Short sessions beat long ones every time. The order to teach things in, and why consistency across the household matters more than technique.
Puppies have short attention spans and enormous capacity to learn. The trick is frequency, not duration.
Keep sessions tiny
Five minutes, twice a day, finishing while they are still interested. A puppy who ends a session wanting more will be eager next time. One who ends bored has learned that training is dull.
A sensible order
- Name recognition. Everything else depends on it.
- Sit. Easy to lure, easy to reward, useful immediately.
- Recall. Start indoors, in a room with no distractions.
- Settle. Rewarding calm is as important as rewarding action.
- Loose lead walking. Begin in the hallway, long before the street.
Everyone must agree
The most common reason training stalls is not method, it is inconsistency. If one person allows the sofa and another does not, the puppy is not being stubborn, they are being given contradictory information.
Sit down as a household and agree the rules, the words and who is doing what. Write them on the fridge if it helps.
Reward well
Use something genuinely valuable. Dry kibble will not compete with a passing cat. Small pieces of chicken or cheese will.
When it goes wrong
If a session is going badly, stop. Ask for something easy they already know, reward that, and finish. Never end on failure.