Puppy Training Schedule: What to Teach from 8 Weeks to 6 Months

A useful puppy training schedule follows the puppy’s development rather than a list of commands. From 8 to 12 weeks, house training, calm resting, socialization and responding to its name come first; from 3 to 4 months the basic cues and first leash skills are added; from 4 to 6 months the same skills are practiced longer, further away and with more distraction. All ages are ranges, not deadlines.

How to use this schedule

The plan is organized by age because certain things are time-sensitive. The sensitive period for socialization closes at roughly 12 to 14 weeks, while a perfect heel can be taught at any point in a dog’s life. That is why the early weeks are filled with experiences and routines, and why formal exercises take up only a few minutes a day.

Three principles apply at every stage:

• Short sessions. One to three minutes for young puppies, up to five minutes from about four months. Several sessions spread across the day beat one long one.
• Reward what you want. Mark the right behavior with a word such as “yes” or a click and follow it with a small treat, play or praise. Unwanted behavior is prevented through management (baby gates, a leash, a pen) rather than punished.
• Change one thing at a time. Increase either duration, distance or distraction – never all three at once.

Puppy training plan at a glance

Age	Main focus	New skills	Session length
8–10 weeks	Settling in, house training, bonding	Name response, crate or pen, gentle handling	1–2 min, 5+ times daily
10–12 weeks	Socialization, bite inhibition	Sit, down, hand target, recall games indoors	2–3 min
12–16 weeks	Basic cues, leash skills	Loose leash at home and in quiet places, “leave it”, short stays	3 min
4–5 months	Generalizing	Known cues in new places, recall on a long line, calm greetings	3–5 min
5–6 months	Reliability under distraction	Longer stays, walking past dogs and people, settling in public	5 min

8 to 10 weeks: arriving and learning routines

In the first two weeks the puppy mainly needs sleep, predictability and safe contact with its new people. Young puppies sleep most of the day; an overtired puppy bites more and learns less.

1. House training. Take the puppy out after every sleep, meal and play session and reward directly at the spot where it goes. The details are in the guide to house training a puppy.
2. Resting place. Introduce a crate or pen as a comfortable place to sleep, with the door open at first. A step-by-step plan is in the crate training guide.
3. Name response. Say the name once, and the moment the puppy looks at you, mark and reward. Ten repetitions, two or three times a day.
4. Handling. Briefly touch paws, ears and mouth, then give a treat. A few seconds are enough.

10 to 12 weeks: socialization and first cues

This is the busiest phase, because the socialization window is still open. The aim is calm, positive encounters with people, friendly dogs, surfaces, sounds and traffic – a few well-chosen ones a day, with the puppy free to keep its distance. How to balance this with vaccination status is covered in the article on puppy socialization.

Alongside this, the first cues begin:

1. Sit and down with a food lure, which is faded after a few sessions so that the hand signal remains.
2. Hand target: the puppy touches your open palm with its nose. This later helps with recall and with guiding the puppy without pulling.
3. Recall games: two people call the puppy back and forth across a room and reward every arrival.
4. Bite inhibition: when teeth land on skin, stop the game for a few seconds and offer a chew toy instead.

12 to 16 weeks: basic cues and leash skills

The puppy can now concentrate a little longer, and the vaccination series usually allows more outings. New at this stage:

• Basic cues in several rooms and in the garden. A sit that works in the kitchen is not yet a sit on the sidewalk. The individual exercises are explained in basic dog commands.
• Leash skills. Start indoors without distraction: reward every few steps while the leash hangs slack. Outdoors, stand still when the leash tightens and move on once it loosens. More on this under loose leash walking.
• “Leave it” and trading. Swap an object for a treat instead of pulling it out of the mouth, so that the puppy learns that giving things up is worthwhile.
• Short stays. Begin with two to three seconds and one step of distance.

4 to 5 months: taking skills outside

Teething is in full swing, and many puppies chew more and seem less attentive. Provide suitable chew items and keep demands modest. The main task now is generalizing: practice each known cue in at least five different places before expecting it to work under distraction.

Recall moves outdoors on a long line of about 5 m (16 ft), first in a quiet field. Call once, reward generously, and let the puppy go back to exploring afterwards so that coming back does not mean the end of the fun. The structure is described in the recall training guide.

5 to 6 months: reliability and early adolescence

Around this age adolescence begins, earlier in small breeds and later in large ones. Puppies become more independent, and well-practiced cues can seem to disappear. This is a normal developmental phase and not stubbornness.

• Build stays to 30 to 60 seconds and several steps of distance.
• Practice walking past people and dogs at a distance where the puppy can still take a treat.
• Reward calm lying on a mat while you sit on a bench or in a café for a few minutes.
• Keep the long line on until recall works reliably in several places.

A sample day at around 10 weeks

• Morning: outside to toilet, breakfast partly from the hand as name-response practice, short play, sleep.
• Late morning: one socialization outing of 10 to 15 minutes, then sleep.
• Afternoon: two minutes of sit and hand target, handling exercise, chew time in the pen.
• Evening: recall game in the hallway, quiet time, last toilet trip before bed.

Between these blocks: toilet trips after every nap and a lot of sleep.

Common mistakes

• Sessions that are too long. If the puppy sniffs around, scratches or starts biting, the session ended too late.
• Too much too soon outdoors. Asking for cues in busy places before they work at home leads to failure and frustration on both sides.
• Repeating the cue. “Sit, sit, sit” teaches that the first word does not count. Say it once; if nothing happens, make the task easier.
• Postponing socialization for obedience. Sit can wait; the socialization window cannot.
• Punishing accidents or biting. Scolding and physical corrections do not teach the puppy what to do instead and can make it wary of people.
• Comparing calendars. Breed, individual temperament and early history all shift the timeline by weeks.

When professional help is useful

A well-run puppy class that works with rewards and keeps groups small helps with most everyday questions. Individual advice from a qualified trainer or behavior consultant is sensible if the puppy remains very fearful of people or dogs despite careful exposure, growls or snaps over food or toys, or cannot settle at all. Sudden changes in behavior, persistent house-training problems or signs of pain belong with the veterinarian first.