Training a Little Puppy

          I always recommend starting to train your GSP puppy as soon as you get him. This is mostly because the time you get your new GSP puppy you will start interacting with him or her whether you want to or not and this interaction is pretty much “training”.

Now, it is important to understand that there are baby steps involved in training and it is important IMO to follow these steps, otherwise the whole thing will crumble down later on, unfortunately. 

Usually what I see is people start asking for things that are too complex or too hard for a 2 or 3-month-old GSP puppy to understand “properly”. Same with new Malinois puppies. Often people are very happy that their 9-week old GSP pup will retrieve a ball in the living room and will come when they call its name in high pitched voice while inside the house. This is good and very nice, but this will most likely change 2 months later, I promise you this ;) Don’t let it discourage you though. 

         What I think is important to teach your GSP puppy in the first few months is the basics and make sure we have those solid in their place. It will come in handy later on. I think house rules and yes and no is probably the most important to teach your puppy. Very often, as often as almost always, people teach only “yes” and never the “no”. This gets often confused by uneducated “trainers” referring to “Positive Reinforcement Training”. This is very good and truly the only quality way to train anybody, but it in no shape or form means that the new GSP puppy, in this case, should not learn that no means no! It will only lead to unruly and confused and mentally unstable GSP dog later, mostly scared whenever it hears anyone raise their voice. Yes, these are the dogs that you mostly see in dog shelters and everyone thinks how “abused” they were, where the exact opposite is usually the truth. 

          So please teach your new GSP puppy that no means no, right from day 1, praise them for doing the right thing and ignore or correct the wrong behaviour without making it a big deal and holding grudges. 

Without this, you will probably not have a solid recall and without a solid recall, you will not have a retrieve and so on.