There are some ways to set yourself and your family up as top dog. You want to earn your puppy's respect. That can mean being firm, but always fair. Read more about Becoming a Pack Leader.

Puppies do feel fear, but it's not useful for your dog to fear you. Never hit your dog.

Puppies don't have the ability to link cause and effect abstractly; that is, remember a past action and link it to your present reaction. Never scold for something your puppy did a while ago. Your puppy will have no idea what the problem is and will think that you are mad for no reason. Only correct your dog when caught in the act.

Because puppies are pack animals, they crave your attention and approval. Use this to your advantage when teaching your dog. Learn more about Training Basics.

Take the time to teach your puppy what you want. A puppy arrives in our world, often having just been born two or three months earlier. We should not expect him to understand anything but to love us. We get to teach him the rest - using persistence, patience and affection to shape him into the companions that we want and he is capable of becoming.

Your Puppy's Senses

When you notice the way your puppy reacts in situations, remember that dogs live in a world that looks, smells and sounds quite a bit different than ours. You might think a situation seems quiet and safe, but your dog may sense something you do not that causes agitation - a sound too high-pitched for you to hear or the scent of another animal you can't detect.

Dogs can see with less light, detect motion, and see flickering light better than humans, but the clarity of their distance vision is typically poorer. The popular theory that dogs only see shades of gray may not be true. Some theories suggest they see blues and yellows but can't see reds and greens as humans do.

A dog's hearing is more sensitive than yours. They hear higher pitches and lower volumes. Dogs are able to register sounds of 35,000 vibrations per second compared with 20,000 per second in humans. This sensitive hearing can alert you to visitors or danger, but it also means you should take care with loud noises, and be patient when your dog howls at a train whistle or siren.

A puppy's sense of smell is much more acute than a human's - tens of thousands of times more acute by some estimations.

We'll never fully understand what their world looks like, smells like or sounds like, just as dogs will never even be able to understand how different our world is. But we both understand one thing: affection. Kindness crosses all barriers and lessens all differences.