age puppy training

[davidardill]

how old should my puppy be before i start taking him to training classes? i have a 4 month old whippet and we do bits and pieces of training, ie sit, stay, come, and he is doing ok, i feel he would benefit from more structured training, as well as giving me the reassurance i'm doing it right.

[logman]

I think it would be a good idea to check with individual trainers, astheir ideas may vary but in most cases at least 3-6 months seem to be the norm. Good luck with him..

[lankeela]

As soon as you can get him to a class. There are sme classes that will not take them till they are 6 months, but if you can find one that takes them as soon as they are vaccinated then the sooner he will learn to be an obedient pet that is a pleasure to own.

Good luck, I would love to have a whippet.

[drgnrdr]

allot of new vets are starting to understand that socializing and vaccines go together now days. (this is future info for others)Try to find a class that requires at least 2 sets of shots, sanitizes and disinfects their floor, and that teaches pos. reinforce training, get them into as soon as 2 sets are done which is around 10 to 12 weeks old. This is from the experts at the shelters and human society, they see too many dogs that needed the socializing and early preventative training, most dogs given up is due to these factors, no training, out of control, etc.. and aggrsssive or shy to unknown dogs and people.

Some people don't understand about virus's and such, if you go outside, and go into your home without stripping and scrubbing down, you are taking virus's and such into your home, if you go to the vet's office, do they scrub the WAITING room between clients? No not usually, they try to clean the TABLE you set your dog on but watch the floor they don't usually mop that, unless they get a Parvo case in and can clear the rooms and bleach everything before anyone else goes in then bingo your exposed to it. When you go to the hospital aren't you exposing yourself to virus's? So that is why vets understand this, they know training at an early age is well worth it.

You would be best to get into a class as soon as possible, more dogs die of behavior problems than they ever do from disease. Check out http://www.hssv.org/LIBRARY/PDF/Behavior/pupsocialization.pdf

Hope you can click this from hssv.org. It's never to late to train your dog...well with 1 exception..you can't do anything when their dead.

[Snappy]

The very good puppy class near me wont accept them over 14weeks of age but obedience classes are open to all ages, except very young dogs

[Kateiepants]

Sounds like you are doing well. But if you want extra help just go along to your local puppy training classes.

One word of advice: don't expect your whippet to fetch. Mine simply gave me a look of discust as if to say "well you threw it, you pick it up" Lol!