I made a Spreadsheet for Puppy Training?

[s_darby2123]

Hi All! I'm getting a puppy at the end of next month!!! I've been doing a lot of reading to be prepared, especially in terms of training during weeks 8-16. This development period is so important to raising a well behaved dog and there is so much to do!

I made a simple checkbox spreadsheet to be able to keep myself on track with training and socialization. Yes, it's nerdy, but I do not naturally lean towrds organization, so I dont wanna just wing it!

With this I should be able to slowly increase time between bathroom breaks and also ensure that I'm working on all the important things every day!

Can everyone please take a look at this list and let me know if I'm missing anything big? I'll be doing ongoing clicker training, but for the first 2 months I just wanna focus on basics. Thank you! And if yo uhave any other recommendations, please let me know!

I am considering going even futher and making the daily tracker link to a monthly calendar so I can analyze change over time! But I stink at using Numbers so we shall see!

 

[leong]

@s_darby2123 Something you should know about training is that training works best when the dog is in the mood to train. You're not going to be able to get focus and work with you often as a young puppy and only for very short periods of time so don't pressure the dog or yourself to work on things every single day and at all hours of the day. Most dogs do well after they've had a good walk or a play session and are ready to train for a bit. As the dog gets older and older and you train more often you can extend the training time, but still it always works best in short bursts and when they're focused and in the mood to train. Most weeks I can get my dog to work on three or four tricks/ exercises that I want to work on and see significant improvement, anymore and I don't make much progress on anything.

I just came back from an agility class that's largely puppies (6 months - 12 months) and some weeks the pups are really great, pivoting, recalling, focusing on the owners and some weeks, like this week they bolt out of their crate and run amock. You need to work with whatever they're in and not to push them further than what they can handle and the trainer is great at gauging their moods. My dog is older now 1.5 and he has better focus but still , especially after almost an hour of class and focusing on me, he'll get distracted and jump on the trainer or start barking and looking for food and we work with it by cutting the exercise short or asking for less and not forcing him to focus when he can't.

I also did similar stuff to you and wrote a checklist of tricks and commands I wanted him to know by week1 , week2 etc... When mine was a puppy, he knew a dozen or so tricks in the first month, but couldn't stop barking at other dogs in training class and that's where I think I did poorly in focusing on what was the most important thing to train. What I've learned is commands aren't really that important for young puppies. Yes you should focus on training that makes them livable with you like house training and crate training because you'll go crazy without it, but stuff like sit and stay are really easy to train if you can get your puppy to learn to focus on you around distractions. Socialization, as in the process of teaching your puppy to be confident in new environments, and focus on you/ willingness to learn and work with you are the most important training tools you can have. If you have those two things, teaching new tricks and commands are smooth sailing.

Good luck with the new pup!

 

[woodworker]

@s_darby2123 From personal experience - be prepared to improvise. I'd suggest having useful resources ready at your finger tips to look to when unexpected problems occur... The unexpected was a shock to us as we thought we were just as prepared!

I'd say definitely monitor how much your pup sleeps - we started making note of it on day 2 and realised she was only sleeping about 14 hours of sleep a day when puppies should be getting 18-20 hours! So we started enforcing naps and our life got so much easier. It's also made leaving her alone much easier as we've been able to build up to her napping for 4 hours during the day (the time we'll be leaving her for when back at work).

 

[lessiebelle]

@s_darby2123 For the first 8-16 weeks, it doesn't really matter all that much what tricks you're training the pup, what matters more is using the training to build communication and relationship.

But as far as the overall layout, I think I'm missing something--is the goal to cycle through all of these once an hour? If so, I'm not sure if that's the most efficient way to train. What I'd suggest instead if you're trying to be super organized (and I totally understand that, I'm the same way) is tracking how much time you spend training her each day, and creating a spaced repetition-type flashcard deck (like Anki) for tricks. I used Toggl for a while to track how much time she was spending in the crate, training, walking, between potty breaks, etc., and that gives you good analytics and super easy to start timers.

And then, on top of all of that, some of the most important training you do will be situational: getting your dog to sit and look at you in lots of different environments, coming to you when called even if they're distracted by something, teaching impulse control and calmness, etc.

 

[kevinfd1985]

@s_darby2123 I use the Dog Assistant app on Android to track pee, poop and sleep.

I would track pee and poo separately. Then you can start seeing a trend of when your pup goes. I'd worry less about training them to hold it for longer, and focus on taking them out more often. Not taking them out is just inviting accidents to happen which actually trains them to potty inside.

I track sleep for duration. Aiming for 15+ hours per day. Enforced naps are the most important thing you could possible do for your pup (and your sanity)

They also come to you knowing literally nothing. You're going to have to spread out those commands over weeks. You need to teach them the foundation things before all these commands - luring, listening to a name, a marker or clicker. Then it's better to go slow and heavily focus on getting few skills right more often, than than ramp up to lots of skills too quickly.

I stopped tracking training because I do so much of it (and so little). Every moment is a learning moment for the puppy so I don't do "training sessions" but just launch into ad hoc 5 min crate training just before he eats or play a bit and then 5 min of sit and down or potty, then 5 min of recall and down. I'm making food in the kitchen and he's calm. train and reward. Also training becomes throwing in random things they have learned so you keep them guessing and keep them reinforced.

You could also track socialization. How many new people (and types of people*), things, sounds, sights he gets to experience or interact with. That is arguably more important than training a ton of skills especially at wks 8-16.

*types of people = race, gender, size, age, clothing, gait, riding a bike, roller blading, skateboarding, pushing a stroller, walking with a cane, carrying a bag, wearing a backpack, etc.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@s_darby2123 good idea if you can keep up with it while wrangling the puppy