Common questions › Training
The short answer
Training starts before you bring your puppy home: genetics, early handling and environment shape most of a dog's behavior. Get a puppy bred for temperament and brains and raised hands-on, and training is a lot easier.
Then start young and stay consistent. Leash, harness and potty training all go best when you start at a very young age, so you begin on a good page instead of a bad one.
Most people mess this up before they even bring their dog home. Puppy training doesn't start with your puppy, it starts with your breeder. A huge part of a dog's behavior is shaped before you ever get it: genetics, early handling and environment.
We don't throw puppies in a pen and hope for the best. We hand-raise them, hands-on from the second they're born, getting them used to loud noises, kids, different dogs and all kinds of environments. That makes a more confident dog, and confidence is key to a good dog and an easier time training.
Get the foundation right, and the rest is about consistency: pick the program you want and stick to it. Clients tell me all the time it was so much easier than their last puppy. That's because a dog bred for temperament and brains is smarter and easier to work with.
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The biggest mistake is exactly what we did with DaMilkMan: we waited until he was almost two to put a leash and harness on him, and it freaked him out. To his defense, we live on a big property and our bulldogs just follow us, so we don't really use leashes.
With Fury we did it right: harness and leash from a young age, because we took him places. Now he's perfect on a leash. Somewhere you don't know, a harness and leash is better.
In short: put your puppy on a leash and harness very young and they'll get used to it.
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One way we temperament-train our puppies is by exposing them to different things, like our German Shepherd and our Newfoundland. The big dogs know not to touch them, so the puppies have good experiences with big dogs.
That builds confident puppies that won't go straight to aggression when they meet a bigger dog, which can set off a fight and make it worse. A puppy that has a bad experience with a big dog young can become aggressive toward big dogs, and it snowballs. Good experiences make friendly, confident dogs.
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Socializing your puppy makes it a good pet, which makes you a good owner, which makes you both happier. The two most important things: one you control, one you sort of control.
One is the environment: put your puppy in the environment you want it to thrive in. Two is genetics: you can't fully control it, but you can pick a program and parents with the temperament you want. That gives you the best chance at a dog with that temperament naturally.
Quick clips on the same question. Tap any one and it plays right here.
How do you train a bulldog, leash train it, potty train it? The answer to all three is the same: get your puppy young, so you can start the foundation on a good page instead of a bad page. The earlier you start, the better.
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This micro puppy, off DaMilkMan, is upset, and that's part of being a good breeder: handling puppies young and getting them used to things they might not like, with extreme care and patience, so it always ends well. Watch: she calms down. It makes her a better pet for her new family.
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Our puppies are hand-raised from day one. Ask me how.
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