Welcome to Week Five!

You’ve learned a lot in these past five weeks! You’ve taught your puppy how to look at your when you say her name, how to be a leader and not an alpha dog, how all of her senses impact your daily interactions with her and what her body postures mean! Her potty training should be under control, and she’s learned that her teeth on your skin are a no-no. Plus, you’ve started the early training of introducing her to her collar and leash, how to sit, down, come when called and stay!

We’ve discussed how to teach her to want to go into her crate, how to go to a specific spot when people come to visit, how to get her to stop chewing on your shoelaces, and to use hide & seek as an easy way to teach her to come to your children. You’re creating a solid foundation for your puppy, but we’ve got a lot more information, ideas and training ideas to share with you!

Welcome to week five of your puppy training! This week we’re going to introduce you to Clicker Training in the Training For Success column, "Introduction to Clicker Training." You’ve learned the basics of marker-based Positive Reinforcement training; now it’s time to learn why “It’s quicker with a clicker!”

This week's Kids & Puppies column, "Learning How to Teach Your Puppy" teaches some fundamental guidelines for kids on how to train your puppy. These are basic training techniques to help your kids learn successful communication with your puppy before we get started teaching actual behaviors and tasks.

Have you noticed that your puppy is sometimes distracted when you’re trying to teach her something? Use these simple evaluation steps to determine your puppy’s personality with distractions and how you can gain her focus for her training in this week's Understanding Your Puppy column, "Puppies & Distractions."

Have a cat already living at your home and need some help introducing (or re-introducing) them to each other. Read all about, "Introducing Your New Puppy to Your Cat" in the Socialization For Today column.

Stumped for ideas on how to reward and reinforce your puppy for successful learning? We’re loaded with ideas in this week's Perfect Puppy column, "Ideas for Rewards and Reinforcers!"

Remember, please, 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 Five issue!

Kind regards,
The staff of MyPetTrainer.com