I have talked to my mom about leash training my puppy so that he walks beside me and doesnt get into the habit of running in front of me. I am using a choke chain, and she says that since he is only 10 weeks old, I need to back off and wait until he is about 4 months old and let him be a puppy and run and play withwalk calmly at my side. Is this true?

Your mother is right, and when he gets older, the leash you want is a prong collar, not a choke chain.

I would not use anything on a 10 week old pup, especially those type of training aides.
My pups are loose or just dragging a lead when we walk and I use my voice and treats if I want them near me. I live in the country and if i walk them in town, I hang on to the lead.

I really encourage them going away and exploring though.....the "heir" command will not be enforced for a few months yet. I do use it but I make sure that they are coming towards me and I use it as a "Good Heir" and give them a treat and play with them A LOT....

I agree, pups should be exploring at 10 weeks, not learning to heel. You want your pup to learn different experiences in a positive way and when you begin training, it won't be spooked with all the new sights and sounds.

I am SOOOOO glad that this forum is here to pass ideas that new puppy owners have before they do them, to find out what is good and what isn't before any relationship damage gets done. You all are ANGELS. Just a little cute story about Konichiwa. I bought him toys, but he has been working on training me as well. He seems to be a simplistic pup. we went out to go potty, and he found a big stick to play with. I took it in and surprised him with it later, and of course, rather than the costly toys, a simple stick has become his favorite chew toy. lol.

I'll bet you would get a ton of info out of the Leerburg articles, and especially the videos.


This one:
http://www.leerburg.com/302.htm
is far more than Basic Ob. It's really a "how to live with a dog" video. :>

Hey Jonathan,

As the others have pointed out, just let your puppy be a puppy for now.
1) this exploring new stuff and confidence-building is absolutely essential to end up with a calm and happy adult dog, not a nervous jumpy wreck.
2) at that age, puppies don't have the maturity and focus to ignore distractions and stick to your side. You will just cause him a great deal of stress and anxiety if you don't allow him to express his curiosity and playfulness.

Remember, it's easy to put a harsh training collar on a dog (or puppy) and jerk it around into submission. Any moron off the street can do that.

It takes a lot more skill and intelligence to figure out ways to get your puppy to do what you want without applying force
It's often harder than it seems but by thinking about how you can solve a problem and experimenting, you acquire training skills.

It's your chance to outsmart Konichiwa!

Let him explore, find somewhere where he can maybe have a bit more freedom (dragging a long line so he's still within your physical control if you need it, but not having to walk on a 6-foot leash). When you want to teach him to come to you, you have to figure out a way to make yourself more interesting than whatever he's doing.

What Carol said (on another thread) works really well!
Basically you have to make a complete fool of yourself. Speak in a really excited high-pitched voice, clap your hands, jump around, run backwards (away from the puppy), roll a toy around on the ground, bounce a ball around etc.
That should get his attention! When he does come to you, give him a treat and act like he just did the most amazing thing in the world.

Puppies (and dogs) respond to that.

Yes you will look and sound completely crazy to everyone except your puppy. He will understand and that's what counts.

You can teach him to heel already if you want to (informal heel, not competition heeling). In fact, you can work on the sit, down, come, whatever you want to, as long as it's all a game for the puppy and you don't try to force him to do anything.

Use really good food to get him to walk beside you while you say "heel".

If possible, let him take the food from your mouth. This will teach him to watch your face. This works pays off when he's older and you want his focus on you.


Good luck, it sounds like you're really enjoying the baby!

Haha, sorry about the toys. I guess it's up to you to put some excitement into the toys to stimulate his prey drive!

A little warning about letting dogs play with sticks - they can get injured doing this. Dogs can stab themselves when running with a stick (they can even puncture their throat) and the results are not pretty.
Even if the dog doesn't run with the stick, the splinters can injure the dog's gums and make his mouth bleed. Speaking from personal experience here!!

I discouraged my young male from picking up sticks when he was 6 months old or so after he got splinters in his mouth and bled for several minutes (scaring me half to death though he didn't seem to notice).

I just told him NO, LEAVE IT every time he went for a stick (and he was stick-obsessed as a puppy!!) and redirected him to a toy instead. Once he realized that I wouldn't play with sticks, he learned to obsessively love his orbee balls.

Now he doesn't even look at sticks anymore and it's a relief!

Oh, when your pup is a bit older (like 4 months), you can start teaching him leash manners.

Use a regular comfortable flat collar on walks. When he pulls on the lead, tell him NO and give a light pop on the leash.
Don't expect perfection right away, just let him know that you don't want pulling. Remember to praise when he backs off on the pressure. Keep these exercises short and make sure he still gets to run, play and explore so he doesn't get too frustrated.

When he's 6 months or older, if he ignores your corrections, get a prong collar and learn to fit it properly.

If the dog pulls, you give the verbal warning first (NO) and give him 1-2 seconds to back off. If he ignores the NO, pop the leash.

Repeat this on all walks (calmly, not so much that you upset the dog of course) and eventually he'll learn to respond to your initial NO.

Don't get impatient if you have to remind him a lot at that age - remember, they're babies for a long time and until the dog is over a year old it doesn't always have the maturity to hold back its enthusiasm for exploration. Try to be patient and enjoy the dog

Any updated pictures?

Why wouldnt you let a 10 week old puppy pull on the leash? A flat collar is not an appropriate correction tool at all, don't pop the leash on a flat collar, the pup won't understand it. Their attention span is about 2 seconds. At 10 weeks old my pup was walking down the street backwards tugging on the leash growling n biting, if thats how she wanted to walk then fine.

If you are gonna do any OB training then just use food, nothing else, you can help guide the pup to sit by pushing his butt down, n if he walks while staring up at you for food (good food focus/drive) then you can use that to your advantage to teach him to heel and reward for walking next to you while staring at the food, even if its for just 1 or 2 steps.

I'd never use a choker other than a nylon choke on an adult dog that has aggression issues. Especially not on a 10 week old puppy, wait till he's 6+ months old and use a prong collar. What is everyones rush to put control on their puppies? What woulda happened if your parents were expecting you to be doing 2nd grade math at 3 years old? For some dog/handler combinations it is sometimes better to start younger because the handler is a weak handler and the dog is a strong dog, but it is better to learn to be a better handler than to force a dog too young.

So far the #1 question I keep reading on this forum is "How soon can I correct my pup?". I must answer that question several times a week n I just don't get this desire to pressure a young puppy, where is he going? He will still be there when he's 6 months old or 1 year old, control him with a crate and good communication and bonding, not fear of corrections. If you do it right you can raise the puppy to never make a mistake and to follow your direction around the house without having to correct him, but you need patience.

Mike, popping a puppy with a flat collar to discourage pulling is what Ed recommends on his puppy DVD.

I fully agree with you about not doing this to a 10-week-old puppy of course. As I said in my post above, I would wait until the puppy is older (like 4 months).

These are not hard corrections (look at how Ed does it in the DVD), just reminding the puppies not to pull too much.

It only seems fair to teach them what you want (gently) before introducing the prong at an older age