Now that you have your new puppy you will want to train it into a sociable dog.

On arrival at your home the puppy will be both excited and frightened. Excited as it is a whole new environment to explore but frightened as this will probably be the first time that it will have been away from its mother and siblings.

It is important to understand that dogs are a pack animal in which there is a strict hierarchy. You, the master, must at all times be top dog and all other humans in the household must be higher in the pack than the dog. If the dog gets the better of a person then you have a serious problem. Everyone in the household must get used to the puppy and the puppy get used to every person in the household. To establish dominance over a puppy, grab it by the scruff of the neck, see more on this below.

First thing to do is to establish its bed. This should be as warm and inviting as possible somewhere that your puppy wants to be. You should also establish ground rules now as to where the puppy can and cannot go, upstairs, the lounge, on the furniture etc. Dangerous areas such as staircases may need to be fenced off using child safety gates.

If your choice is for the puppy to sleep alone in say the kitchen or in an outdoor kennel then you will probably find that it will whine for the first few nights. However, it is best to leave it and in time it will get use to it. If you do go to it all you will be teaching it is that whining brings attention and it will never settle.

Toilet training will be a priority. There are several methods available but the basic principle of all of them is that a puppy will not soil its bed and you have to train it to regard as the entire indoors of a house as its bed. As you get to know your puppy you will get to know the signs it gives off when it wants to relieve itself. First of all is timing. It will normally want to relieve itself after waking or playing or about 30 minutes to an hour after feeding. Often it will start circling and sniffing the ground. When it does this, pick it up and take it outdoors to the area you are set aside for this purpose. Wait with the puppy, no matter how long it takes, and if it does relieve itself, praise it. I can't emphasize that enough, puppies learn by being praised for doing things correctly and punished when they misbehave.

You will have accidents in the house but the important thing to remember is that it is only worth punishing the puppy if you catch it in the act or very shortly (within a couple of minutes) afterwards. If the puppy does sleep in the house and you come down in the morning to find a castle in the middle of your best carpet, it is pointless punishing the puppy then, it will be unable to relate the punishment to the soiling of the carpet. Rubbing the puppy's nose in it certainly does not work and may be counter productive.

After an accident, dab a spot of vinegar on the spot. This will mask the smell and discourage the puppy from doing a repeat performance. Use white vinegar instead of the usual brown malt if you are worried about staining the carpet but test a small inconspicuous area first to ensure that no permanent marking will result.

A new puppy will have a tendency to try to lick the lips of a human. This is the natural instinct of asking the mother to regurgitate food. However, it is not very hygienic and something that should be stopped early on.

The puppy must also learn that it must never, ever bite a human, in fact no bit of human flesh should enter its mouth. As well as being unsociable, if your dog bites a stranger in the street you may be prosecuted and the dog possibly destroyed.

I've mentioned punishment several times and so you may be asking yourself how do I punish a puppy. Well, what you are trying to do is to make the puppy associate a bad experience with a particular behaviour so that in the future it no longer does that behaviour. Initially, a very stern "no" and grabbing the puppy by the scruff of its neck and lifting it bodily off the ground is the best approach, if the puppy squeals in pain so much the better as it has registered. You could also wave a finger in front of the dogs face as well. Although it may look cruel it is the best method as it is nature's language which they understand best. You are also showing it that you are top dog. If you observe several dogs playing with each other you will see that they will often tug each other by the scruff of the neck. The one doing the tugging is trying to show dominance to the dog being tugged.

Never hit a dog though, with your hand or any kind of implement such as a stick or even the leash, this just teaches the dog to become afraid of being on a leash.

If you do catch your puppy relieving itself indoors, a hard slap on the carpet next to it may work.

One of the most powerful forms of punishment is to ignore them. Dogs are social animals and are not used to being on their own. Therefore, an effective punishment is to ignore the dog for a short while, 5 to 10 minutes at most, perhaps by putting it in a room or outside on its own.

In time, a stern no will probably become sufficient. It is very important for the puppy to learn the meaning of "no" early on.

As for punishment, whenever a dog does something correctly you must praise it, even if it does not do it immediately. An example might be calling the dog back to the leash. I have seen people shouting for their dog to come back to them for maybe five minutes or more whilst the dog continues to run around. When the dog finally decides it has had enough and returns to its owner, the owner instead of praising it, punishes it for not coming back immediately. All this is teaching the dog is that it will be punished for returning to the leash so next time it is likely to take even longer.

Dogs respond best to sharp, one word commands like sit, come, drop, fetch, stay etc. and these may be supplemented by hand gestures such as a outstretched palm when you want the dog to stay and a beckoning motion when you want the dog to come to you. Teaching your dog to respond to a whistle is also a good idea as a whistle is likely to be heard further away than your voice. The tone of your voice is very important. You may find that even if you start with a playful tone you may have to restort to a more stern tone for the dog to comply.

If you feel unable or are not confident enough to embark on full training yourself then you may consider puppy classes. There should be classes near where you live, ask at your local library or veterinary surgeon. These will be conducted by an experienced dog trainer and will also teach your dog how to socialize with other dogs. They will also train you in the art of handling your dog.

Teaching it other commands such as "sit", "stay", "fetch" etc. should be done in short, sharp sessions, 10 minutes long at most with play in between When a dog does a command successively praise it and give it a little treat like a doggy choc or a small piece of some other food that it particularly likes.