Welcome to Week Eight!

In the previous two weeks of Perfect Puppy, we’ve covered the howls, yowls and yips your puppy makes. Plus, "Barking 101" introduced you to the 11 different reasons your puppy uses her bark and how to help you understand why and when she uses what reason. This week in the Perfect Puppy column, we’re going to tell you how you can teach her a “quiet” cue.

To make sure you aren’t unintentionally reinforcing her barking, we’ve detailed how to teach your puppy to, "Ring a Bell to Go Outdoors" to potty. A bell is a great way for her to communicate with you, you can hang it inside near the door, outside so she can tell you she’s ready to come in, or in her crate to alert you, and it’s portable if you travel! Ring, ring, ring this week's Training For Success column!

Your child is well on the way to using Clicker Training with your puppy. We’ve used Clicker Training for your child to teach your puppy to sit and how to make eye contact. This Week in Kids & Puppies we teach, "Puppy Zen" so your puppy has focus, patience and impulse control when your child works with her.

In the MyPetTrainer.com Day 6, Understanding Your Puppy column, we talked about dogs having less visual acuity than we do. Because of that difference, your puppy doesn’t see definition as clearly as you and your family members. This difference in eyesight often triggers issues when dogs see someone wearing a hat! Therefore, you need to socialize your puppy to hats and all styles of them! The Socialization For Today activity teaches your puppy she doesn’t need to be reactive when people wearing hats approach her. She’ll learn that people wearing hats are fun people, not some crazy alien out to get her!

"How Long Before My Puppy is Trained?" Ahh... the most frequently asked question of dog trainers! In this week's Understanding Your Puppy, we talk about your role in helping to answer this question.

As always, please remember that we’re here to help you raise and teach your puppy well into maturity. We are YOUR team dedicated to supporting you and your puppy. Please enjoy your Week Eight issue!

Kind regards,
The staff of MyPetTrainer.com