What the pet?! - Puppy training

This podcast episode discusses how to work with and train puppies. The host shares her experience with her two young puppies and emphasizes the importance of potty training. She suggests taking the puppies outside every two hours and rewarding them when they go potty. The host also advises against getting mad at the puppies for accidents inside the house. She mentions the use of a fake grass potty mat as an alternative when unable to take the puppies outside. The host also mentions the importance of consistency and rewards when teaching actions like sit. She provides a three-step process for teaching a dog to sit and encourages regular and short training sessions. The host invites listeners to share their training journeys. Australia's number one pet retailer, Petbarn, brings this podcast to you, shopped from our extensive range of pet food supplies and accessories, online or in the shop. Hello and welcome back to What The Pets. I'm your host Hazel and on today's episode we'll be discussing how to work with and train your furry little puppies. Whether you're a new dog parent or have had your dog for a while, this podcast is confirmed to help guide you through your dog training journey. Let's begin. So, many people start training their dogs as soon as they get them, whereas others like to leave that for later. If you've gotten to know me by now, I like to get into training my furry little friends straight away. I recently adopted two little Kavittles and they're just the cutest little things. I've grown to love them so much in such little time. It's genuinely such a wholesome experience. Were you also infatuated with your dog when you first got them? My two puppies are still very young, they're only two months old. The black coat is female is named Bella and the golden coated male is named Bruno. Bella's a little shy but she's so very clever and Bruno's a little on the naughtier side, but he's honestly such a cute little angel. When I first brought them home, I made sure they had at least a week to settle in into their new environment before I started training them. However, I made sure to start potty training straight away. This was because I wanted them to have an early understanding of where to go if they needed to. I did this by taking them out to the backyard every two hours to give them multiple opportunities to pee or poo outside on the grass. I would make sure to reward them straight away when they did so and immediately take them back inside to reinforce that the backyard slash grass is where they go potty. If they did have an accident inside the house, I made sure to never get mad at them because of their mistake. I simply sanitized the area and made sure the smell was gone. Your dog doesn't understand when you yell or get angry. Instead, they feel scared or unloved. So as dog parents, try to understand your puppy and don't be mad at them for making mistakes. Once my dogs became familiar with knowing where to go potty, I placed a fake grass potty mat inside the house so if they did need to go when I wasn't there to take them out, they still had a specific place to tend to when needed. Potty training, however, may differ according to your dog's or other circumstances. Make sure to do your research to understand what is best suited for your dog when potty training. I also hear from a lot of my friends and colleagues who are dog owners that doggie doors are a great idea and it also teaches your dog independence. Is your dog already potty trained? And if so, how was your experience? Did you find it extremely difficult or relatively easy? After you think that potty training is going well for your dog, you can start teaching them a few actions like sit and stay. But before you start, you should remember three things. 1. Reward your dog's good behaviour and ignore their mistakes. 2. Be consistent when training your dog. 3. Teach one thing at a time and keep them from overloading on information. Let's say you want to teach your dog how to sit. The first step for this would be to hold a treat in your hand and keep it close to your dog's nose so they know it's there. Step 2 would be to move your hand, the one with the treat, in an arc over your dog's head. As your dog keeps its nose on the treat, its bottom will go on the floor. So the third step would be as soon as your dog's bottom touches the floor, reward them with the treat. You can even reward your dog with encouraging words like good job or well done. Practice these three steps multiple times with your dog. Make sure to keep these training sessions short but regular. It won't take long for your dog to sit for longer periods of time because they will know that they always earn a treat. As soon as they start to sit, you can say the keyword sit. Take caution to only say it after your dog is in the proper position or else they can confuse it for the incorrect action. Again, practice this numerous times in short but regular sessions. Make sure to let me know how your training journey is going with your little or big furry friends. That's all for today guys. Let me know what you want to discuss next time and make sure to share your training journey. Love you all and see you in the next episode of What The Pets.