You Just Brought Home a Puppy in Salt Lake City. Here's What the First Eight Weeks Actually Look Like.

The most common thing I hear from new puppy owners in Salt Lake City is some version of “I thought they'd grow out of it.”

The biting. The accidents. The selective hearing. The chaos at the door every time someone knocks.

They don't grow out of it. Not on their own. But here's the thing: the first eight weeks you have a puppy at home are also the eight weeks when learning happens fastest, habits form most easily, and the foundation for everything that follows gets laid. Which means this is also the window when a little structure goes the longest way.

I've been doing puppy training in Salt Lake City since 2008. This is what I'd focus on, week by week, if your puppy just came home.

Weeks One and Two: Settle First, Train Second

Your puppy just left their littermates, their mother, and the only environment they've ever known. The first priority isn't sit and down. It's helping them understand that this new place is safe.

That means keeping things calm and predictable. Consistent feeding times. Consistent sleep spots. Consistent routes outside for bathroom breaks. Puppies regulate through routine, and a puppy who feels settled is a puppy whose brain is ready to learn.

That said, you're already training whether you intend to be or not. Every time your puppy bites down and you yelp and pull away, that's a lesson. Every time they sit and you reach for a treat, that's a lesson. Every time they whine at 2 AM and you go check on them, that's a lesson too. You might as well be intentional about what you're teaching.

Start with name recognition. Say their name once, in a warm tone, and when they look at you, mark it with a yes and offer a treat. Fifty repetitions a day sounds like a lot. It takes about four minutes.

Weeks Three and Four: The Basics, for Real

By week three, most puppies are sleeping better and starting to read their environment. This is when you introduce your first cues in a deliberate way.

Sit is the natural starting point, not because it's the most important skill, but because it gives your puppy their first experience of making a behavior happen intentionally and getting rewarded for it. That feedback loop, I did something, something good happened, is the engine behind everything else.

Add down once sit is solid. Add a hand signal for each. Keep sessions short, two to three minutes maximum, three or four times a day. Puppy attention spans are not long, and a puppy who ends a session having succeeded is a puppy who wants to train again.

House training runs parallel to all of this. The rule is simple even if the execution takes patience: outside every 45 to 60 minutes when awake, immediately after waking from a nap, immediately after eating, and any time you see the sniffing and circling behavior. Mark and reward heavily when they go in the right place. Clean up accidents without drama. No correction after the fact. They don't connect it.

Weeks Five and Six: Adding Difficulty

This is where most people get tripped up, and where Puppy Academy comes in for a lot of the families I work with in Salt Lake City.

Skills that work in your living room fall apart at Liberty Park. Recall that works with no distractions falls apart when another dog shows up. This is completely normal and not a sign that your puppy has forgotten everything. It's a sign that you need to practice in more places.

Start adding mild distractions to your training sessions. Practice sit in the backyard instead of the kitchen. Practice name recognition on the sidewalk. Walk your puppy past the mailbox where they always bark and reward heavily for checking in with you instead of fixating on it.

Bite inhibition gets more intentional at this stage too. Puppies bite because they're teething, because they're overstimulated, and because no one has taught them yet that human skin is not an appropriate thing to chew. The goal isn't zero biting, it's teaching them to bite softly and redirect to appropriate items. Yelping, time-outs, and redirection all have a place here. Physical correction does not.

Weeks Seven and Eight: Consolidation and Socialization

The socialization window closes around 16 weeks. If your puppy is approaching that age, this section is urgent.

Socialization does not mean exposure to everything all at once. It means thoughtful, positive introductions to the kinds of things your puppy will encounter throughout their life: different people, different surfaces, different sounds, other dogs, children, skateboards, strollers, and the particular sensory chaos of a busy neighborhood in Salt Lake City.

Each new experience should be something your puppy can approach at their own pace and leave if they choose. Flooding, forcing exposure and waiting for the puppy to get used to it, does not build confidence. It builds tolerance at best and fear at worst.

What you want to see is a puppy who encounters something new, investigates it, and moves on. That dog grows into an adult who is curious rather than reactive, confident rather than shut down. That outcome is available to most puppies. It requires intention during this window.

Puppy Academy at The Family Dog in Millcreek

If your puppy is between 10 weeks and five months old and you're in the Salt Lake City area, Puppy Academy is where all of this comes together in a structured, positive, small-group environment.

We meet Saturday mornings at 8:30 AM at The Family Dog, 4048 S 2700 East in Millcreek. Six sessions, $325, maximum 12 puppies. Cohort 1 is in session now, and Cohort 2 opens August 1, 2026, with registration available today.

If you want to talk through whether Puppy Academy is the right fit for your puppy, start with a discovery call. Fifteen minutes and I'll tell you exactly where I think you are and what makes sense next.

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The first eight weeks go fast. The habits they form in that time go slow. Start now.

Sit. Stay. Love.

Mo Lynch Vashel, The Canine Life Coach