflection in his name. Example: “Ahhh ahh ahh, Shadowwww…” DON’T: Praise him by swooping through his name. Example: “Ohhhh Shhhaaadddoooowww” Just by using your puppy’s name correctly, you will already be ahead of the rest. Socialization and Quality Time: No, dog parks are not quality time. This doesn’t mean that your dog doesn’t enjoy their time at the dog park. And it doesn’t mean that going to the dog park isn’t the highlight of your pet’s day. It just means that dropping your kid off at the movies, the mall, the gym or sports practice does not qualify as “quality family time.” You need to do something together. And if you say to me, “Andrew, my dog and I chase each other and play ball together at the dog park” then I say back, “then you should do some quality time with obedience training, so that eventually, you can do those things without going to a dog park”. A wolf in the wild will learn how to wrestle, track, hunt, play, howl and do all sorts of other “wolf activities”. So what skills/activities should most dog owners teach? It doesn’t really matter as long as you are doing something with the dog. Here are some options: Walking / Hiking (like exploring trails around Marana or Oro Valley) Agility & Trick Training Obedience Training Herding Retrieving / Fetch & Wrestling Grooming (brushing them) Hide & seek Protection Training Therapy Training WHAT BLACK BELT CANINE ACADEMY DOES DIFFERENTLY At Black Belt Canine Academy, we help new puppy parents build an unbreakable bond through a clear, structured lifestyle. So what are some resources, rules and boundaries we could reserve for ourselves to help us claim rank? No