I am new to puppy training. I am also a checklist kind of person. I love to be able to look at a list of things to do and the order to do them in. I love all the training information available, but I could really use some guidance on the order of things. There are times I feel like I need to be working on everything at once which is overwhelming and discouraging. Has anyone found a great booker online guide with a step by step approach to training what and when that also tells you at what point you are ready for the next step?
I don't think there is a definitive list of what you should train and in what order, everyone has their own priorities. It would generally be agreed that the first cues to work on are sit, come, down and them work on cues like leave, drop, stand, give. A book I read recently as part of my canine behaviour course is 'How to Train your dog like a Pro' by Jean Donaldson which has some very good guidance on how to introduce the basic cues, broken down step by incremental step. There is also some very good guidance as to how to know when to move on to the next step with simple charts you can copy and use if you want to keep records. There is one aspect of her training that I'm not totally with which relates to her use of 'too bad' if a pup doesn't do something right, but overall the book is very good if you don't where to begin or how to begin
@Alayna welcome to the forum. I bought a little notebook so I could jot down how things were going, what I was teaching her, as well as her concentration time span etc. I'd also jot down a few words on things Id like to achieve before I did the next training session. I also started a training log on the forum to help me focus my ideas. I'm no expert, everything I have learnt is from books, training classes and this forum along with my gut feeling. As @MaccieD says once you have taught the basics, it's your own preference. Good luck, very exciting times ahead.
I have spreadsheets upon spreadsheets for my training plans! I don't think you can say "I'll teach sit, followed by down, followed by blah blah blah" because training of everything is ongoing. Just because your puppy can sit in your living room, doesn't mean he can do it outside on the street, or in the park, when there are other people around, when there are dogs there etc etc. This part of training is called proofing and takes the longest time. If you concentrated on that one behaviour until it was perfect in all situations before moving on to the next, you'd never get anywhere As the others have said, it really does depend on your personal preferences as to what you want to train. I think basic manners are an important one for a puppy - having them learn that they have to be sat quietly before coming out of their crate, before they have their food, before they have a treat etc. I just wait, without saying anything, until they offer a sit (at first, this can take a few minutes, but as soon as they do it, they get their reward, so they learn very quickly). I don't want it to be something I ask for, but something they learn means "please". I now use this for putting their collars on, for having their leads attached and removed etc. Anything they want, they ask for with a sit. I'd also teach door etiquette. This is for safety rather than for any notions of "the boss goes through doors first". Actually, I don't mind if they go through doors first, as long as they a) wait to be told they can go through and b) wait on the other side of the door for me to come through. Emily Larlham has a good training video for this... The same impulse control ideas can be used for not letting your pup run up to other dogs or people until you tell him to go say hi. So, I'd be focussing on these real-world impulse control behaviours first, before worrying too much about more formal behaviours. Your dog already knows how to sit and lie down etc, attaching cues to them is an easy thing to do whenever you want to do it. Teaching a dog impulse control is a lot harder when they've been used to doing their own thing. As well as this, I'd be putting a lot of effort into walking nicely on and off lead, and, of course, a recall, using Total Recall as a guide. Again, training these behaviours in the very early days is a lot easier than struggling against bad habits later on. As time goes on, you can decide whether you have any interest in doing any activities with your dog - gun dog training, agility, flyball, obedience work etc - and cater your training plan to the skills you need for these activities.
You could follow the Kennel Club's Good Citizen scheme. You don't have to go to classes, you can download it. http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/training/good-citizen-dog-training-scheme/
