# What to teach an 8week old puppy?



## RebeccaSierra24 (Jul 25, 2011)

Hi all!

I'm getting my boy, Zen on Saturday and I'm so excited! I'm also new to this and I love the information I've found!

I've been reading up a lot and my main concern is training. 
What things should I teach him and how do I do it? (obviously I know the basics like sit, drop, stay, come)

I don't want him to get bored and I don't either. So anything like roll over and stuff is good too


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## RebeccaSierra24 (Jul 25, 2011)

He is a very overly confident boy with a lot of attitude so he may be difficult to work with sometimes as well!


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## Achielles UD (May 26, 2001)

Congratulations!

Puppies are little sponges and obedience training is important of course.

I start puppies out with clicker or reward marker training. The first thing I teach is the "Name Game":
You may practice this at any time. The only rule being that if you say his name he gets a food reward. Start by having food with you, say his name, verbally praise and give the food reward when he looks at you. If you say his name and he does not look at you, move the food in front of his nose and back to your face. When he looks at you immediately give the reward marker “Yes!” and then the treat. Repeat this several times. You may incorporate this into your daily interactions and also during training. Any time you say the dogs name, it should mean to the dog a food reward is coming. Do NOT under any circumstances use the dogs name in a corrective tone of voice. Do not use the dog’s name as a correction. Always give a food reward and verbal praise for looking at you after saying his name. Remember dogs do not generalize well and are situational. Just because they learn to look at you when you say his name in class and in your living room, does not mean they know they are supposed to do this everywhere. Be sure to change your training location as often as your dog is performing well in the normal training area.

Along with the name game, I start luring heel position. I find luring early and making this a fabulous place to be while at the same time learning to walk with their head up for attention, makes leash training 100 times easier later  

When you walk, say “let’s go” and bribe the puppy to walk with you on your left side. To do this hold the food in your left hand and your leash in the right hand. Do not take the food back to him, he must come up and walk in correct position for him to eat the reward. If he looses interest in the food, stop, say nothing, regain his attention and praise him for following the food. Practice for a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 15 minutes at least twice every day. There should be many play breaks by using your “Free” command during this practice session. You should also work on the “sit” during these sessions. Praise the dog for the sit and for looking at you. Incorporate the “Name Game” at any time during the day. Do not have a tight leash. Keep the leash loose when working with your puppy. Remember puppies have short attention spans. Be sure to have plenty of “play” breaks while working with him. Remember dogs do not generalize well and are situational. Just because they learn to pay attention and stand on a loose leash in class and in your living room, does not mean they know they are supposed to do this everywhere. Be sure to change your training location as often as your dog is performing well in the normal training area. When feeding, your arm is perpendicular to the ground. Be sure to hold the food in your hand with your knuckles pointing in the direction you are going and feed from your palm instead of pinching the food between a finger and thumb.

At this point in his life, you are teaching him to love learning. Train with positive reinforcements and luring. Corrections and seriousness can come a little later 

Some other learning fun games are things like shaping and capturing behaviors to reward. Karen Pryor has "101 things to do with a box" that can be a load of fun for you and a learning puppy!  

Congrats again and Good Luck!


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

let him be a puppy. crate training and house breaking
at 8 weeks old. enroll in a puppy class.


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## vc320 (Jul 19, 2011)

*Heel*

Achielles- how often are you actually giving the treat in the heel position?


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

doggiedad said:


> let him be a puppy. crate training and house breaking
> at 8 weeks old. enroll in a puppy class.


That's me.


Love love love, play play play, practice 'engagement' which you can do with treats and TOYS!





 




 
I would NOT be teaching 'heel' particularly. 

CLICKER TRAINING though. http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...0-intro-clicker-training-perfect-puppies.html


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

RebeccaSierra24 said:


> Hi all!
> 
> I'm getting my boy, Zen on Saturday and I'm so excited! I'm also new to this and I love the information I've found!
> 
> ...


At 8 weeks of age, you shouldn't be doing a whole lot of "training"... what you want to do is "imprinting" desireable behavior using treats. You can teach "sit" pretty easily using food as a lure. "Down" is harder, but same principle. Main thing is to provide lots of toys and appropriate play, potty training, and socializing, and don't worry too much about formal training at this point. When he's old enough, enroll in a puppy kindergarten class and they will show you the kinds of things you can teach a young pup in a positive way.


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## s14roller (Nov 18, 2010)

Definitely focus on crate training/housebreaking and just getting the pup to socialize with other people and other pups. 

At 9 to 10 weeks, you can add in the other basic training also...not to say you can't at 8 weeks, but you have enough to focus on between playing with the new pup and housebreaking ;-)


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## RebeccaSierra24 (Jul 25, 2011)

Thank you so much for all your help!


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## mthurston0001 (Jul 12, 2009)

If you never work on anything else, work on recalls and down. And get really, really, really good at it.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Here's a previous thread that may be helpful: http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/training-our-puppy-basic/159107-top-five-teach-puppy-now.html


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## whisperwill (Jul 20, 2011)

Let me start by saying this is my first GSD since the one my Mom had growing up. With that said I have been doing ALOT of reading about GSD's, and have found that it is just as important to excersize their minds every day as it is their bodies. So since we got Whisper we have started training. First we loaded the clicker, just taught her the clicker means treats. Walked around with it all day and anytime I would click it she got a treat. That took all of about 10 repetitions for her to master!! Then we taught her name. We would call her name, when she would look at us we would treat. She caught on to that REAL quick too. Since then we have worked on her focus, sit, down, and leave it. If you are looking for something that will help show you how to teach her "tricks" (sit, down, stay, come, etc.) take a look at the book by Kyra Sundance (101 dog tricks). She not only tells you how to build a bond with your dog by teaching tricks (some necessary, some for fun) but she has illustrations that show you step by step how to teach them. We have had ALOT of fun teaching our schnauzer these tricks, and the puppy is catching on REALLY quickly.


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