Hello everyone!

From some who may know I recently adopted a 8 week old Husky on the 21st. Her name is Rey. I am loving her to death with a few moments of frustration. I've been crate and house training her. Yesterday she didn't have an accident in the house. With the crate she has been pretty comfortable about it. Something I wanted to ask to community is what should I be training Rey at 8 weeks?

Everything....Haha...Just kidding Daniel....I would start with some basic leash/walking training. And basic commands like sit, stay, leave it and drop it, recall (i.e. come here, or let's go) In my book those are the most important commands to have solid. Everything else can be slowly worked in.

Anything and everything!  Puppies are smart little hellions and will learn anything an adult dog will - and quicker!!  
All the basic commands:  Sit / Stay / Let go! (drop it / leave it) / lay down / heel ... well, you get the idea.  Rey can learn all of those and the earlier they're taught the more instilled they become.

Now's an excellent time to teach her to come and one you'll want to keep working on as she grows older. Another that I've seen done is 'drop' meaning to stop immediately and lay down. Very useful when she gets to the point that she's going to go exploring.

One command that I like to teach a dog is to stay and then walk out of their sight.  As a puppy, she's going to want to be with you so this one is more difficult. With a dog who can be trusted off lead I'll use it when I'm doing something where the door is open (bringing in groceries, for example)

If I remember correctly, you're thinking about show / agility / conformation.  So there's no better time to teach her to listen to you.  The only things I'd avoid are those that might stress young joints - any agility should probably hold off for a couple more month.

Spend a few minutes at a time with her, she's young and will get bored easily, but I think the more challenging and rewarding you make the training, the more time she'll be willing to go for more.

I rescue so almost all my dogs come to grown with 'habits' that have to be overcome so you might want to consider what you consider most important to you as a puppy owner, but there's all the reason in the world to start he young to become the adult dog you want her to be!

aljones wrote:

Anything and everything!  Puppies are smart little hellions and will learn anything an adult dog will - and quicker!!  
All the basic commands:  Sit / Stay / Let go! (drop it / leave it) / lay down / heel ... well, you get the idea.  Rey can learn all of those and the earlier they're taught the more instilled they become.

Now's an excellent time to teach her to come and one you'll want to keep working on as she grows older.  Another that I've seen done is 'drop' meaning to stop immediately and lay down.  Very useful when she gets to the point that she's going to go exploring.

One command that I like to teach a dog is to stay and then walk out of their sight.  As a puppy, she's going to want to be with you so this one is more difficult.  With a dog who can be trusted off lead I'll use it when I'm doing something where the door is open (bringing in groceries, for example)

If I remember correctly, you're thinking about show / agility / conformation.  So there's no better time to teach her to listen to you.  The only things I'd avoid are those that might stress young joints - any agility should probably hold off for a couple more month.

Spend a few minutes at a time with her, she's young and will get bored easily, but I think the more challenging and rewarding you make the training, the more time she'll be willing to go for more.

I rescue so almost all my dogs come to grown with 'habits' that have to be overcome so you might want to consider what you consider most important to you as a puppy owner, but there's all the reason in the world to start he young to become the adult dog you want her to be!

No I don't plan on doing any show / agility / conformation

But Thanks for the reply and advice!!

I guess another question I want to ask. What can I do to socialize Rey at 8 weeks. She has her first set of vaccination and won't be due till March 21st. I know she should go anywhere as she could catch something. Any advice would be great!

If you have a friend with a dog who you know is up to date on all their shots and is clean of anything unsavory you could invite them to your place for a play date. Setting up play dates with dogs you know won't pass anything to your pup is one of your very few options at that age.

When Suka first came home, I focused on letting him settle in and house training. As time has gone on, I started working with him on a near-daily basis with Sit, Down, Shake, and Stay. I’ve also taught him Wait and Leave It. I’ve had him about a month. I try to keep training sessions short because of his attention span at this age.

I think each dog and each home is unique. Work on one or two commands at a time in short 5-minute sessions. Teach her what you need her to know most. Leave It is always a good one because she’ll get into a lot of stuff until she learns basic manners.

Also, you’ll want to teach her Come or C’mere. The sooner she learns this, the better! It’s easily the most important command because you can use it to redirect her from a bad situation (like if she’s gotten loose, about to run into the road, there’s a stray dog or another animal that’s heading for her, or she’s messing with something in the house she shouldn’t).

Good luck!

lt. dan wrote:

aljones wrote:

<< snipped >>

If I remember correctly, you're thinking about show / agility / conformation.  So there's no better time to teach her to listen to you.  The only things I'd avoid are those that might stress young joints - any agility should probably hold off for a couple more month.

<< snipped >>

No I don't plan on doing any show / agility / conformation

But Thanks for the reply and advice!!

I guess another question I want to ask. What can I do to socialize Rey at 8 weeks. She has her first set of vaccination and won't be due till March 21st. I know she should go anywhere as she could catch something. Any advice would be great!

Okay, I *said* if I remembered right ... my 69 year old brain loses track of who's doing what.

Socializing and teaching a dog to accept the outside can be done until all the shots are done by simply carrying the pup outside with you. A short walk with her in your arms while the trash man is dumping trash for example. Teaches her trust and acceptance of unusual noises. Of course you have to be careful since squirmy pups have a way of getting loose ...

Teach the basics I basically made a plan of about 3 things a week Cora would learn the first week we did her name sit and lay down, the second week we did drop it anx leave it the third week we did stay and worked on that all week. Ect you get the idea and all along we worked on recall. Tru finding a class that is just for puppies!! Cora was 8 or 9 weeks when she went to her first play class with other puppies I always thinking starting young really helps!

My favorite puppy command is "leave it." I have my 10 week old to the point that I can put a treat on his paw and he won't touch it. You use two different types of treats, one low value (like maybe a biscuit) and one high value (I use bits of chicken). You cover the low value treat with your hand and place it on the floor in front of your puppy, with your fingers spread so he can smell it but not take it, you say leave it, and when he turns his head from the treat you immediately give him the high value treat from the other hand and lots of praise!

As you work with him you don't have to keep the other treat covered anymore because he will not take it.

Training leave it can transition to other objects (which we are working on!). Puppy is chewing on your shoe? Say leave it. Picks up something in the yard, leave it. Sees a squirrel on a walk, leave it.

It is the single most important command in our home.

We also do sit, stay, down, come, fetch (for fun), off (for furniture), and crate.

As Mama to a wooly boy who hates grooming - I would make daily brushing and weekly nail trims mandatory! Its so much easier to hold puppy in lap than trying to contain 73 pounds of freaking out monster dog!

amymeme wrote:

As Mama to a wooly boy who hates grooming - I would make daily brushing and weekly nail trims mandatory!  Its so much easier to hold puppy in lap than trying to contain 73 pounds of freaking out monster dog!

That is oh so true.  I'm not sure that you call that teaching or training, but you want to teach him now to accept you putting your hands on him anytime and anyplace.  I can't think of anything worse than knowing your dogs hurting, from a thorn in his paw fo'r example, and him trying to bite you because it hurts.

One of best exercises you can do is to teach her that you're never going to hurt her unnecessarily ... but there are times it is necessary.

Mainly we concentrate on manners like play with the toy and do not mouth hands instead. Sit nicely to wait for food, eat only your food and don't steal from others, wait until invited on the bed, stay, and begin recall training. More things are started but much of the training comes from just day to day. I tie them to me and use all the adult dog commands as we go about the day. "This way", "leave it", "take", "look out", "up" the stairs, "down" the stairs.... We use the Japanese word for lay down so we can use down to get off things and go down stairs. If you use "down" for lay down then never use it for other purposes. Use "off" and similar. "up up" is to jump in the vehicle. "Go potty" while housebreaking. "kennel", anything combined with "go" to send them somewhere. Words for toys to bring to us for play. I got my akita at 4months and by 6 months she probably knew a dozen words.

lt. dan wrote:

aljones wrote:

Anything and everything!  Puppies are smart little hellions and will learn anything an adult dog will - and quicker!!  
All the basic commands:  Sit / Stay / Let go! (drop it / leave it) / lay down / heel ... well, you get the idea.  Rey can learn all of those and the earlier they're taught the more instilled they become.

Now's an excellent time to teach her to come and one you'll want to keep working on as she grows older.  Another that I've seen done is 'drop' meaning to stop immediately and lay down.  Very useful when she gets to the point that she's going to go exploring.

One command that I like to teach a dog is to stay and then walk out of their sight.  As a puppy, she's going to want to be with you so this one is more difficult.  With a dog who can be trusted off lead I'll use it when I'm doing something where the door is open (bringing in groceries, for example)

If I remember correctly, you're thinking about show / agility / conformation.  So there's no better time to teach her to listen to you.  The only things I'd avoid are those that might stress young joints - any agility should probably hold off for a couple more month.

Spend a few minutes at a time with her, she's young and will get bored easily, but I think the more challenging and rewarding you make the training, the more time she'll be willing to go for more.

I rescue so almost all my dogs come to grown with 'habits' that have to be overcome so you might want to consider what you consider most important to you as a puppy owner, but there's all the reason in the world to start he young to become the adult dog you want her to be!

No I don't plan on doing any show / agility / conformation

But Thanks for the reply and advice!!

I guess another question I want to ask. What can I do to socialize Rey at 8 weeks. She has her first set of vaccination and won't be due till March 21st. I know she should go anywhere as she could catch something. Any advice would be great!

If your still looking to get Rey some social life I have an 10 week old in Scarborough.