Basic training.

Dogs learn using operant conditioning or consequence learning, this means that they learn what they do has a consequence, it is your job to make sure the consequence is a positive reward for good behaviour. There is no need to be a bully or a dictator to have a well behaved dog.

Find an area with no distractions to train, and keep the sessions short at first.
Decide if you will reward with treats, which should be small enough to eat immediately, and the appropriate calorific value removed from the daily allowance, or a toy that you use only for training to make it of higher value.
Never train if you are short of time, tired or in a bad mood as it will be a disaster.
Always end a training session on a happy positive note, never push for just one more...

The first commands you teach will probably be sit and down and these are both relatively easy to teach.
For a sit hold a treat higher than the nose and say sit, the dog may have the treat once sat which it should naturally do as you move your hand higher, for a down hold the treat in a fist and move towards the floor the dog will naturally follow the treat and go down. They may then have the treat.

The single most important thing you will ever teach your dog is recall. you can start this from day one by every time your pup comes to his name reward him, even if he only walked a foot. Once older a long length training lead will be very useful to continue this training. I personally use a whistle which I lew around the house for a few days and every time the dog came to investigate the noise I rewarded with lots of praise and a treat. The reason I use a whistle is because a voice can carry inflections of fear or panic or anger, a whistle is simply a whistle.
when you are confident enough to walk without a lead, recall your dog several times throughout the walk as an intelligent staff will soon make the connection that coming back = lead on and home....

One last thing.... Never train your pup for to long. They have very limited attention spans. Do 10 x 2 minute sessions instead of one 20 minute training session. Also if you implement training into your daily routine it is so much easier to fit in a lot of extra training - pup/dog in a different room, recall and have it sit at your feet, give a treat and release it. Meal time? Have your pup/dog sit/down and wait/stay before putting down it's bowl. This is a fantastic way to imprint commands.

Good Post Jo

We seem to have lots of new members with new puppies or in the process of getting a new puppy I thought it might help.

Nice post Jo! You have either too much knowledge or too much time lol.

Thanks for all the help so far, hopefully we will be able to meet sometime somewhere with the dogs and go for a nice walk.

Its definitely not too much time Matt trust me!

I would be very happy to meet with whoever wanted (within reason and travelling distance!)

I'm glad you found it useful

am i banned from the next meet

No Emma course your not your right up my alley chick kindred spirits

i would love to meet up with some people the only person close to me is staffy tel..

Great post.

stick it in

Thank you!! I stuck it in there

Great post watts, thank you,

Fab post. Lots of clear info & I think im gonna need all the help i can get.

Watts - good post and tips for all new puppy owners