Why start training your puppy as soon as you get him/her?

Training your puppy to fit into your lifestyle both inside and outside your home
environment is critical.  Puppies who never are trained in the big outside world
often end up as adult dogs confined to backyards and locked away when
guests arrive because the dog doesn't know how to behave.  

Puppies need socialization and introduction to many different experiences in
life.  Training a puppy exclusively in your home usually results in a puppy that
only listens in your home and can't focus amid distractions.  Dogs are meant to
be part of our lives; they are pack animals.   

Puppies are not born bad and aren't out to spite you when they act out.  
Puppies do what works and what feels good.  Plain and simple.  If we let them
do whatever they want, puppies will be out of control.

All puppies need to be taught acceptable behaviors and that important job falls
to each and every person who owns a puppy.  Be realistic in your expectations
for your puppy.  A puppy is like a human toddler.  You wouldn't expect a
toddler to instinctively know what is right and wrong or understand the dangers
of running into the street, would you?  You wouldn't leave a young child alone
in your yard to amuse himself, would you?  Imagine all the awful things that
could happen if you did.  Puppies need to be treated as if they were toddlers
who don't know all the rules and certainly don't understand the dangers in the
world.

Take your puppy to a class and work with him.  Be fair and realistic in your
expectations.  Puppies don't come into our world perfectly behaved and
understanding the rules.  Our job as their guardians is to teach them with
patience, consistency, fairness, and kindness.  

Untrained puppies grow up to be untrained dogs.  Dogs can develop  
behaviors that humans don't tolerate - barking, digging, lunging, jumping,
stealing, protectiveness, aggression, and destructiveness.  Finally, the
frustrated owner drops the dog off at a shelter expecting that the dog they can't
live with will miraculously find the perfect home.  

I see these dogs at shelters.  Some find homes; some never do; and some die.
 Dogs don't improve locked up in a kennel run.  Other people don't want the
dog now that it is an adult and untrained.  Most of the reasons the dog is there
could have been prevented simply if the owners sought professional help and
took the time to train the dog when it was a puppy.

Please train your puppy.
Please Train Your Puppy