Recall first, then wait Training

As I work as a puppy trainer in a rescue home, I start training the puppies as soon as they are up & about exploring their surroundings at about 3 - 4 weeks old.
I start by watching the puppies first seeing what's got their attention, then I will remove the thing that they were investigating which normally is a leaf or brightly coloured wobbly ball, I then recall the puppies shaking the leaf or ball on the ground roughly 2 feet (3 foot for large puppies) in front of the puppies, as this believe me is the most simplest command a puppy picks up, they will come hopping bouncing wriggling over just to reinvestigate the leaf or ball, I then praise them hugging them all the time their tails are going into overdrive, by the time the puppies are 8 weeks old they have all mastered doing recall. (I do 15 minutes of 1 to 1 training from 6 weeks old).

I then start teaching them to wait, again using the leaf or ball to get their attention, I will then put the item roughly 2 foot (3 foot for large puppies) in front of them giving the wait command I will sit next to the item & get the puppies to wait 1 minute (which seems like years to a puppy) I then pick up the item walk back to the puppy & go OTT with praise, they soon learn the wait command.

These 2 commands I feel are more important than sit or down, as sitting & lying down are what a puppy does naturally every day, I will give out sit or down as a command but only once a puppy is actually sitting or lying down, which the puppy soon picks up that these words goes with what they are doing naturally.

When the puppies reach 6 weeks old I am killing them not really, but the noise they make when you put a collar/harness/lead on them, anyone passing by would think I am killing them, they hate this part of their playtime as I am now in control of them & they can't run off, it takes about a week for the puppies to realise the collar/harness/lead are a good thing, I use their mother for this part if we have her, if not I will use K9 or Ziva as the puppies watch me walking their mother/K9/Ziva round the playroom & soon they tag along so I gentle pick up their leads, by the end of the puppies 1 to 1 15 mins training is up I have the puppies walking some what to heel, puppies don't really master walking popularly until they are around 6/7 months old, they seem to bounce, wriggle, flop about before then.

I have use these commands in above order on my hooligans from 3 weeks old so by the time they were 8 weeks old they were waiting, coming when called, walking in a fashion to heel, sitting/lying down, which came in useful when I had took photo's of them on the swing hammock when they were 8 weeks old & for the family photo taken at Kennelgate pet shop when the hooligans were 12 weeks old.

Best photo of the hooligans on swing hammock


On hammock all sitting


My favourite family photo

I have never heard of this technique before, but it is utterly brilliant! Well done you for working with Rescues too.

And it's always a pleasure to see your beautiful fur family

Wow! I considered myself lucky if i managed to have pups paper trained by 8 weeks

My hooligans were house trained by 7 weeks old, K9 was housed trained when we had him at 9 weeks old, only Skye came paper trained when we had her at 9 weeks old but 2 weeks later she was totally house trained.

Thank you my hooligan say woof woof x

Great going. Love the pics of your Jack's!

I started recall training from day one with my two also. They are at their most clingy at this age and it's the perfect time to work on getting them to come back to you, as they naturally don't want to stray far.

I use "wait" instead of stay, but again, it's one of the earliest commands to master.