Start training at what age?

[beagle_crazy]

I have a 11 week old beagle puppy (named Norton). When is the best time to start training him?

[TheDogTrainer]

Training can start from the time you get your puppy (which if from breeder is normally around 8 weeks). Start off the basics like come, sit, okay and no and hold and leave. Once your puppy has reached 6 months, you can start to teach him more advanced commands. It is very important that you begin your training now so your puppy understands his place in the family pack... which is at the bottom! Installing this pack hierarchy early on will insure your puppy will develop into a happy dog and will reduce possible behavior problems in the future.

[PoppyW]

Take this advice, it’s so true! I wish I had known about the pack hierarchy when we got our dog. It would have saved us a lot of time and effort, not to mention the worry of having a territorial dog in the house that would terrorize everyone that walked in the gate. He is much better after using the Alpha Dog techniques explained the in the book.

[yayarea16]

hey i have a beagle puppy named Dubee.Hes wonderful and everything but i cant seem to get his attetion sometimes when im trying to teach him to sit.Ive tried giving him a treat if he does it but then he just goes crazy for the treats and thats all he wants from there on.Can someone please help me?

[eyeluvdogs]

I found the same thing with my dogs - the treat was actually more of a distraction than anything, and it was near impossible to teach them anything if they knew I had a treat in my hand. I just started trying to teach them commands etc when I had no treats, and at the times of the day when they were less hyper. I found that they responded really well to my encouraging tone of voice - dogs aim to please! Also, when they were younger, I kept the lessons pretty short, but tried to have them a few times a day. Shorter, frequent training sessions seemed to work best for my dogs. Good luck!

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi, I have 2 border collie mixes and they are very treat-driven, which is good and bad. I would like to suggest a couple of things to yayarea16 and eyeluvdogs from my experience:

1. Don't hold treats in your hand. Put them in a training pouch.
2. Teach your dog to "Watch Me" before teaching anything else. The most important thing you want to teach your puppies is to pay attention to YOU.
3. If your puppy/dog gets too excited. Put the treat pouch away and wait for a while before you start the training again.

Good luck!