week 1 puppy survival guide.
find a massive card board box, place where the dogs bed will be or where you want the dog to sleep.
fill with small water bowl, its bedding & one of your old jumpers (& some old unwashed clothes of any kids in the house).
also chuck in one toy, ideally a nylabone / chewing toy.
newspaper in the corner of each room the dog will be in, if you don't want it upstairs get a cheap baby gate from argos for <£20.
all dogs ultimately end up with nicknames... we've got 3 dogs and each one will answer to multiple. the spaniel for example... Tesse, shugs, shuggy bear, beastly, beast, wooly bear / wooly beast, sh1tbag & the missus calls it sugarplum (hence shugs etc.). the black lab & the ridge back are similar but have slightly less p.c nicknames!
pick one name & stick to it until it reacts to its name being called. this is vital to all training.
daytime, spend as much time as possible with the dog, interact, play, talk to it. tone of voice is critical. higher pitched, happy voice to reinforce good behaviour, deeper, angry tones to discourage bad behaviour.
keep to short, simple commands. assuming the dogs name is gary... gary, NO. gary, sit. gary, stay, gary, BAD BOY etc. they will learn basic commands if they are given basic commands consistently.
when the dog squats, pick it up and put it down on the paper & reinforce with 'good boy / girl' when business is done on the paper. if the dog picks up / chews something it shouldn't. Gary, NO. as you take it off him.
NO, will be the first command any dog learns. once they have NO they will start to pick up the rest pretty quickly.
night time, make sure the dog is toileted, put them in the box, close the door of the room they are in & walk out. don't make a fuss, don't give them a treat, just leave. this exercise should be done through the day if possible, just 10 minutes or so at a time lets the dog know you are coming back for it & at night it should help the howling. they will yelp / howl for a night or two, just ignore them. they are lonely & want attention. if you give them attention before they learn NO then they will start joining the dots... howling gets me attention, i'm lonely, i'm gonna howl. night times are hardest, but persevere.
basic training should start straight off. each time you call the dog try and get eye contact, this is easier with a 'proper' breed with the correct skin : rest of dog ratio but be firm with the call and they will get there.
first thing they will pick up on is the NO command. next one should really be the come / heel command which can be sped up significantly with 'praise' training. try and avoid reward training with treats because clever dogs will manipulate you without you knowing it!
Having learnt by my mistakes, I use the following with fairly good success
NO (no should instantly stop them from doing whatever they are doing and get them looking at you for their next command)
DEAD (drop command for when they have anything in their mouth they shouldn't, the spaniel will retrieve & drop live animals at my request, however it also has a KILL command for when i really don't want / need a live mouse or similar)
COME IN (recall from distance)
SIT
STAY
HEEL (for when they are by your feet & sitting & you want them to follow)
for getting good, basic training, have a look at some gundog training books. the basics work well for family pets & are all you need for day to day dog handling but gundog books will give you good advice on training to gesture or the whistle. again, the spaniel will perform certain tasks form a distance by gesture & responds differently to different whistles (3 short pips for example is the 'come in' command whereas one long whistle is stop & sit.)
above all else, consistency is king. stick to what your doing, keep it simple & keep everyone in the house singing the same song.
hahah dont call me that tho (lite the blu touch paper) grrrr 
