The four most important things to guarantee success for you and your pup are SUPERVISION, ROUTINE, LIMITED FREEDOM, and PRAISE (NOT PUNISHMENT). You have to remember that your puppy is still a baby after all and as with all babies, potty training takes time. When your puppy arrives at your house, he doesn’t understand the difference between what we think is good and bad behavior. As far as your puppy is concerned, the carpet is the same as the grass outside other than the fact that it is warmer, cleaner, and more comfortable. This is where supervision and routine come into play.

When bringing home a puppy, or any dog for that matter, it’s good to be prepared. Puppies require a lot of time and attention, so making unplanned trips to the store to pick up needed supplies can make the experience stressful. But that’s why we’re here to help. Below you’ll find a new puppy shopping list, to hopefully ensure that you have everything you need before you bring puppy home!

Puppies, like babies, playfully explore the world around them, discovering what is normal. During this time in a dog’s life, it’s important to expose a dog to a variety of stimuli so that they learn to accept the world as safe.

One of the main goals of the Noble Beast Dog Training Team is to introduce and educate folks on the science of dog training and dog behavior as we are very passionate about positive relationship-focused training, and ALWAYS work in the best interest of the dog/human relationship. Although dog training has come a long way from the traditional punishment-based methods established decades ago, to this day, I still meet dog owners, vets, and even trainers who have the impression that there is no harm in using choke, prong, and electric collars “if used properly”. Well, I have met many dogs who would disagree and I can promise you, whether you use these tools “properly” or not, the discomfort of these training tools is not a positive for any dog.

Your dog is first and foremost a dog – he will bark, he will chew, he will dig, he will use his mouth to grab, bite, and explore, he will get wildly distracted, he will learn some things fast and some will take a bit longer to get down. He is an individual – a product of his DNA, what happened in the womb, what happened in his litter, and what happened after his litter – no two dogs are alike, even if from the same litter. He is a living thinking, thoughtful, decision making creature living in the now by doing what is most interesting at that particular moment, and there will be many times that other things in life will be much more interesting to pay attention to than you – especially as a teenage dog. You can’t let what your dog chooses to do upset you because you believe your dog should behave differently.