About Us
Dog Training Courses
Professional Dog Trainer
Courses in Your Area

Dog Health
Genetic Conditions
Non- Genetic Conditions
Lifestyle Conditions

Puppies vs Older Dogs

One of the major questions over dog training is - is it better to start off with a puppy or an older dog? Both have their positive and negative aspects to consider. Puppies are a totally clean slate with only their genetics and early weeks to go by. They are much easier to mold to you own preferences. But they need a special regime that will be obsolete when they grow up - costing you a lot more money. They have to be house training before any other training can really begin.

They chew everything including people and furniture and have to be taught not to do this. They are generally a lot of work for many many months before they calm down.

Older dogs - 2 years plus - are much more calm. They will already be full grown and should have lost a lot of the urge to chew things. You can tell exactly what they are going to look like if this is important to you. They will have some set traits from their early years and may even have some behavioural issues that need to be trained out of them. But they don't have the 'baby issues', like puppy biting, that young pups do.

Basically it is entirely up to you as to what you think will suit your house hold. If you have decided to take the wonderful roller coaster ride of puppy ownership then these next pages are here to help you through some difficult phases.