How Puppies Learn

Handling Your Puppy Helps Them Learn!!

Handling your puppy regularly during the first eight weeks of life is essential to help them become trained and live in our home. In an earlier blog I mentioned this and that it is ideal to place them in their permanent home between 8 and 10 weeks of age, in some places it is against the law to take them away from their mother before eight weeks. They need this period before they leave their mother to learn socialization skills form their litter mates and their mother.

In addition to this puppies are innately fearful of new things during the 10-12 week period.
Puppies can begin learning tricks and commands as early as 8 weeks of age; the only limitations are the puppy's stamina, concentration, and physical coordination. It is much easier to live with young dogs that have already learned basic commands such as sit.

Waiting until the puppy is older and has already learned undesirable habits makes the training much more challenging.