Fun And Games With Your Puppy  

Along with learning his responsibilities and duties, your puppy is also open to learning whatever tricks and games you want to teach. But before you decide to teach him any game or to let some cute puppy behavior continue, ask yourself whether what you think is cute now will be cute in a full-grown dog.

Dogs of all breeds will "Fetch," "Bring," and "Give." Especially if you have a sporting dog that you might hunt with someday, teach the "Give" or "Drop it" command at the same time you teach "Fetch.". Otherwise, you will spend your hunting days chasing down your dog to get the birds you thought you were going to have for supper!

Once you have taught the basics, you can teach him anything that works well to amuse you both, bond you, and make your lives together happier. The more you are your pup's teacher, the more firmly your pup looks to you as the leader of the pack. As your puppy knows more, he will welcome advanced lessons, be the lessons about what games you like to play or what jobs you want him to do.

Just like children, but on a more limited scale, the puppy thrives on going beyond the basics. While you stick firmly to consistency in things like feeding times and obeying certain commands, you and your maturing puppy can also cope with varying amounts of inconsistency. It is in these areas of innovation that you allow your pup's own unique personality to blossom.

Many people find great fulfillment in obedience training their dogs. A basic obedience course is necessary for anyone who is going to raise a civilized puppy, but one can go far beyond the basics. It all depends on what you want. Watching a well-trained obedience dog work is a pleasure, and in dog shows, it is the obedience ring where you will see the real honesty of dog and owner functioning as a team.

You can go beyond obedience into tracking, too. One does not have to have a bloodhound to participate in this sport. The puppy who has been taught the game of "Go find" can grow up to "Go find" in a very serious way. Dog-sledding is also becoming an increasingly popular sport. If you have ever watched well-trained herding dogs work, you know what precision they exhibit, and you can guess at the time and love it took to train them.

The more you learn about your puppy and his breed, the more you will see that your horizons are limited only by how much time and expense you want to invest in having fun with your canine companion.