Stage one – Up to 7-8 weeks old
As you may know, puppies should stay with their mother during the first 7 weeks. This is for many reasons, one being that the mother teaches the puppy things about a dog’s life. When you pick up the puppy in the eighth week, your puppy is most able to handle change.

Stage two – Up to 18 weeks
This is where the puppy leans how to socialise with other dogs and humans. The more you can expose the puppy too the more confident it will become. You can start basic training at this age, but don’t do anything too intensive.

Stage three – Up to 6 months
Before the puppy reaches adolescence it is the perfect time to increase your dogs training intensity. Remember that your puppy is still growing up so its attention span may not be as long as you’d like! Be patient though and you’ll reap the rewards. You’ll also probably notice the puppy becomes even more active during this time.

Stage four – Up to a year
Now the puppy will reach adolescence and you’ll notice that (unbelievably) he is even more active than before. Don’t worry though, this is the peak time of your puppies life for energy. Now you can really start the more advanced training too, including agility training. Remember that a puppy has a different view of the world to you.

These stages are the main ones that each puppy goes through. Not all puppies will do it as fast, and some might do it faster, but all go through similar stages. These stages have actually been simplified here – there are many sub-stages that you may have to deal with – but as a general guide these are all you need. A puppies development depends greatly on the owner, so strive to be the best owner possible.