So you wanted a new dog! You did all of your research and found that perfect dog that you had always wanted. So, what do you do from here? Many new puppy owners are confused as to what they should be doing with their puppy so that it will grow up to be a great member of the family.

Their are many myths out there as to when a dog is ready for training and when it will be old enough to "understand" what we want from him. I've heard people say that a dog needs to be 6 months or even a year old before any type of training takes place. This is simply not true. A puppy can learn the same as an adult dog can. Attention spans and distractions may vary from puppy to adult, but the learning process is the same. A puppy sort of bumbles through life for a while and does things that seem natural to him and he learns along the way. We want to get involved early and show the dog how life with us should be. Dogs to not necessarily have the ability to reason the way humans do. Dogs live in the moment and must be conditioned to certain behaviors. What that means for us, is that we must be patient and consistent in working with our dogs.

The optimal time to teach your dog the important things in life such as potty training, no jump, no bite, not to play to rough, not to be possessive of play items, and not to be aggressive is from 49 days of age to 4 months. This is the easiest training time of their life because everything is new to them and they are easily guided. Not to worry if your dog is older than this, he can still be taught, it just might be a little more challenging.

One of the most important things that I can advise a new puppy owner, is to properly expose the puppy to other dogs and people. Failure to do so results in a puppy that is not socially confident which could very easily turn to fear aggression. Many of the Vets will advise new dog owners not to expose the puppy to other dogs until he has completed the entire series of vaccinations, which is usually when the dog is around 4 months of age. Proper socialization should occur before the dog is 3 months of age. To get around the vaccination issue, expose your puppy to older, vaccinated dogs as well as other puppies that you know have gone through vaccinations. Also, you should expose your puppy to as many new people as possible so that he doesn't grow up afraid of people. Most of the aggression issues with dogs that I get called to assist with, are due to poor socialization at an early age. Consult with your Veterinarian about what will be best for your dog in terms of socialization prior to completion of vaccinations.

I always advise people to stop and think about what kind of behaviors that they would like to see in their pet. Everybody wants their dog to be well behaved and enjoyable around other family members and friends. What they don't realize, is that they may inadvertently teach their dogs poor behaviors due to lack of understanding how the puppy thinks. For example, many puppies stand up or jump on people. Why is this? We show the dog attention in several different ways. The focal point of our attention to the dog comes from our face. We look at the dog with our eyes, we speak to the dog with our mouth, and when our attention is on the dog, it's our face that faces them. We also give attention to the dog by touching them. So, most dogs will jump up or stand on people in an attempt to gain some sort of attention. This behavior is usually intensified when we first approach the puppy after we have been gone for a while. So what do we, as new puppy owners do when this happens? We think that it's neat that the dog longs for us and we then pat his head and tell him how glad we are to see him. When you break it down, you just praised the dog for this behavior. As he begins to grow older, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and when he's now 75 pounds or more, this greeting is no longer enjoyable to you. You try to correct the dog, and he is confused because throughout his younger months, he was always praised and acknowledged for this behavior. From the very beginning, we should bend down and only pet the dog when he is standing on all fours. If he should jump, simply walk away and ignore him until he sits down and then acknowledge him. If your dogs knows how to sit on command, make him sit every time he comes to greet you, and reward that behavior with a small treat. After numerous repetitions, this will begin to decrease the dog's desire to jump upon you. Also, when you first arrive around the dog, try not to overhype your arrival and happiness to see the dog. This sometimes can excite the dog into jumping on you. By no means is this a cure all, but it's a great place to start.

When dealing with dogs, the most common mistake that owners make is believing that dogs can reason the way humans do. This is not true! Dogs learn mostly by repetition, which is repeating the exercise until it becomes instilled into memory. Be patient when training your dog. A dog does not know the sit behavior by word alone and often times owners think that if they say sit enough, the dog will sit. If this happens, it is only by mere coincidence that the dog sat and was probably due to boredom after listening to you say "sit" a bunch of times!

Teach the dog the sit behavior before you actually apply the command. For example, try using a small treat and present it above the dog's nose without letting him have it and without saying anything to him. What you will probably see is that the dog will jump for the food, or paw at you, or may even bark. Eventually, he will sit out of frustration or confusion and that is when we praise him and give him the treat. Do this exercise numerous times, and you will see that upon the presentation of food, the dog will quickly sit down because he has been taught that it will get him the food. Once he is quickly sitting for the food, then we add the "sit" command. Present him the food and wait until you see him on his way down into a sit position and then say "sit" once. By now he is already committed to the behavior and you have said sit only once. Soon you will find that you will not have to present food for him to sit. You can say "sit' and the dog through his training will know to sit! Once the dog knows the sit behavior, try not to use food for training.....great praise will make him just as happy! Remember, be patient and positive while training!

My next column will continue to cover training issues with new puppies. If you have any training issues that you would like to see discussed in this column, please feel free to write or e-mail.