I soon realised what a huge difference owning a puppy with the correct energy levels for myself and my lifestyle can make to a happy home life. Within just 3 months of owning the Coton De Tulear puppies I felt a huge sigh of relief as I could see the balance within the pack improving. I was the leader, well I would like to think I was most of the time, Rosie my Cockerpoo was the dog pack leader, the smallest Coton De Tulear was second in command, Honey the Labradoodle next with Mia the largest of the Cotons closely behind.
The fact that the new puppies had a much lower energy meant that they responded to the basic training much more easily after very little exercise. I could take the Cotons out individually for a walk for 15- 20 minutes then back into the garden for 10-15 minutes of focused training, learning the basics as part of a training routine. I would start with sit, stay, come & down and repeat the commands in different orders as we walked around the garden while starting on the left leg to heal. The puppies started to pick up their training which drained their mental energy and the short walks that would drain their physical energy.
This had a knock on effect because the Coton’s were calmer in the house when they were part of pack the older girls settled down quicker. I was also able to take either the Labradoor or Cockerpoo through the same routine of a longer walk around 45 minutes to 60 minutes and the start training. As both the older girls had already gone through puppy training classes their daily training was more advanced so I would often go through the training routine in public places with lots of distraction so they had to focus on me.
The main trick I had with all of them was the treats and each different command that was followed correctly had a quick treat until I could start to add more and more commands and only give a treat after the full mini training routine was followed. When I started to teach a brand new command I would always start by using a higher value treat like a tiny piece of chicken or liver that I cooked. Liver is always given in moderation but works wonders with training.
By having the perfect puppy with the perfect energy for me and my lifestyle it made all the difference to how easy I found raising all the dogs. If you are considering owning a puppy the general energy level of your potential puppy is really important to how successful you will be to when raising your puppy. If you would like help finding your puppy you could try my perfect puppy quiz. http://tiny.cc/FunPuppyQuizII