Training, Manners, & Exercise...

When you take your puppy home for the first time, take him/her to the potty area BEFORE you take him/her into the house. Wait to take them into the house until he/she has gone potty.

Pay attention to your puppy's body language. if he/she stops playing or wakes up from a nap and starts sniffing and/or passing gas take them out quickly. Always use a positive voice when your puppy has gone potty outside & have training treats ready. If using training treats, be sure to give the treat as soon as your puppy has done something good. They have short attention spans at this age & might not remember why you're giving them the treat. After they go potty outside, we like to give a positive sounding "Yes!" &/or  "Good Job!". Housebreaking can be done quickly with consistency.  

We started training the puppy for you, but in the puppy stage, there’s still some work to do. It takes a puppy a little time, at least 1-2 weeks minimum, to adjust to their new home. Letting your puppy out often is key! Letting your puppy out every 15-20 minutes when he/she is in the house for the first couple weeks will lessen the chance of an accident, but accidents will still happen. If they have an accident, it's still a good idea to take them outside & pointing to the ground, say "Potty" or "Potty here". Please be patient & consistent. Yelling loudly or hitting your dog will just scare them & make them feel sad. 

Setting up a playpen play area for your puppy to be in when you cannot keep a close eye on him/her will allow your puppy to still be around you while developing good habits. 

Set your puppy up for success by making your house smaller in the beginning of your housebreaking. Shut doors to extra rooms and/or  use baby gates to block the puppy from having access to the whole house. As your puppy learns where he/she should go potty you can slowly add more rooms to their living space.

We like to give a "go potty" or "hurry up" command while the puppy is going so when they are older, they will go practically on command. This is extremely helpful if the weather is bad or if you are traveling, but don’t want to stop for very long.

A crate/kennel is a safe place for your dog to spend time when you are not home for shorter amounts of time (4-5 hours or less). It is a safe place for him/her to sleep if you don’t want them wandering around the house at night or jumping into bed with you. Your puppy has already been introduced to being in a crate. They were put into a crate when we knew they were tired & had already gone out to potty. We started teaching them by luring them into the crate with a treat. As soon as the puppy was almost in, we would say “go in your crate” or at night “go to bed”. Once they were all the way in & turned around to look at us, we would give them the treat & shut the door. At first, they would usually cry or pace for a few minutes, but then would settle & lay down. After a few minutes of them laying down quietly, they were given another treat. If a puppy seemed to have too much anxiety, we would let them out & tried again later when they seemed to be calmer.  

Golden retrievers are around 50-90 lbs full grown, so teaching your puppy to walk nicely on a leash at a young age can make walking or even trips away from home so much more enjoyable for both you, your puppy, and other people. The first step in teaching your puppy to walk well on a leash is making sure that you have a good leash, collar &/or harness. Before we take a puppy on a walk, we play a game to teach them to give to pressure. (Pressure is tension on the leash) We start by having the puppy on a leash in a familiar environment. We slowly put more and more pressure on the lead until the puppy takes a step towards us. As soon as he/she steps toward us we release the pressure and praise the puppy. We repeat this slowly asking the puppy to move more and more each time.

The key to teaching any dog or puppy anything is consistency. It is important to prevent any pressure on the leash at all times. If the puppy  is allowed to put pressure on the leash, he/she will grow up used to feeling that and will not think twice about pulling. However, if you teach your puppy to give to pressure, he/ she will prefer to walk without pulling.

Remember if you let your puppy go see every dog you encounter on a walk, he/she will assume even as an adult that every dog he/she sees needs to be greeted. This can be dangerous if the other dog is not friendly or if the other dog is carrying a sickness. When we see other dogs on a walk (unless we know them and their owners) we do not let our dogs touch the other dogs & we continue to keep our dogs in a heal position. By doing this as a puppy we get well behaved dogs that do not bark, lunge or get crazy when they see other dogs. This also applies to people. It is great for your puppy to meet new people of all ages but he/she doesn't need to great everyone he/she walks by.

Exercise is very important for both physical and mental health, but like anything in life it is important to find a healthy balance. All puppies need physical exercises but the amount and intensity, depends on the age and individual  puppy. While physical exercise is important, mental stimulation may be just as if not more important. Teaching a puppy to think  and learn at a young age and continuing to challenge him/her can help you develop a deeper relationship with him/her. It is important not to do too much or the wrong kind of exercise. 

We limit the amount of steps your puppies use on each day of training. We also do not allow our dogs to jump on or off furniture or in and out of vehicles before they are a year old, to limit the chance of injuries. If they sleep in your bed, bedside steps are a great option to help them get up & down. There's definitely a balance to how much exercise and mental stimulation your puppy/dog requires. Too much exercise can be harmful for your puppy's growing bones and joints. Too much or too intense mental stimulation can be overwhelming and frustrating to your puppy leaving him/her feeling overwhelmed & less confident. Too little exercise and mental stimulation can leave a puppy feeling frustrated and bored. This can result in the puppy/dog becoming destructive, trying to run away, becoming noisy or overly hyper.

Remember, your puppy to one year old dog is like a human toddler. They don’t enter their teenage phase until closer to their 1st birthday up to 2 years, although many sources, including kibble companies, call them an adult after age one. After their 2nd birthday, they will be fully considered an adult. 

Hiking with your puppy is great exercise, but be prepared to carry them if you wander too far. Of course, always carry plenty of treats & water with you on your adventures & we wish you many happy adventures!

Walking them in a new area with different sites, sounds and smells is a great mental stimulation. Teaching them a new trick or practicing something they already know in a new environment is a great mental stimulation. Having them work for food by using food puzzles or hiding the food is great mental stimulation. Being creative and offering your puppy/dog appropriate challenges will strengthen your bond and build your puppy/dogs confidence.

A well socialized puppy will grow into a calmer, more easy-going adult that is less likely to get stressed out.  It is importent to realize that puppy's go through fear stages. If you recognize it and understand it, you can help your puppy learn and grow through it. During these fear stages we try to keep everything positive. If we introduce something new, we are careful to take it slow and keep it positive. Puppies also go through phases where they will soak more up and learn more quickly than other times. So pay attention to your puppy and go at his/her pace.

Remember when allowing your puppy or dog to meet another dog while he/she is on a leash keep the leash a little loose. If there is tension on the leash while your puppy/dog is greeting a new dog it can create tension in the meeting.

If your puppy shows fear of an object such as a dumpster, building, parked vehicle, etc. Don’t force him/her to check it out. Instead, encourage them to check it out with praise and/or treats. We like to walk around the object and let the puppy see us touch it. If you or your friends have a confident dog (that your puppy has already met), have the dog checkout the object and praise the dog heavily in front of the puppy. 

If the only time your puppy ever gets to go on a car ride, he/she goes to the vet or somewhere he/she doesn't like, they will associate the car with that negative place. However, if you take your puppy for rides to the park to go for a walk or on a ride to visit a friend, they will learn to love the car.

The first year of our puppy’s life, we take them everywhere we can! Running errands, getting groceries, or just a Sunday drive on an old country road. We make sure to lift them in and out of the car for the first year to help their developing joints. After a year old we still take them everywhere we can, but it's more because we love to have them with us. Depending where your adventure takes you, you might want to pack a lint roller. That "Golden Glitter" (a.k.a. dog hair) likes to get on everything.

There are a few simple manners that you can teach your puppy that will not only make day to day life easier but will also make everyone your dog meets fall in love with him/her. We start teaching our puppies not to jump up at a very young age. We do this by only giving your puppies attention when all four feet are calmly on the floor.  If you continue this and ask everyone that meets your puppy to do the same you will not have to worry about having a 60-90 lb dog jumping on you and your friends. If the puppy does jump up, we turn away and ignore them until they put all their feet back on the floor.

A We like to place train our puppies/dogs, it comes in very handy when we are traveling or just working around the house. It allows a safe way for them to be with us when we can’t give them 100% of our attention, without having to have them tied up or crated. Place training is teaching your puppy/dog to stay on his/her place. We use non-slip bath mats, size 24” x 40”. You can usually get them at a store like Walmart for around $10 each. We love these because it gives our dogs a non-slip surface to be on, since some of our floors can be a little slippery for dog paws. We also have them at the bottom of stairs to give the dogs a non-slip landing zone, as well as other places on the floor where the dogs like to nap. This protects their legs & hips from getting injured. We use treats to lure them onto the mat. We’ve had expensive dog beds, but our dogs will pick the bath mat every time. We use treats to lure them onto the mat. If they sit on the mat nicely, we say “Yes, Place” & give them a treat. After a while, you can just say “Place” & they will run to the mat & sit or lay down. 

There is a difference between a chewing puppy and a puppy going through teething. It is very normal for a puppy to want to carry and chew things they find, it is how they explore and learn. It is our job as a breeder and your job as an owner to be sure they do this in a safe way without picking up bad habits like chewing up shoes, papers, etc. We do this by replacing things that we do not want the puppy to have with toys that we do want them to play with. We also recommend setting your puppy up for success by puppy proofing your home and yard.