f you can structure the environment in such a way that the puppy is never rewarded for jumping and make sure the puppy is consistently rewarded for sitting instead, you will have an adult dog that doesn’t jump when greeting people. In fact an adult dog with this type of history will impress your friends by sitting when it greets guests.
There are other great instances of this principal, such as getting your new puppy accustomed to going potty on a particular kind of surface. An example may be teaching your pup to potty on gravel and it will be less likely to go on surfaces unlike gravel. I find this principle particularly troublesome when dogs stay with me that where conditioned as young pups to potty on concrete. When these dogs stay with me for a short amount of time it can be almost impossible to recondition them to potty in a more hygienically appropriate area of my yard.
A good deal of this resistance to change can be explained by the phenomena of imprinting. There are certain times when a puppy’s brain is developing in a way that enables life experiences and successful behavior to become permanently wired connections. By training at this age you are actually building your puppy’s brain and its future behavior.
During puppy training you need to remember, puppies don’t have the endurance of an adolescent or adult dog. Puppies can be very active for short amounts of time and then they need to rest and sleep. Some believe this rest helps the puppy build those important brain connections, as well as the muscle and bones of a developing body.
When puppy training we must respect, understand, and use the rules Mother Nature has imposed upon the system we experience as a developing individual.
