Hello Val,
More (dog) food for thought, dog training is one of the facets, what is also important is that the "puppy" training incorporates meeting other puppies / dogs as I cannot stress enough that it is equally important to have a dog that reacts positively with other dogs especially if your dog grows up to be a large. Meeting other dogs whilst out walking is also important but when it is under the training umbrella the meetings can be better controlled and you the owner can benefit from the experience of other owners and of course the trainer.
Training should be based on rewarding the positive e.g. praise or provide a treat when the dog is sitting on command or walking to heel. There will be obviously times when you need to stop unwanted behaviour such as jumping up at family members or guests the trick is to ignore this behaviour by turning around away from the dog and eventually the dog gets the hint, another example, the dog growls at you or your family, take the dog out of the room for a period of time repeat this performance until the dog stops the negative behaviour. Lastly everyone who handles the dog in the family needs to be consistent so decide what the rules are and stick with them otherwise you get a confused dog which is no good. But it is really great fun to do the training it takes time and patience but you will get really good results as the dogs enjoy it too. Just do not teach them to vacate next to Vals car well not while she is looking anyway. Désolé this was longer than I expected but hope it is useful.
Nev
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