Which is the most appropriate age?

Poppy

Poppy

Member
You all probably know that young puppies have short attention spans but from experience, I always begin to teach them simple obedience commands from about 6 weeks of age. I have heard it said (elsewhere) that formal training is best delayed until the sixth month. What are your thoughts?
 
Great question and here is my brief answer:

I personally start training from my first interaction and day my puppy comes home. I truly believe every interaction is an opportunity for learning. Now that being said I definitely try to stay within one learning quadrant which is positive reinforcement. I would use our tools such as shaping, luring and capturing to name a few. With a lot of management and redirecting.

The six month rule in my opinion came from a more traditional style of training and was said that a heavy hand or tools is not good for young pups. So much goes into this answer involving puppies, behavior and socialization. Seems like a simple question but so much is involved.

There is lots of articles on DR's main site on puppies and I have requested an article on this topic also. I will post the article here for a reminder.
 
@Vinny, thank you for that great article. I had no idea that the experiences at the formative years, play a role in the personality of the same dogs, later on in life. Just like you, I use my initial interactions to start training them and I love puppies because they are so easy to train, owing to their obedience.
 
I think that simple obedience training isn't unreasonable when a puppy is about 6 weeks old. It seems to me that waiting until a dog is 6 months old is quite a long time to wait, but maybe the key here is the word formal. Perhaps it is a good thing to wait until the puppy is older to start any formal training, but I think a few simple commands are okay at 6 weeks.
 
You all raise valid points, and I think the idea here is that you should be systematic with your dog. This thread also got me wondering if there are certain breeds that are easier to train compared to others? I would guess that there are certain puppies that tend to be more playful than obedient.
 
Reading through the second article posted by @Vinny, I get the feeling that the debate as to when the ideal age to train a dog is, seems not to be one that will end soon. From what I have observed, a puppy that is taught basic obedience and trained from an early age tends to be a quicker learner, later on in life.
 
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