Thread: How old do puppies have to be to start training like by a professional school?

My puppy is 4 months old and I had a dog trainer tell me to wait till she is 6 months and I was wondering why if it's more effective when they are older or what.
Anything and everything is helpful!!!

Most trainers will recomend starting at around 6 months, but that doesn't mean you can't start practicing with your pup at home. You can start teaching her good behavior from day one.

Usually you're told to wait until 4 to 6 months to ensure that all the puppies have all of their puppy shots (the complete series). If you look around, there more than likely are places that offer puppy classes starting at 4 months. You might even be able to find some that start younger than that.

I know that is true for agility and most physical stuff. they like to wait until the joints are mostly formed so they do not damage them. However start with sit and down and that kind of stuff now. that will make future stuff easier.

I would wait till she is 6 months. Puppies are still babies, even at 6 months, but until them I would consider them toddlers. At 6 months they are like kindergarteners and are able to learn things and retain the knowledge....

You CAN start simple obedience like sit, stay, down, etc. My experience with this is that I could teach a 6 week old puppy all these things with relative ease but when they go through the teething stage, it's like the terrible twos and they temporarily forget everything.

The answer is yes and no. First, you don't want to bring your puppy around other dogs until it has had it's full course of shots.

Second, you need a dog that is capable of paying attention to the right stimuli. Training doesn't work if your dog is trying to engage the puppy next to it into a game of tag.

However, you can begin training your dog before you start class. I would check Karen Pryor's web site and books personally. I love her work and her approach works miracles.

That is because of cognitive development. At 4 months the puppy really doesn't understand, and anything you teach it you will have to teach it again anyway.
At 4 months a pup's only motivation is food, so take advantage of that and cookie train at home. Doesn't matter what you are working on, sit, recall, what ever, what you are really trying to teach the dog is 'how to learn'.

Almost all dog obedience classes start at six months.

I dont know about everyone else but i started training my puppy (weimaraner) the minute she stepped into my house. At first it was little things like sit down drop it was a big one and leave it. i waited until she was 6 months before i could enroll her in basic obedience because that is the rules at most places but i would suggest taking your pup to a puppy class that is the only thing i did not do with mine and i wish i did. puppy classes is for you and your dog they will tell you how to house train ect. but they also get the puppies play at the end of the class. i wish i did that with my Dog (Hope she is 2 now) because it would have let her meet other dogs and she would be more use to other dogs and she is now. I dont think starting early hurts but you wont be able to do basic obedience until 6 months its just one of the rules. Good luck.