So, you've just got a new fur baby! How exciting! But what's next?

Getting a new puppy is a new experience full of moments of adoration and frustration. You have a new little breathing creating to raise, take care of, and bond with for the rest of both of your lives.

Most people get a new puppy and don't even know where to begin with training them, leading to many unintentional common mistakes that can be detrimental to your puppy's development.

So, what mistakes should you be avoiding when you train your new pup? Read on to find out.

What are 6 Common Puppy Training Mistakes?

1. Failure to Start Basic Training Immediately

Many owners gloss over the importance of training their puppy immediately when they bring them home. Crate training and basic training should start the moment your new puppy is introduced into your space to enhance them mentally and help form a good household routine for them. However, many owners wait to train their puppy until bad habits form, which is not the way to go.

Training is a good way to form strong bonds with your pup and help enforce the fact that you are in charge. If you allow your puppy to do whatever he wants, and you fail to discipline them properly, they're going to participate in bad behavior and develop bad habits.

The longer you wait to train your new puppy, the easier it will be for bad habits to develop. Therefore, you should prevent bad habits before they even start to form in order to have a well-behaved, intellectual pup.

2. Inconsistency with Training

Let's look at a common scenario.

You've begun training your puppy and have enforced some common rules for them to follow. These could include not allowing them on the couch and bed or not allowing them to eat food from the table. However, one night you see your dog on the edge of the bed begging to be allowed up, or you see them in your peripheral while you're eating dinner begging to be given a piece. So you start to think, "It wouldn't hurt to let them in the bed or have just a little of my food just this once, right?" Wrong.

This is an example of inconsistency in training. Once you enforce a rule, you should never make exceptions to that rule. If you allow your pup to do something one time and then turn around and get mad at them for trying to do it again, they're going to be confused and not understand why it was allowed before but isn't now.

3. Constant Repetition of Commands

Constant repetition of commands is when owners continually repeat commands such as "sit" or "come" over and over again because of their puppy's reluctance to respond to them. This is one of the biggest problems that affects the early training of puppies since it usually leads to your dog losing attention and you becoming even more frustrated as time goes on.

If your pup doesn't respond the first two times you say a command, do not repeat it over and over again. If you do, your pup will begin to think they have control and can wait before responding to the command, which isn't good since you should expect your pup to respond the first time you say a command.

If your pup doesn't respond by the second time you've said a command, you should try to gain their attention by snapping or clapping your hands, whistling, or making a noise that will catch your dog's attention. Only repeat the command once you have your pup's full attention.

4. Becoming Impatient With Your Pup

It's important to remember that learning a new skill doesn't happen overnight. Instead, it may take days of practice to learn and get accustomed to new tasks. The same goes for your puppy.

Training takes time, and dogs, just like people, learn at different paces, so it's important not to get frustrated if your dog takes a long time to learn something new. Frustration can be felt by your dog and can lead to them becoming frustrated and even stressed, which can hinder their ability to learn.

Instead of getting frustrated and forcing your dog to learn at a pace they aren't accustomed to, you should reduce the training session time, so your dog doesn't become distracted or frustrated. It would also help if you tried breaking commands down into smaller steps to make it easier for them to learn.

If you become frustrated, you should take a step back, calm down, and stop the session on a positive note before your frustration piles up.

5. Trying to Apply a One-Size-Fits-All Approach with Trianing Your Puppy

Every dog is different. So, taking a teaching style from a "Training Your Dog 101" book, blog, or video isn't guaranteed to work for your specific dog. This doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them or the material you're trying to learn from; the material just doesn't work for your dog.

When training your puppy, it's important to play around and try different teaching styles and see how your dog reacts to them. This means you'll have to take advice from several sources and combine a few to find what works with your dog.

6. Aggressively Scolding Your Puppy

This should be self-explanatory,, but negative discipling techniques can be detrimental to not only the progress of your training, but can also affect the bond and relationship you have with your puppy. These negative discipline techniques can include hitting, yelling, aggressively staring down, or grabbing your dog. In addition, aggressive reactions towards your dog can lead to your dog becoming aggressive or even fearful of you, which isn't what you want.

Most owners try to use aggressiveness to assert their dominance over their puppy, but that is the worst way to do it. Instead, be kind and patient with your puppy so you can earn their respect. Only then will they see you as a positive leader.

Conclusion

Training a new puppy can be an exciting yet frustrating experience to undergo. However, it's a prime time to form an everlasting bond and routine with your puppy that can greater shape their future with you.

There are a lot of mistakes that current and future pet parents may make when it comes to training their dogs. These mistakes include failing to start training early enough, inconsistencies with training, aggressive disciplining techniques, trying to take one way of training a dog and forcefully apply it to them, repeating commands more than necessary, and becoming frustrated with your dog.

These mistakes could be detrimental to your dog and its learning experience and should be corrected immediately. Remember that teaching your dog new tasks and rules is a delicate process that you should take with care. Go at a good pace and take everything in stride. You'll both get there eventually.