A puppy just joined your life - how exciting and fun! And if we're all being honest, maybe a bit overwhelming as well.

In these 6 guides, certified trainers and Dogly Advocates take you step by step through what you need to know to set both you and your puppy up for a smoother, calmer start and a foundation for your happiest, best life together.

Here's a quick overview of 6 guides with basic puppy training tips to set up your puppy for success:

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Puppy Training Guide 1: How to Prepare for Your Puppy

When you're bringing your new family member into your home, you want to focus on loving, enjoying, and training your puppy. So your first step is to prepare yourself and your household with everything you'll need in advance. Amid all the excitement, it's easy to forget key things that help make your first days and weeks as smooth as possible.

Certified positive reinforcement dog trainer and Dogly Training Advocate Ruby Leslie shares a puppy parent checklist with 13 tips to help you prep including recommendations for favorite items and why.

What you'll learn in this guide:

13 essentials to get your puppy off to a good start happily, safely, and set up well for the long term...

1. Stainless steel food and water bowls - and why they're the healthiest choice for your puppy
2. Your puppy's food and treats - with recommendations for nutritious training treats and puppy life stage nutrition from a certified canine nutritionist
3. At least two dog beds - key considerations in choosing (and why it's perfectly fine to let your dog sleep on your bed)
4. Covers for your couches - why not help keep your puppy out of trouble? Includes a favorite, design-worthy recommendation
5. Enrichment toys and feeders - why they matter, how to use them, and recommendations for treat-dispensing chews and toys and engaging slow feeders
6. Dog poop bags, pee pads, and enzymatic cleaners - with environmentally-friendly recommendations that work
7. Dog collar and ID tag - includes which collars NEVER to use
8. Y-shaped harness - why they matter for your dog's health and safety on walks, plus recommended favorites
9. Leash - how to choose what's right for your puppy and the one leash that's unsafe and also unhelpful for training to NEVER use
10. Baby gate, x-pen, crate for management - why and how they're useful with your puppy
11. Daily care and grooming supplies - why and how to make the healthiest choices including starting early with dental care
12. Calming essences and diffusers - natural recommendations for calming your puppy in stressful situations from settling in to thunder
13. Warm coat if winter to keep your puppy cozy

+ Endless patience, love, and positive training from you.

For the specifics behind each of the 13 essentials, check out the full guide here. Next, for how to teach one of the most important lessons to your puppy...

Puppy Training Guide 2: How to Teach Your Puppy to Pay Attention to You

One of the most important things you can teach your puppy as you start your life together is that paying attention to you is the best thing ever. It's one of the foundational skills you'll want at the very beginning of your puppy training timeline. You'll find countless times in countless situations when having a strong communication and trust bond between you will keep your puppy happy, comfortable, and even safe.

So how do you teach your puppy to pay attention to you? Certified dog trainer and Dogly Advocate Melissa Dallier takes you step by step through how to use positive reinforcement so your puppy wants to pay attention to you.

What you'll learn from this guide:

The how and why behind each of these 5 simple steps to teaching your dog to pay attention to you...

1. Stand next to your puppy in a safe, enclosed, decent-sized space with small-sized treats your puppy loves in hand.
2. Treat your puppy as you stand together.
3. Begin to walk away, say nothing, treats in hand.
4. As soon as your puppy follows you and gets close, say YES and treat!
5. Keep it going and let your puppy practice and keep repeating this rewarding behavior. But do keep your puppy training sessions short. Better to take breaks and practice again frequently when fresh than go beyond your pup's good focus time.

For all the details of each of these steps and to watch Melissa demonstrate with pup Kai in the accompanying video, check out the full guide here. Next up, another critical life skill to teach your pup in early puppyhood...

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Puppy Training Guide 3: How to Socialize Your Puppy

You have a lifetime to teach your puppy new behaviors but only a 12-16 week window to teach your dog to feel comfortable and confident in the world. Socialization isn’t actually “training” per se, but at the beginning of your puppy’s life it's an essential foundation to help set up your puppy for success in early training and life in general.

What you'll learn in this guide:

• The difference between socializing a puppy and an adult dog
• What to do - and not do - in puppy socialization
• Your puppy socialization checklist - 7 things you'll want to introduce your puppy to and how to do it:

1. Other dogs
2. Other people
3. Handling procedures (for grooming, toothbrushing, etc)
4. Things that move (bikes, skateboards, etc)
5. Things in your house - especially those that make noise (vacuum cleaner, doorbell)
6. Ground/floor surfaces (slippery floors, etc)
7. Other animals (cats, etc)

• Why and how to ALWAYS keep your socialization positive and in your dog's comfort zone
• Why you need treats when you start socializing your puppy and how to use them

Dogly Training Advocate Tressa Fessenden-McKenzie takes you through all the details and steps to successfully socializing your puppy in the complete guide here. Now for a basic lifetime skill when your puppy is out in the world with you - leash training for calm, enjoyable walks.

Puppy Training Guide 4: How to Teach Your Puppy Leash Walking

Wondering when and how to start training your new puppy to learn leash skills? There's no better time than now since puppies naturally tend to stick close to us anyway. That makes it easier for them to get it right and gives us more opportunities to reward the behavior we want and make it their go-to habit and solid skill.

It's also easier to establish your puppy's leash walking skills before your puppy grows into a bigger, longer-legged dog who can outpace you without even realizing it. In this guide with accompanying step-by-step video, positive reinforcement dog trainer and Dogly Advocate Brooke Fagel shows you how.

What you'll learn in this guide:

• Why do dogs pull on their leash anyway?
• Why you want to positively motivate and reward your puppy for good leash walking instead of the old-fashioned, negative "leash-popping" method
• 3 Exercises to teach your dog loose-leash walking skills as a go-to habit

Exercise 1: Make sure your puppy gets the idea of leash walking by practicing indoors in the easiest of settings in a distraction-free area.

Brooke takes you through each step with her puppy Spirit to show you how to use treats and a marker word/clicker to reward your puppy for walking closely with you in this super easy setting.

Exercise 2: Once your puppy is comfortable with indoor practice, take your practice outside to your yard or safe quiet space.

You'll learn how to take your puppy's positively reinforced skill to a slightly more challenging area outside in your yard or other quiet space. You'll build on exercise 1 by learning what to do when your puppy possibly gets a bit distracted by intriguing smells and sights outdoors. You'll learn how to use distractions as an opportunity to help your puppy learn to pay attention to you (and be rewarded for it!).

Exercise 3: Then when ready, take your practiced skills into the real world - still in a safe, manageable space - and start training with a few more likely distractions.

As you and your puppy take it to the next level in the real world (obviously not a dog park or other high-intensity place), Brooke takes you through how to use distractions to solidify your dog's listening skills. You'll learn how to redirect your puppy and reward along the way for behaviors you want to see!

You'll also learn...

• What to do if your puppy is rambunctious during training sessions
• Pro tips on the right equipment for basic puppy training
• The #1 thing you want to accomplish when leash training a puppy

To jump into the details of leash training your puppy, get started with the full guide here. Next up, another basic skill that's important and easy to start training now with your puppy...

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Puppy Training Guide 5: How to Teach Your Puppy to Take Treats Gently

Teaching your puppy to take treats nicely is one of the first opportunities for puppy parents to help young puppies learn impulse control. Getting mouthy when treats are involved is normal behavior for puppies. So how do you help your puppy learn to take treats gently instead of almost taking your fingers off every time?

In this guide, Dogly Advocate Brooke Fagel shares 5 simple steps to do exactly that with your puppy in this guide and the accompanying video.

What you'll learn in this guide:

• Why it matters to train your puppy to take treats gently
• The 5 simple steps to train your puppy polite treat-taking

1. Have both high-value and low-value treats ready.
2. Slow down your treat delivery - your puppy will tend to mirror your pace and pick up treat manners naturally.
3. If your puppy goes for the treat too enthusiastically and grabs at it, close your hand and pull the treat away.
4. Try treating with an open hand.
5. Or if you have an extreme case of treat-grabbing with teeth... you can drop a treat on the ground when your puppy does something good.

• Plus pro tips on your puppy training schedule and how to handle giving treats when you have more than one dog

These are just the topline steps; for all the step-by-step details to get started training your puppy to take treats gently, check out the full guide here. Now for puppy training tips for three of the most common issues puppy parents face...

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Puppy Training Guide 6: How to Stop Jumping, Barking, and Biting

When your puppy jumps, barks, and nips at just about every opportunity, it's easy to get a bit frustrated with these natural puppy behaviors. Thankfully, positive reinforcement training can help you teach your puppy to replace them with better behaviors.

So how can you shift your puppy positively from behaviors you want to reduce or eliminate to behaviors you DO want instead? In this guide, certified positive trainer and Dogly Advocate Aislynn Ross shares how to teach your puppy that other behaviors are more rewarding than jumping, barking, or biting.

What you'll learn in this guide:

What to do if your puppy jumps on you

• Why and how to teach your puppy alternative behaviors as better, more rewarding choices than jumping
• How to teach your dog "place" - a versatile calming cue you can use for jumping and whenever you want your dog to be safe and calm

What to do if your puppy is barking excessively

• When your puppy alert barks - why your pup does it and how to handle it
• When your puppy demand barks - why he/she does it and how to prevent it
• How to teach a "quiet cue" to your dog
• Other alternative behaviors you can use and reward to interrupt/redirect excitement and other barking types

What to do if your puppy is mouthing/biting all sorts of things including you

• When your puppy is teething - strategies to support your puppy in the 8-9 months of teething include a chew toy and other recommendations for engaging those little puppy teeth proactively
• When your puppy is nipping to get your attention or play - steps to do a "reverse time-out" (removing yourself then rewarding your pup)
• Pro tips on crates and other positive tools to help your dog stay calm, comfortable, and safe

For all three behaviors, practicing and solidifying positive reinforcement training skills with each one makes it easier to be successful with your puppy on the others. To jump into the details on each behavior from jumping to barking to nipping, check out the full guide here.

Next up in the Puppy Channel on Dogly

Once you've finished all 6 puppy training guides, you and your puppy should have a good base of prep and training skills for these common issues. To learn more on how to alleviate nipping, biting, and other mouthiness, dive into the 3 guides focusing specifically on nipping/biting/chewing or check out the many other guides on everything puppy, including potty training and crate training in the Puppy Channel here on Dogly.

If you have any questions about your puppy, just ask in our Community Discussion. And continue in our Puppy Channel where you'll learn everything you need to know for your puppy from our community of Dogly Training Advocates.

Or if you need more personalized dog training guidance, get started on your dog's plan now.