I am sure you have heard many times this myth; “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” Well this is just a myth, and there is hope even with your little monster.

There are several processes in which your puppy learns, and if you understand the process you can teach your puppy the behavior you want regardless of age.

First of all a better understanding of what your puppy is doing and their environment will help you to evaluate how to change things to improve behavior.

Preventing unwanted behavior often can be resolved in providing for the needs of the puppy. Adequate physical exercise is a very important consideration, especially as the puppy reaches five to six months of age. At this time the puppy is reaching teenage life.

If you don’t take the appropriate time and effort to exercise your puppy they will resort to often destructive behavior. Simply allowing your puppy to romp by itself in the backyard is not enough stimulation for them to satisfy their need to exercise and play. Keep In mind that whatever your puppies needs are you run the risk of making a social mess out of them by confining them to the back yard or kennel for a long length of time.

Mental Activity is the key to proper stimulation for appropriate behavior training. If you don’t provide appropriate games to play with your puppy they will invent their own such as; how many flowers can I dig up in 20 minutes, or how many chair legs can I chew on.

It is a fact of life that puppies will chew. And proper toys are going to be essential to their learning appropriate behavior. It is your responsibility as their owner to direct their chewing to acceptable objects and away from family possessions.

You will need to provide your puppy with many different types of safe toys to chew on, until you find what they really like. Then you will need to reinforce this and make it more rewarding to chew on their toys rather then anything else in your house.