Episode #264 Puppy Training Basics Revisited: The 3 Mistakes We See Most Often (And How to Avoid Them)

When you bring a new puppy home and real life kicks back in — work schedules, school mornings, extracurriculars — your puppy is trying to figure out what this new rhythm means.

In this episode of the Puppy Training Podcast, we revisit the foundations of successful puppy training and break down the three most common mistakes new (and even experienced!) dog handlers make.

You’ll learn:

• Why waiting for bad behavior actually makes it worse — and what to do instead
• How saying “YES” more than “NO” transforms your puppy’s learning
• Why too much freedom too soon leads to accidents and frustration
• How shrinking your puppy’s space sets them up for housetraining success
• The surprising reason your “crazy” puppy might just need a nap
• How structure and routine create a calmer, more cooperative dog

Whether you’re managing everyday chaos with a brand-new puppy or simply need a back-to-basics reset, this episode will help you be more proactive, more intentional, and more confident in your training.

Because raising a great dog isn’t about being perfect — it’s about setting them up for success. 🐾

Transcript

Welcome And Episode Focus

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In this episode of the Puppy Training Podcast, I'm going to revisit foundations of successful puppy training, and I'm going to break down the three most common mistakes I see new puppy families make. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Fella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy. From training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hey you guys, today I'm going to revisit a topic that we talked about a long time ago, but it's pretty common with brand new puppies. And I know starting out this new year, we're getting back from the holiday break. We're actually about a month into it, plus, right? We're now into February, but some of you are just getting going with these new puppies. And anytime there's a routine change or you're bringing a new puppy into the family, puppies struggle. So we're going to revisit the basics of things, not because you don't know them, not because you're failing, but because even if you're an experienced dog handler, you're going to benefit from a reset at some point in time. So here at Baxter and Bella, I've coached thousands of families through raising puppies and through emails, coaching calls, real life stories, there are three very common mistakes that kind of just show up again and again. And I thought, you know what? Let's revisit this. Let's talk about it today because a lot of you are new. Welcome. So if you've made one, or maybe you've made all three, it's okay. Welcome to the club. Mistakes mean you're trying, they mean you care, and it means you're learning. So don't get frustrated. Mistakes are part of the process. Let's dive in. All right, mistake number one: waiting for the bad behavior. This one, you guys, is huge. And you'll hear me talk a lot about this in my program. Most uh families or most people will wait for a puppy to do something they don't like and then they react. Then they do something about it. So for example, the puppy jumps, we say off. The puppy bites, we say no, biting or stop or ouch. The puppy barks, we say shh, quiet. Uh, the puppy grabs a shoe, we say drop it. So we're constantly responding after the fact. Now here's the shift that changes everything. Instead of waiting for the mistake, try to prevent it. So here's an example. Let's call it after school chaos. This is a pretty typical scenario in an everyday family. The kids walk through the door at 3.15 p.m., the puppy hasn't seen anyone all day, and their energy is off the charts. So what usually happens? Jumping, biting sleeves, zoomies, maybe even a little potty accident because they're so excited. Instead, try this at 3.10 p.m. before the door opens, the puppy goes on a leash, the treat pouch is on, you have food rewards in your pocket. You cue your puppy to sit, or if they can't hold still, do some tricks with them. And you're marking yes and paying them each time they listen to you. The kids are instructed when they walk through the door. We're not going to go right to the puppy. We're going to kind of ignore, if you will. We're not going to look at or talk to them initially. And we want to wait for that puppy to calm themselves down. So a leash works fine. I prefer an exercise pen or a baby gate where the puppy can stay behind that gate. That gives the kids a chance to come in the door. The shoes are coming off, their backpacks are coming off, and they can wait until that puppy does like a nice little sit to say please. They could, um, the kids can do a hand target. That's a simple behavior that we can teach the kids how to do. When the puppy does a sit, a down, a spin, or any trick that's actually better than jumping on them, we can mark yes and toss them a little food reward. We can even toss that food reward away from the kids. So the puppy goes away, comes back, goes away, comes back, but they're not getting all the way back to your kid. They're coming back, and then they can the child can throw that treat again or do that hand target and lure them into a sit, and then they can get down on their level and say hi to them. So we just turned chaos into structure in under two minutes. It wasn't hard. We just had to think ahead and have a plan and think, what do I want my puppy to do instead of no, stop, don't do that. So nothing bad happened because you didn't wait for it to happen. Okay, here's another example. You see your puppy running towards you with that look. You know what's coming. They might probably try to bite your ankles, right? Movement. They love to latch on to pajama pants, anything that's um waves in the wind, if you will. So option A, I can wait. I can get a bite to my ankle or a nip. Um, I could say no. Option B, I can just put out a simple target hand, put it down low enough that my puppy's looking at my hand towards the ground, not up towards my face. I'm going to help them into a sit, mark yes, pay them, and then repeat that. Do that several times. Maybe throw in a shake or a high five if they know those tricks. Because a busy brain doesn't have time to misbehave. Now, why does this work? Dogs repeat what works for them. So if jumping gets them attention, jumping happens again. If sitting gets attention, guess what? Sitting happens again. If you feel like you're saying no all day long, it's usually because you are arriving late to the moment. So instead, try this goal. I want you to say yes, 10 times more than you say no to your puppy. Catch the good, mark the good, pay the good. And if your puppy isn't offering good behavior yet, teach it, shape it, show them what to do, help them win. We call this setting them up for success. Show them what you want them to do in a given scenario. They don't naturally know polite human house rules. They only know dog behavior, which is jumping, barking, chewing, and biting. They're just reacting. Our job is education, not correction. So teach them what you want them to do. Okay, mistake number two. This one's pretty common with brand new puppies. It's really easy to do. Too much freedom too soon. I get it. You bring home this adorable puppy and you imagine them happily running around your house, but freedom is earned. It's not given. Too much free space leads to potty accidents, chewing baseboards, uh, stilling socks. That's pretty common. Practicing bad habits when you're not looking. We want to shrink the world. We want to think of our puppy's living space like a studio apartment. So to do this, I'm shrinking their space using baby gates, maybe an exercise pen. I'm closing bedroom doors. Um, I'm using a crate. If you have an open floor plan, you have to get a little creative. I have a pretty large space and an open floor plan myself. So I open up the pen and use it as a large room gate. Now, my puppy does not need the guest bedroom. They don't need the formal dining room right now. They don't need the basement, and they don't need the upstairs hallway yet. We're going to get there. We're going to be able to open up our house to them, but right now they need a very small space. And then we increase their space as they are successful at going potty outside. So use this one room rule. We only expand space for our puppy once they've had zero accidents for at least seven days in their current space. When they're consistently signaling you to go outside, you'll notice that they start to give you some signals and you're confident in their reliability. Then add one room. Not the whole house, one room at a time. Now, if accidents return, guess what? We just shrink the space again. Now, to watch for signals, we want to look for circling, sudden intense sniffing, wandering away from play. They're trying to retreat from you, heading toward a previous accident spot. And if you hesitate, you'll miss it. So when in doubt, just take them out. Now, crates are not mean, you guys. Crates are management tools, and we teach our dogs to love them. Think of it as their bedroom. They get their favorite chews in there. They have a nice soft bed if they want it. It's a nice, calm, quiet, cozy environment. Crates prevent accidents because they're small enough that the puppy doesn't want to mess in it. They want to hold it until they're let out to go. So it encourages bladder control. It provides your puppy with a mental rest and it gives you a break. They need nap times, you guys. They need downtime, and crates help them go to sleep. So we teach you in our program how to get your puppy to like their crate if they're struggling with that. But crates are not punishment. They are a great management tool. Again, think of it like your puppy's bedroom. Okay, mistake number three is not enough structure and not enough sleep. Now, this one surprises a lot of families. They think the puppy is crazy. They have zoomies, they're biting, they have wild energy, they're not listening. And they're often, guess what? Just overly tired. That's it. Puppies need 16 to 20 hours of sleep per day. Remember, crates are going to help you with this. So, yes, really, they need a lot of sleep. And most puppies are not getting the amount of sleep they need. So they become irrational, if you will. They just react to things because they're overstimulated. They can't think. They're too tired. So think of this. I call it the overtired toddler effect. Think of a toddler who skipped a nap. Do they calmly just regulate themselves? Not usually. They usually have a meltdown. Puppies are the same. So try this rhythm. Give your puppy a potty break, five to 15 minutes of training or play. Potty break, they go into their crate or their pen and give them a nap for one to two hours. They can entertain themselves until they fall asleep. This is really good training for them on how to be alone and how to manage themselves. Repeat that throughout the day. So potty break, five to 15 minutes of training, give them another potty break, and then they go in their crate or pen for an hour or two. When the puppy comes out, we want to have a structured plan. So if your kids want to get the puppy out to play, ask them, what game do you want to play with the puppy? What training exercise do we want to work on? What is it that we're wanting to do when the puppy comes out and have a plan in place? So maybe you're going to practice some leash walking or you're going to work on recall. We have some really fun recall games if you're interested. Maybe you just want to play a simple game of tug or uh fetch the toy. Maybe we want to train something like go to bed. Don't just open the pen and hope for the best. We want to have some structure because that creates calm. And teach your kids too, especially when they're coming home from school and they're wanting to help with this puppy, get them involved. Puppy time is structured time. So it's not constantly picking the puppy up and toting it around. I promise you, you will not be the puppy's favorite. It's not constant excitement and running around. It's not constant stimulation. Instead, try some short plays, short games, gentle handling, then rest. And this is going to prevent the overstimulation, the nipping and biting, uh, the stress or frustration and any kind of behavioral regression. So if you remember nothing else today, remember this. One, I want you to be proactive, not reactive. So don't wait for the bad behavior. You're going to interrupt early, teach your puppy what to do instead, and say yes more often than no. Number two would be limit the freedom. We want you to start small, expand your house slowly. You're going to supervise closely and use crates and pens to help you manage your puppy in the beginning. And then number three would be remember structure and protect sleep. We want short training sessions, planned, structured activities, regular naps. All right, you guys, raising a puppy is not about being perfect. It's about being intentional. We're going to think through our plan and have a plan in place. If you guys are feeling overwhelmed, please reach out to us. We're happy to help you. Again, we want to take a deep breath. We're going to shrink the space, add some structure, and reward generously. Puppies thrive on rewards and they'll want to work with you and be cooperative. Now, small changes today are going to prevent big problems tomorrow. If you need support, coaching, or help developing this clear plan that we're talking about, that's why we're here. You've got this. Reach out to us. You can email us, you can contact us inside of our program. You can come to classes, courses, uh, live QA's three times a week. Really, we've got your back. All right, you guys, happy training until next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Puppy Training Podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency, you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.