Reddit reviews 51 Puppy Tricks: Step-by-Step Activities to Engage, Challenge, and Bond with Your Puppy (Dog Tricks and Training)

TRAINING

As for training, if you are really against going to puppy class, I'd pick up a book. I think an easy to read/follow book is; 51 Puppy Tricks. It's well written and easy to follow--... it does a great job of explaining tricks in levels, and has some cool ones in there. I have this book and I refer to it for ideas. There is also '101 dog tricks'

Some tips about training;

• Training should ALWAYS be fun. This is how you get a puppy to be happy to do it. Do not yell, scold, or get frustrated with your puppy. If you find yourself getting frustrated, stop training, take a break.
  
  
• SOCIALIZATION. From 8-12 weeks, this is when a puppy is most open to being socialized. You need to teach them everything, but because they don't have all their shots, you have to be safe about it. The dog will need to meet children, meet black people, fat people, asian people, white people, skinny people, tall people, short people, tall dogs, small dogs, medium dogs, people with sunglasses, people with hats, skateboards, bikes, wagons, loud noises, kitchen noises, STAIRS, STAIRS, STAIRS, elevators, cars, moving cars, MOVING CARS, SERIOUSLY, MOVING CARS-- you don't want a border that wants to herd cars. That will not end well.
  
  Socialization is the most IMPORTANT PART of a dogs life. From 8-12 weeks you should be DEDICATED to socializing your puppy. DEDICATED. There is nothing worse than a dog that was not socialized properly and now is aggressive or scared. These are the dogs that get surrendered to shelters. SOCIALIZE YOUR PUPPY -- with everything. Now, socialization does not mean your puppy has to interact, just that she needs to be exposed to the item.
  
  
• Chewing: Puppies are chew monsters. Do not YELL at them for chewing. That doesn't TEACH them anything. It tells them chewing is bad, but not what they should chew on. With my puppies, when I catch them chewing on something I tell them a firm 'NO' and then GIVE THEM SOMETHING they are supposed to chew on. This teaches them to chew on their TOYS and BONES and that it's not appropriate to chew on furniture. This is a hard battle, but be persistent. You will eventually win out. Blue chewed for 4 weeks on anything and everything and it never felt like I was getting through-- but then one day it was like 'BOOM, I GET IT' and I haven't had a problem since. Providing plenty of toys in different areas will also help motivate them to chew on the toy and not the furniture. Don't be afraid to change out toys. Toys that have been down for 30 mintes-- put those away, and put out new ones. Engage your puppy in play with appropriate toys.
  NEVER, EVER, EVER use something as a toy ou don't want your puppy to eventually chew one. This means that OLD SHOES, TOWELS, ETC are out of the question. Do not use them. You can't give your puppy and old shoe and then get MAD when they chew on your new shoes :) ...
  
  
• Come: One of the most important commands. Never, EVER, EVER get mad at your puppy when they come to you. Seriously. You want your dog to think coming to you is the best thing in the world and every time it's a PAAARTAAAY.
  
• Potty training: See "Buy a Crate" under Items. It has useful potty training advice.
  
  
• Start training your dog as soon as you get them. Puppies can learn. They aren't "too little". After giving them a few days to acclimate, start working on some basics like 'come', 'sit', 'touch', 'loose-leash walking', 'lay', etc. If you don't know how to do this; PUPPY TRAINING CLASS/BOOK and or YOUTUBE. :)
  
  If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me. I would be more than happy to give you advice, and/or make a video for you on showing the training.
  

I started with this book http://amzn.com/1592535712 , as well as some outside sources. The clickers are pretty cheap. My first one broke, so I ordered a three pack of these and they seemed to work a lot better.