How to Raise the Perfect Puppy - Petland Kansas City

Who doesn’t want to raise the perfect puppy? A well-trained and well-behaved puppy is guaranteed to become a great companion dog.

What you don’t want to do is get distracted by your new puppy’s incomprehensible cuteness… And forget to modify his behavior with consistent puppy training…

If you want to know how to raise the perfect puppy, you’ve come to the right place! Petland Kansas City has laid out the cornerstones. This article covers:

Housebreaking
Positive Reinforcement Training
Puppy Socialization
Basic Commands
Maintaining the “Rules”

What if you don’t yet have a puppy? Find your perfect puppy at Petland Kansas City! Check out our available puppies, and join the puppy community today!

For everyone else who already has their furry friend, let’s get you started with how to raise the perfect puppy!

HOUSEBREAKING

“Housebreaking” a puppy refers to training the puppy not to go to the bathroom inside the home. Puppies need to be trained to communicate to their owners that they need to go to the bathroom. And they need to be able to “hold it” until their owners let them outside. During the housebreaking process, there will be accidents. We don’t know of any new puppy parents who successfully house broke their puppy without a single incident. That being said, housebreaking a puppy shouldn’t take longer than 4 – 6 months.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT TRAINING

The term “positive reinforcement” means rewarding your puppy when he behaves in the manner you want. Positive reinforcement is one of many methods that can be used to train a puppy. Though it is one of many methods, it’s the most effective. The other methods are negative reinforcement and punishment. These focus on what the owner should do to the puppy as a consequence of the puppy doing something the owner doesn’t want him to do. Petland Kansas City never recommends punishing your puppy.

But negative reinforcement can be used when necessary. Negative reinforcement means discontinuing the puppy’s privilege, play, or “freedom,” if the puppy is misbehaving. For example, if your puppy nips and will not stop nipping even though you said “owe!” and told him “no,” then the negative reinforcement could be to put your puppy in his crate for a “time out.”

Unlike negative reinforcement, which is a response to unwanted behavior, positive reinforcement is a reward for puppy behavior that is good. Positive reinforcement is definitely a cornerstone to raising the perfect puppy!

PUPPY SOCIALIZATION

“Puppy socialization” is the process of exposing your puppy to people, places, and things. Puppies who are regularly taken out into the world to meet new people, strangers, children, and other dogs, puppies, and animals, end up calm, curious adult dogs. Puppies who are not socialized, but rather stay cooped up at home, tend to be fearful and nervous when they’re exposed to new situations as adult dogs.

If you have a new puppy, one of your first tasks will be properly socializing them. A properly socialized dog will be friendlier to strangers, will not bark excessively out of fear of the unknown, and is less likely to be a liability since it will not be prone to biting. There are many more benefits to socializing, but these are some pretty important ones.

A yellow Labrador Retriever puppy and a black Labrador Retriever puppy sit obediently and wait for the next command, as they enjoy an outdoor puppy training course at Petland Kansas City.

BASIC COMMANDS

Truly, the foundation of raising the perfect puppy is puppy training. And by this we mean basic command training and complex command training. A dog that understands what its owner is communicating to him is a dog that is empowered to obey. Poor communication only leads to bad behavior later down the road. Basic command training will teach your puppy the most common and useful commands, which you’ll use on a daily basis throughout your pet’s life!

Teaching your puppy to “sit,” “stay,” “lie down,” “drop it,” and other basic commands is also a great way to bond with your puppy. Being able to communicate with your dog is a precursor to experiencing the joys of having a furry friend. Learning these basic commands has to happen during puppyhood since it’s difficult for adult dogs to change their habits. During the puppy training process, you can use positive reinforcements, which we touched upon.

If you get your puppy from Petland Kansas City, you’ll be automatically entitled to our free puppy training course! Petland Kansas City’s 6-Week Puppy Training Program comes at no cost to new Petland puppy parents. During this six week program that meets once per week, you and your puppy will learn basic commands. This program is also a great opportunity for puppy socialization since other new Petland parents and their puppies will be in the same class!

MAINTAINING THE “RULES”

One of the most important things to do while you’re in the process of raising the perfect puppy is to remain consistent. Never give in to your puppy! Remember, you are the leader, the master, and the rule-setter. You have house rules within your home. You have rules regarding when and where your puppy will eat his food. And you have rules about the furniture, and where your puppy can and cannot go within and around the home. The specifics of those “rules” can be anything you like. The point we would like to make here is that you must be consistent with the rules you create for your puppy.

Puppies actually like rules because their nature is to please their owners and receive love in return. When owners assume that their rules are “too hard” for their puppies, or that their rules “hurt” their puppies feelings, things go haywire. Just because your puppy is begging for food with those huge, soulful eyes of his, doesn’t mean he wants you to cave. He’s actually testing you! He will respect and love you more if you remain firm in upholding the rules you’ve set!

HEALTHY PUPPIES FOR SALE IN KANSAS CITY

A cute, fluffy Golden Retriever puppy wears angel wings and a halo to show that a well-trained puppy is the perfect puppy!

All purebred puppies sold at Petland Kansas City, Overland Park KS, are registered with the American Kennel Club. Our strong name among ethical puppy sellers in Kansas stands for animal rights and welfare. We only work with responsible dog breeders whose breeding practices meet our very high standards of puppy healthcare and socialization. Learn about our reputable breeders and check out our Puppy for a Lifetime Program.

Of all the pet stores in Kansas City, Petland Kansas City is committed to putting puppy mills out of business.

Get to know the most popular dog breeds in America:

Petland Kansas City also has the best dog breeds for children and best emotional support dogs, which include:

We hope to help you and your family pick out the perfect puppy at our Overland Park location in Kansas. Thanks for stopping by our blog!