The way dogs learn on how they behave in different situations a more or less set in their instincts from birth
. Luckily instincts can be changed and modified to fit our world and to help us in our dog training efforts.
One of the typical instincts that you see in puppies is the desire to investigate things in order to determine what the role of the thing is in this world and if it is kind, dangerous or eatable.
Now where some people go wrong when starting to teach their mutt new tricks are that the scenery is all-wrong!
Dogs and especially puppies are very easily distracted and you want to minimize the number of distractions around the dog when training him in order the have a more focused dog during the training session. What I like to do is to train the dog in the kitchen. Being in calm zone are the abc on how to train a dog
You should make sure that you and the dog are alone while training, as the presence of another person might trigger the dog to investigate and be less focused on the training.
Another one of my tricks on how to train a dog is to let the dog rest after the training session is done. If you head right on to other activities with the dog, the value of the lesion just learned drops as the dog simply forgets it. If you leave the dog alone for half an hour after the training session his brain will have time to store and think about the lesion just learned and the value of following your instructions i.e. dog treats and compliments.
What you must also keep in mind is that the dog must not get bored with the lesson or it will lose its value. So try not to make any training session longer than 10 minutes at a time and remember only teach your dog one trick at a time or he will get confused.