Raven was still pretty young when we brought her home. She was 1 1/2 years old. I would not recommend bringing home an untrained dog and puppy at the same time. Raising a dog and puppy at the same time requires a lot of time and patience. We were lucky that Archer and Raven were quick learners and the two got along very well.

How old was raven when you first brought her home? I am debating if I can handle the same scenario ( 6yo adult dog untrained and 9 wk old puppy both in need of training) because I am a first time dog parent .

Totally agree! Raven was an adult when she joined the family. She didn’t have much training wise, but she definitely picked up on things like crate training, potty training, and basic obedience much faster than any puppy I’ve raised.

This is very true and a good reason for keeping training sessions short. I remember when I first started working with puppies I was told to work on training in between commercials while watching my favorite TV shows which was usually around 2-3 minutes. I guess nowadays you don’t have to sit through commercials, but 2-3 minutes is usually a good amount of time when training a puppy. Thank you for sharing your experience.

A adult dog is able to focus on what you are saying, and as they start to understand what you want, they will try to get it right. Breaking something down into manageable bits helps a lot.

A puppy has an attention span of a couple seconds. You might get them to ‘Sit’ one time, but then they have lost interest and are off exploring.

When we get new service dog puppies we keep them on leash and manage their behavior nearly 100% of the time when they first get home. Doing this helps put our older dogs at ease when the puppy is around because we didn’t allow the puppy to jump all over the older dogs.

Yep, the puppy years are difficult, but it’s nice to look back and have those memories.