Puppy Day Out + Training Tips

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Hey party peeps! If you’ve been following me the past year, you know that my family added a brand new puppy, Deizel, to our family last summer! I’m sure you’ve seen all his puppy shenanigans via my Instagram account! Today I’d love to share with you our Puppy Day Out + Training Tips our whole family has been using to train our new pup!

PUPPY DAY OUT!

Well, Deizel, a Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff) is now 9 months old and eating A LOT! My husband decided on feeding him Purina ProPlan® Puppy food since he was a tiny puppy after reading all the nutritional benefits in it that carrier him from Puppyhood to Adulthood. My husband RESEARCHED AND RESEARCHED foods before deciding on this one (Yes, he is that type!) and was impressed with the fact that it has real meat as the #1 ingredient which was important to us. I happen to love the fact that Purina ProPlan® is conveniently sold in HUGE bags at our local PetSmart which we like to turn into a “Puppy Day Out” anytime we have to restock on his food.

PUPPY TRAINING TIP #1: TAKE TREATS & KIBBLE WITH YOU WHEN YOU GO!

We keep treats with us whenever we take Deizel out for a walk or for a ride in the car. My son, loves to breakup Deizel’s favorite treats and put them in a ziplock bag for us to take. He loves being the “Keeper of the Treats!”. We use the treats to entice Deizel to get up into the truck as he hasn’t quite mastered jumping right on in and still gets a little nervous about taking rides in the truck. My husband likes to also play with him a little bit before we try to get him to get into the truck to ease his nerves a bit. We also use the treats for training a new command so that he is really wanting to learn it to get a treat. To prevent him from getting too many treats, however, we also like to take some of his dog food kibble with us too so that we can reward him for his good behavior and completing commands he already has mastered.

PUPPY TRAINING TIP #2: SOCIALIZE YOUR PUPPY!

Once we get him into the car, off we go! The kids LOVE taking him to PetSmart and get a kick out of being able to take their dog into a store! It is also a great way to socialize your dog which is super important when training your puppy so that he learns to be friendly to other dogs and people. We always run into people inside PetSmart who have their dogs and want to pet Deizel which is a great socialization opportunity. Deizel always gets excited when we reach the Purina ProPlan® dog food aisle. He must smell it!

PUPPY TRAINING TIP #3: VOICE & HAND COMMANDS!

After we left PetSmart, we luckily had a fabulously warm day and decided to take Deizel to the park to do a training session and to run around and have fun with the kids. We have a baseball field near our house which is completely surrounded by a fence, so we don’t have to worry about him running off as he is not yet off-leash trained.

We like to get kids involved in using a combination of basic hand and voice commands. Even our 3 year old has mastered this.  Today we practiced these commands:
COME— hand down by your side with palm of the hand facing forward
STAY— closed fist
LAY DOWN— open palm towards the ground
SIT— pointed finger towards the ground

Whenever Deizel completes his command, we reward him with pieces of his dog food kibble. After months of training, Deizel has pretty much mastered these commands. We will be moving on the next phase of training soon…but for now…

LET’S PLAY!

Once his training session is done, it’s time to play! The kids love playing fetch with Deizel with his tennis ball and favorite toy. They run around for a while and once Deizel is fully tired out…the kids head off to the park across the street for some fun kid play. After a full day of training and play, Deizel is fully content to sit and watch.

WHAT TIPS DO YOU USE WHEN TRAINING YOUR PUPPY? I’D LOVE TO HEAR…LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.

Want more info on Purina ProPlan® or if you’d like to try it for free?
Visit the Purina® Pro Plan® MyPLAN website to get your dog’s MyPLAN recommendation and a rebate offer for a free bag of Purina® Pro Plan® Dry Dog Food (4-6lbs, up to $18.99.) Good only in U.S.A. A.P.O’s, F.P.O’s. Void where taxed, prohibited, restricted. Allow 6-8 weeks for shipment. LIMIT ONE REQUEST PER INDIVIDUAL, ADDRESS, or EMAIL ADDRESS. Offer expires 04/30/2015.

Cheers!
Tonya