Puppy Training Timeline:
What to Teach and When.

One of the most common questions new puppy owners ask is when to start training and what to work on first. Here's a practical timeline that covers the most important developmental windows and what to prioritize at each stage.

8 to 12 Weeks: The Foundation

This is the most critical developmental period in your puppy's life. The socialization window is fully open and your puppy is absorbing everything. What they experience positively during this window becomes familiar. What they miss becomes scary.

Priority skills:

• Name recognition — your puppy should respond to their name immediately
• Crate training — build positive associations with the crate from day one
• Potty training — establish a consistent schedule immediately
• Socialization — positive exposure to people, sounds, surfaces, other animals
• Bite inhibition — teach appropriate mouth pressure through consistent response to biting

Start marker training immediately. Even at 8 weeks, puppies can learn the marker and begin simple exercises. The earlier you start, the faster everything else comes.

12 to 16 Weeks: Socialization Closes, Obedience Begins

The socialization window begins closing around 12 weeks and is largely closed by 16 weeks. Prioritize novel experiences during this time. At the same time, begin formal obedience work.

Priority skills:

• Sit and down — both should be reliable in low-distraction environments
• Come when called — begin building recall in a safe enclosed area
• Loose leash walking — introduce leash work before bad habits form
• Leave it — essential for Miami's environment with food and wildlife everywhere

4 to 6 Months: Building Duration and Distraction

Your puppy is now physically capable of more sustained learning. Build duration on sit-stay and down-stay. Begin adding distance to commands. Introduce training in progressively more distracting environments.

This is also the adolescence window beginning. Some puppies start testing boundaries. Maintain consistency and structure — this phase passes, and consistent handling during adolescence produces confident, stable adult dogs.

6 to 12 Months: Adolescence and Refinement

Adolescence hits hard between 6 and 12 months for most breeds. Dogs that seemed trained start regressing. This is normal and not a sign that training failed. It's a developmental phase that requires consistent, patient maintenance of everything they've learned.

Continue daily training sessions. Add real-world environments. Practice around other dogs, in parks, on busy streets. The skills built during adolescence become the reliable adult behaviors you'll have for the dog's lifetime.

The Most Important Rule

Start earlier than you think you need to. Every week of an untrained puppy is a week of practiced bad habits. The behaviors that seem cute at 10 weeks — jumping, nipping, pulling — are serious problems at 18 months and a 60-pound dog.