Overview:
This puppy training checklist breaks down exactly what to work on with your puppy at each stage, from 8 weeks through 6 months and beyond. It’s built around AVSAB socialization guidance and the AAHA canine life stage recommendations, so you’re never guessing what comes next.
The one thing I have learned training puppies over the years is that the process entails a lot more than teaching them commands like “sit” and “stay”. The key to raising a good-tempered dogs is to practice the boring stuff like letting them get comfortable with having their paws and ears touched or building a calm relationship with their crate. If your puppy can sit like a champion by 10 weeks and still panicks every time you lead them to their crate or snips when you try to touch their tail or paws, you are going to have behavioural issues on your hand once they’re an adult. Training isn’t just commands. It’s a sequence, and skipping ahead costs you later. This puppy training checklist puts things in the order that actually works, not the order that looks impressive on video.
What to Train at Each Age
This puppy training checklist splits into four stages, since a 9-week-old and a 5-month-old need very different things from you.
8 to 12 Weeks: Foundation Stage
- House training: Take your puppy out after every nap, meal, and play session. Reward the second they finish outside
- Crate training: Make the crate a happy place with meals and high-value chews, never punishment
- Commands to start: Name recognition, sit, and a happy-voice “come” in low-distraction settings
- Socialization: Gentle handling of ears, paws, and mouth, followed by safe exposure to new people, sounds, and surfaces once your pup has had their first set of vaccines
3 to 4 Months: Building Stage
- House training: Accidents should be dropping off. Keep the schedule consistent even as her bladder control improves
- Crate training: Stretch alone time gradually, a few minutes at a time, always ending before they get restless
- Commands to start: Stay, down, and loose leash walking in the yard or a quiet street
- Socialization: Puppy class if you haven’t started, plus continued exposure to unfamiliar dogs and environments
5 to 6 Months: Expanding Stage
- House training: Should be mostly reliable indoors, with supervision still worthwhile in new spaces
- Crate training: Comfortable for a few hours at a stretch, useful for car rides and travel
- Commands to start: Heel, wait at doors and curbs, drop it, and polite greetings
- Socialization: Practice calm behavior around distractions, since adolescence often brings a second wave of caution around new things
6 Months and Beyond: Reliability Stage
- House training: Fully reliable, with occasional adolescent regressions being normal, not a step backward
- Crate training: Settles without fuss and treats the crate as a full-time safe space
- Commands to start: Reliable recall around real distractions, plus a solid “place” or settle command
- Socialization: Keep exposing your pup to new situations through adolescence. The confidence built now carries into adulthood
Why Age-Appropriate Training Matters
Puppies aren’t small adult dogs, and their brains aren’t ready for the same lessons at 8 weeks that they’re ready for at 6 months. The AVSAB position statement on puppy socialization puts the critical socialization window at roughly 3 to 14 weeks, the stretch when puppies are naturally more curious than fearful. Miss that window and you’re working against biology instead of with it. The same logic applies to commands. A puppy who hasn’t built emotional stability, comfort with handling, a working crate routine, calm behavior around people, doesn’t actually benefit from formal obedience drills stacked on top. AAHA’s canine life stage guidelines list crate training, bite inhibition, and socialization as priorities specifically because they form the base everything else sits on. This puppy training checklist follows that order on purpose.
Download the printable puppy training checklist
FAQs
1. What age should I start training my puppy?
As soon as you bring her home, usually around 8 weeks. Keep early sessions short, five minutes at a time, and focus on name recognition and sit before moving to anything more complex.
2. How do I house train a puppy fast?
Consistency matters more than speed. Take her out after every nap, meal, and play session, and reward immediately when she goes outside. Most puppies are largely house trained by 4 to 6 months, though full reliability can take longer for some breeds.
3. When should puppy socialization happen?
The critical window runs roughly from 3 to 14 weeks, though the AVSAB recommends starting puppy classes as early as 7 to 8 weeks once she’s had one set of vaccines. Don’t wait for a fully vaccinated puppy to start safe, positive exposure.
4. What commands should a 6-month-old puppy know?
By 6 months, most puppies on this puppy training checklist have sit, down, stay, come, and loose leash walking underway, with heel and a reliable recall being the next milestones.
Bottom Line
No puppy sticks to a schedule perfectly, and yours won’t either. Some weeks she’ll surprise you and pick up a command in a single session. Other weeks the crate that used to be no big deal suddenly feels like a problem again, usually right around a growth spurt or a fear period nobody warned you about. That’s normal, not a sign you’re doing it wrong. Print the checklist, work through it at whatever pace your puppy actually needs, and check things off as they happen instead of when the calendar says they should.