Ideally, training should start before you even bring him home! Getting yourself ready for what to expect and how to proceed when you bring your new puppy home eases the stress on all of you! If you already have your puppy, then the answer is “Now!” 🙂 Puppy training can and should begin right away. This doesn’t mean you’re going to be teaching heeling and long stays to an 8-week-old puppy! He’s too young for that. But you will want to be working with his mouthing/biting, housebreaking, how to walk on a leash, and working on the beginning of manners (in the home, with strangers, and with other dogs) so bad habits don’t develop. (It’s much harder to break bad habits and replace them with good ones than it is to teach good manners from the start.) There’s much that can be done with a pup early, while still letting him be a pup and with an eye toward not pushing him beyond his age! Positive methods using a ton of motivation are best for any dog – pups especially!
