Keeping Your Puppy On A Routine

People that do not know much about dogs assume that dogs learn very easily. In some ways they do – training a dog, when you know what you are doing, is one of the easiest things to do. Easier than training any other animal.

However, one of the reasons that people believe this is because they assume dogs are intelligent. Dogs ARE intelligent, but for a different reason than most people anticipate. Dogs are able to maintain a variety of different behaviors based on how they were rewarded for previous behaviors. However, dogs absolutely do not think like people do. They cannot tell the difference between when something is okay and when something is not, nor can they tell what you want when you use different terminology.

That is why when you are training a puppy, you need to make sure you establish all rules and understanding at the forefront, and reduce any confusion when you “train.” Don’t forget – everything you do with your puppy, including giving it food, showing it when to go out, keeping it off the furniture and even respecting your family members – for a new puppy, this is all a form of training.

Reasons to Keep Your Puppy on a Set Routine

            1)      Dogs that are confused about a rule will not learn it, or at least will not learn it correctly. If you have any ambiguity with the rules, your puppy will not be able to understand the difference. One example is if you are training your dog to eat its food, but then occasionally give it some of your food from your plate, your dog will have a problem understanding why it needs to eat its own food when it gets food from your table at other times of day.

            2)      Keeping your dog on a schedule reduces nervousness. A puppy that does not know when it is fed and when it gets to eat every day will:

a.       Get very nervous when food is not coming, or

b.      Try to eat anything it gets its hands on since it doesn’t know that its food will be coming.

Both of these are behaviors you want to avoid, and feeding your dog on schedule (or taking them to the bathroom, or showing them when to sleep, etc.) will ensure they keep their mind off of these things and don’t search for ways to fill their needs on their own.

            3)      A good routine will teach your dog when to relax. Similar to what was mentioned above, your puppy routine shows your dog that there are times that things occur and times it does not. Your dog will not go searching for food because it knows that at a certain point of day it will get food. Your dog will not pee on your floor because it knows that at a certain time of day it will go outside. These are all examples of your puppy getting used to understanding its environment.

Finally, keeping your dog on a schedule allows you to be in control of its environment, which helps establish yourself as the dominant leader. When you feed your dog at a certain time every day, your dog knows it is waiting for you, because you are in charge. When you take your dog out to pee at a certain time, your dog knows that it is dependent on you. All of these are great for dog training and why a set routine helps your dog understand who it is and when to do its behaviors.