Best Dog Training Videos on YouTube – Essential training videos to begin with your new puppy

Are you bringing a puppy into your family? As well as good veterinary advice and support, many pet owners are turning to YouTube for help with training and troubleshooting some of those teething problems when they bring a puppy into their home for the first time.

YouTube has opened up a whole new world of education for new puppy owners – enabling them to gain confidence as pet parents and perhaps most importantly, help them to find modern positive training methods for integrating their new family member!

As new puppy owners ourselves, we threw ourselves into YouTube for weeks before Fleur and Arbre came home and the reality is we ended up exhausted before we’d even considered trying a sit-stay! With this is mind, we have collated 9 of the best training videos we found – all created to help new puppy owners build the foundations of excellent behaviour and a happy home!

Out with the old – Positive Reward based training

You may have grown up in a house where it was customary to punish a dog for behaviour that was unfavourable – well times have changed and this type of training is not only considered outdated but entirely ineffective. As we understand more about dog behaviour and motivation, we have seen this type of training phased out – from the professional environment of service dog training to the more playful sessions designed to build a happy domestic pet.

1 – Coming home

Title: First Night with NEW PUPPY! How to Survive Your First Day Home

Rachel Fusaro is a fostering advocate who has grown her channel by showcasing the wonderful world of dog adoption. We found her first day home video really encouraging and by following her steps, our first 24 hours was as stress free as we could have hoped for! We would particularly point to her first tip – scheduling time off for when your new puppy arrives – we both took time out of work and committed an entire week without distraction to this endeavour.

2 – Feeding your puppy

Title: How To Feed A Dog Or Puppy Correctly

This is a minefield – particularly for first time puppy owners. What should I feed him, when should I feed him and how much?!

In this video the dog trainer breaks puppy feeding down into simple terms and highlights the need for scheduling – obvious if you know, but for first timers, the whole realisation of the responsibility of puppy ownership can be quite overwhelming. Just knowing some of these hints and tips, which also help in general puppy development, will send you and your pooch off on the right track from day one.

3 – Crate Training

Title: Crate Training – Why and How to do it

Crate training is now considered an essential part of puppy training and no longer has the stigma of being a way of ‘caging’ your puppy. This video starts at the beginning and talks you through everything – from what size crate you’ll need for your pup to explaining in a brief but comprehensive way how to get your puppy acclimatised to his ‘den’. There are hundreds of videos on crate training – it’s a controversial topic and continues to

4 – Potty Training (house training)

Title: How To Potty Train A Puppy in 7 Easy Steps

To accompany your crate training, house training will be one of your next priorities!

The reason we chose this video for our ‘best dog training videos on YouTube ‘ is due to it’s straight forward, 7 easy steps methodology. It offers simple advice that puts you at the centre of your puppies success at house training, and that goes a long way to alleviating any frustration you might feel when accidents happen. House training can take many months to become really ingrained and as your puppy learns where is acceptable to relieve herself, you’re going to develop your own skills – patience!

5 – Sit

Title: How to Train a Dog to “Sit”

This is always one of the first commands owners are looking for from their puppies and it can be inconsistent at best when you first start training! This video starts at the very beginning and demonstrates a more dynamic approach to training the sit with your dog  – specifically so it can lead onto other more advanced commands. We particularly liked how the trainer highlighted some of the issues you might have in teaching this command and how to overcome them.

6 – Recall

Title: How To Train Your Dog: “Come Here!” PERFECTLY!!!

It’s no exaggeration to say that getting your puppy to ‘come’ when called, first time, every time, might save his life one day. Puppies particularly have little control over their impulses and the draw of a squirrel or other fast moving object might lure him towards a dangerous situation – a road or a river – many things that could get him in trouble pretty fast.

Here the trainer walks you through a variety of exercises that will help build a reliable recall with your puppy and the sooner you start this element of training the better. We like this video as whilst the focus is on an adult dog, the training is clear, concise and pre-empts a lot of the questions you might have.

7 – Leave it!

Title: How To Teach Your Puppy To Leave It – Professional Dog Training Tips

As you’ll see in this video, teaching your puppy to ‘leave it’ is going to be a useful tool in your arsenal of commands, particularly when you leave the security of your home environment and start taking strolls through the park and in public areas. At home, you can largely control the environment, ensuring that there is nothing accessible to puppy that might harm them – however, move into the big wide world and there are a host of items your puppy might want that aren’t good for them. This video provides you with a variety of excellent tools to start on your ‘leave it’ training.

8 – Puppy Biting

Title: How to Train a Puppy not to bite

Zak George is one of the most famous dog training coaches on YouTube – a social media sensation and with good merit. ‘How to train your puppy not to bite’ is going to change your mind set on biting and give you all the patience required to push through those early days where your hands are torn to shreds and you fear your puppy is going to do more damage to your house than a termite infestation! In this video you’ll see little rescue dog Laffite go from zero to hero in a few easy steps – if you follow these very straight forward instructions, not only will you better understand the reasons your pup is biting, you’ll know how to handle it going forward.

9 – Tricks!

Title: How to Train your Puppy 6 Tricks in 1 Day!

Another gem from Zak – his reward based training takes things in a fun direction where you’ll be able to teach roll over, speak, shake, spin, over and crawl. These are the tricks you want to pull out when your puppy has a chance to show off in front of your friends and family… You can find out more about Zak and his methods in his book, Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution

YouTube – all the tools you could ever wish for in dog training

If you have a new puppy you’ll know by now that it’s a lot more work than you ever imagined! Add to that a strict vaccination schedule where your bundle of joy can’t socialise with other dogs, walk outside or play in the park and you’ve got yourself a ball of energy that’s ready to blow! Using YouTube videos to discover new training methods and techniques, exercises and tricks to teach your puppy, is an excellent way to channel some of that energy. With many highly qualified dog trainers now taking to the ‘broadcast yourself’ platform, we can only expect more great puppy hints and tips in the future!

Do you have a puppy or dog and have similar experiences handling and training them, we would love to hear from you. Please share them by leaving your comments below.