Puppies are such a fun addition to our families! Sometimes they need a little more guidance than we expected them to, and sometimes we need a few memory refreshers on how to guide them to behaving the best way possible. I had a blast working with Oliver's owners on some basic pointers and behavior cues, and they saw great results with his ability to respond to their commands and requests. 

I want to highlight a few common questions that my clients who have puppies ask me. When you're teaching a puppy to come to you, it's very important that you don't actually pair the word "come" with calling them to come over to you, but rather only pair the word "come" with the act of them coming to you. This means that if you call them over to you, you shouldn't use the actual word "come" until they have thoroughly learned it.

Another common puppy question has to do with leash training. If they learn early that pulling actually doesn't get them closer to what they want faster, it can be very easy to prevent the problem of pulling in the future. Oliver has been doing a fabulous job on his walks, and we introduced the element of jogging beside a bike to him during our session together. He simply had more energy than he was able to get out at a walking pace, and so the bike was the best solution in his particular case. 

Often times, when puppies don't have a clear direction about where they should be and what they should be doing, they get bored and resort to following their owners around all day or begging for attention. Teaching them "no" or "go lay down" can be really simple and helpful towards them learning how to calm themselves down in the future.

Oliver is a beautiful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who did a fabulous job responding to his owners and me during our training session. If you have a puppy, I would highly recommend hiring a trainer to come into your home and teach you about some basic household structures to save you some headache in the future!