GENERAL TRAINING

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It is always best to take your puppy to puppy training classes in your area. Training clubs in your area can be found on the Kennel Club website.

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Puppy training not only ensures you have a dog you can control and trust, it is also an opportunity for your puppy to learn to be sociable, which is essential to avoid aggression towards others. Dog showing is a sociable way to meet other havanese owners and see other havanese dogs. Agility is tremendous fun and not the reserve of big dogs – your puppy will have to grow up a bit before he should do much jumping though… but there are plenty of agility tasks which he can train for without jumping.

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There are many training methods, but here are a few tips and tricks to get you started.

First step is to decide what commands you are going to use and to stick to them so your puppy does not get confused. Some of the ones used are listed below. As your puppy starts to know what you are asking of him his level of understanding will increase and you can build on his vocabulary, but start with just one or two commands – try to make each of the commands sound different – so for SIT, say it in quite a brisk way, whereas with DOWN, say it in a slower, lower tone.

 

These are commands you can use : –

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SIT – for asking the dog to sit

DOWN – for asking the dog to lie down

STAND – for asking the dog to stand

COME – for asking the dog to come to you

WAIT – for asking the dog to remain in one position until you say otherwise.

OFF – for asking the dog to get off furniture, or to stop jumping up at someone

LEAVE – to get the dog to relinquish an item they have in their mouth or to stop them picking up the item in the first place.

HURRY UP – to ask the dog to go to the toilet.

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For SIT, DOWN and STAND you can teach your puppy the various commands by saying them at the appropriate time and giving him a treat. By way of example, if your puppy happens to lie down say DOWN and give him a treat, Whilst he stays in the position keep repeating the appropriate command to him. At first your commands will come after he is in position, but he will soon learn to associate the command with the position. At a training class you can learn to bait your puppy into various positions by holding and moving treats to guide your puppy into the positions you are teaching.