As a dog trainer, a question I am asked often---  How old should a dog be to start training ?

Formal training can start ideally between ten and twelve weeks of age. The puppy has already begun learning from mom and brothers and sisters within the first couple of weeks of life. By eight weeks,critical socialization takes place where the bonding should be more animal to human rather than animal to animal. If the puppy has left its litter and has become a member of a family at eight weeks the first training should be housetraining, which can usually be done in a couple of days. 

Now, in the ten to twelve-week time frame, the puppy is ready to start learning the formal commands: heel, sit, stay, down, come and lastly, the finish. The most important thing in working with a very young puppy is its attention span. A pup at that early age can handle between three and maybe five minutes per session. If you are too firm or miss the signs that the pup is tired and bored with the session with the dog trainer,you could hurt the training process for sure. Lots of love, kindness, and patience are the tools of the dog training trade here.

One more thing, is it ever too late to train a dog?

It is a complete myth that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. The oldest dog I've formally trained for a client was a ten-year-old husky. The most obvious difference with age, the dog can handle much longer training sessions to start, but breaking or changing ten-year-old bad habits can take quite a bit of time. It can be done, be patient.

Happy training! If you are interested in bringing your dog to a dog trainer, please call us at (203) 874-7299 and K-9 Communication ​​​​​​​would be happy to welcome you.