Free Puppy Training Tips: Help a Corgi Learn Good Manners

For this Omaha puppy training session we worked with 8 month-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Gracie.

Her guardian scheduled this puppy training session to help Gracie stop doing some common, unwanted puppy behaviors. These included barking, jumping up on people, mouthing, nipping, and chewing. Her guardian also wanted to teach Gracie to come and train her to stop pulling on the leash.

Gracie was very excited when I arrived for the session. She jumped on me, barked, and ran in circles. It was hard for her guardians to calm her down or stop her excited behavior.

Easy Puppy Training Tips

I tried to sit down with her guardian and her mother who watches Gracie during the week. Gracie kept jumping up and barking so after a few minutes I pulled out a leash and gave her a leash time out. As soon as I put her on the leash and stepped on it to prevent her from running about, the barking stopped.

During my talk with the guardians, I learned Gracie had remarkably few rules. She ate people food and received pets whenever she wanted. If someone stopped petting her, she would nip or mouth at them.

Fortunately, Gracie is still a puppy so these unwanted behaviors haven’t been going on very long. Usually behaviors and habits that have been going on a long while are hardest to stop.

I suggested that the guardians begin to set rules and limits, and start practicing petting with a purpose. This will help Gracie see them as authority figures. It will also help the guardians practice being good caregivers.

Just like a young child, puppies often want things that are not good for them. Additionally they don’t always know what they need at the time. If you have ever seen a parent argue with a child about nap time, you know what I mean.

How to Train a Dog to Come

Later in the session, I showed the guardians how to train a dog to come. I noticed that Gracie would get up and move away. She did this instead of letting the guardian scratch her under the chin. This is a result of the guardian snatching Gracie up at times she didn’t want to come or cooperate.

While sometimes you have to do this, repeatedly trapping or snatching a puppy can erode their trust in us. While it’s clear Gracie loves her humans, I knew I needed to show her how to fix this problem. I pulled out some treats and walked her guardian how to train a dog to come on cue. If your dog doesnt come when youc all them, you should check out the free positive dog trianing video below.

Many people teach their dog to not come when called by repeatedly calling the doghh to come to them when the dog is doing somehting it likes. Over time, this causes the dog to think “coming to my human represents the end of fun. Ill keep the good times going by not coming when called.” This is a common mistake people make with puppy training or how to train a dog to come.

So its important to remember that when you want to learn how to train a dog to come that you dont only call your dog to you away from fun things. Practicing a recall for no reason helps insultate your dog from this perception.

Another super eay trick for anyone who wants to know how to train a puppy to come is to celebrate it when it comes on its own. I call this Celebrating and its one of the easiest and most effective tricks for anyone looking to learn how to train a puppy. Motivating your puppy to want to listen is a super easy way to avoid many unwanted puppy behaviors like not coming when called.

Motivation is key for teaching any animal, but its especially important when you are doing any puppy training. That’s why Celebrating desired behaviors and using a marker word are so important for dog and puppy training. They help give your puppy a reason to want to listen to you. And Celebrating is the absolutely easiest way of teaching puppy manners.

I had the human hold out a treat between her thumb and forefinger then let the dog chew little pieces off. We tried to touch under the chin while this was going on, but this proved too much or too early for Gracie. We kept at it, and after some patience, the guardian was eventually able to touch her under her chin. It was only a second before Gracie moved away; but still, progress.

I gave instructions on how a guardian should continue this exercise. This will help Gracie become comfortable with being touched. If a person practices this a few times a day at Gracie’s pace, they can rebuild trust. This will help stop the dog from running away.

The good news is once we changed the command word from “come” to “here,” Gracie picked up on it right away. With some practice on the come exercise and avoiding snatching, Gracie will soon run to anyone who calls her.

We wrapped up the session by going over Gracie’s roadmap to success which you can watch in the video below. If you are looking for a bunch of free puppy training tips, like how to train a puppy manners, check out the video below.