It is hard not to give in to our beloved puppy when he or she gets into trouble. Those cute puppy dog eyes stare up at us and we find ourselves unable to provide proper obedience training.

Dog obedience training is not about being mean or hurting the animal. It is about making sure that he or she knows the rules of behavior and what the consequences of those rules are.

Pet training obedience begins the moment we acquire our new friend. Basic animal training starts with teaching the dog how to communicate its need to use the bathroom. A puppy is just like a toddler.

It does not know what the rules are and we have to provide that obedience training. Puppy pads, dog training collars and a variety of other training methods are used to start it on the way to knowing where it is appropriate to use the bathroom.

One thing to remember when beginning obedience training is that it is going to take a lot of patience. This is especially true of the housebreaking. The puppy does not know how to hold its bladder.

There will be accidents and it is your responsibility as a loving pet owner to know the difference between being authoritative and being abusive. If you spot the accident as soon as it happens, this is an ideal time to correct the puppy.

Hours or days later the incident is forgotten by the animal so it does not know why it is being punished. You must be diligent.

To train your dog to leash can be very frustrating. You place the collar on the puppy, attach the leash and expect him or her to follow. Nine times out of ten this does not happen because the puppy is unfamiliar with being led around.

He will sit down and force you to drag him. He will whip his head back and forth to protest the confinement of the harness or leash. You have to be dominant over your puppy and teach him that he has to go with you when you want.

Every pet owner faces moments of frustration. Most people do not enjoy cleaning up doggy accidents on their new rug nor do they like to say a sharp word to their new best friend.

It takes time for parties, human and canine, to learn obedience training. If you find yourself at a roadblock, consider finding dog forums that can offer up some nuggets of advice and wisdom from other pet owners. Before long the hard part will be behind you and you can move forward.

Dog training begins virtually at birth. Dogs that are handled and petted by humans regularly during the first eight weeks of life are generally much more amenable to being trained and living in human households. Ideally, puppies should be placed in their permanent homes between about 8 and 10 weeks of age. In some places it is against the law to take puppies away from their mothers before the age of 8 weeks. Before this age, puppies are still learning tremendous amounts of socialization skills from their mother. Puppies are innately more fearful of new things during the period from 10 to 12 weeks, which makes it harder for them to adapt to a new home.

Puppies can begin learning tricks and commands as early as 8 to 12 weeks of age; the only limitations are the pup’s stamina, concentration, and physical coordination. It is much easier to live with young dogs that have already learned basic commands such as sit. Waiting until the puppy is much older and larger and has already learned bad habits makes the training much more difficult.

There are some professional trainers who disagree with this idea, particularly those who train working dogs, detection dogs, police dogs, etc. They feel that obedience work shouldn’t start until the dog is at least a year old, or after the prey drive has fully developed. These trainers also take the position that spaying and neutering is harmful to the training process, again because of its negative impact on the dog’s prey drive.