How Do I Train My Small Dog?

If you have ever struggled to train a small dog, you are in very good company. Small dog training is one of the most searched topics among toy and small breed owners, and for good reason. Small dogs have a well-earned reputation for being stubborn, difficult to housetrain, and prone to ignoring commands that larger dogs seem to learn with relative ease. The good news is that this reputation is largely undeserved and almost entirely the result of how small dogs are trained rather than any inherent limitation in their intelligence or trainability.

At Puppylove Dog Daycare in Waterloo, Ontario, we work with small and toy breed dogs every single day. We see firsthand how smart, capable, and eager to please small dogs truly are when they are trained correctly, consistently, and with the right understanding of how small breed minds work. This complete guide covers everything you need to know about training your small dog effectively, humanely, and successfully.

Why Small Dogs Are Harder to Train — And Why That Is Mostly Our Fault

Before diving into how to train your small dog, it is worth addressing the elephant in the room. Small dogs do have a reputation for being poorly trained, and that reputation exists for a reason. Walk through any neighbourhood in Waterloo and you will encounter small dogs who bark incessantly, lunge at strangers, refuse to walk on leash, and ignore every command their owner gives. But here is the truth that most dog trainers will tell you: the vast majority of undertrained small dogs are undertrained because of how their owners have approached their training, not because of anything inherent to the dog.

Small dog owners are significantly more likely than large dog owners to skip formal training, excuse problem behaviours, carry their dogs to avoid situations rather than teaching the dog to navigate them, and allow behaviours that would never be tolerated in a large breed. A 5kg Chihuahua growling at a stranger is often laughed off as cute or feisty. A 40kg German Shepherd doing the same thing would prompt immediate training intervention. The result is that small dogs frequently never learn the boundaries, expectations, and coping skills that their large breed counterparts are routinely taught.

Small dogs are not inherently harder to train than large dogs. In many cases they are actually faster learners because of their keen intelligence and their strong desire to engage with their owners. The key is approaching their training with the same seriousness, consistency, and positive reinforcement methodology that produces great results in dogs of any size.

The Foundation: Positive Reinforcement

Before discussing specific training techniques and commands, it is important to establish the foundational principle that underpins all effective small dog training. That principle is positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement means rewarding the behaviours you want to see more of, and ignoring or redirecting the behaviours you want to see less of. It means your small dog learns that good things happen when they do what you ask, which makes them more likely to repeat those behaviours. It means training is associated with fun, rewards, and connection rather than fear, correction, and confusion.

Punishment-based training methods are particularly counterproductive with small dogs. Small breeds are often more sensitive and more easily frightened than larger dogs, and aversive training methods create anxiety, shut down learning, and damage the trust between dog and owner that is the foundation of all successful training. Positive reinforcement is not just the kindest approach to small dog training. It is the most effective one.

The currency of positive reinforcement training is rewards, and for most small dogs the most powerful rewards are small, high-value treats delivered immediately after the desired behaviour. The word immediately is important. Dogs live in the present moment, and a reward delivered even a few seconds after a behaviour is less effective than one delivered the instant the behaviour occurs. Speed and consistency of reward delivery are two of the most important factors in how quickly your small dog learns.

1. Start With the Five Basic Commands

Every small dog should know five basic commands. These are the foundation of a well-trained, safe, and manageable dog regardless of breed or size. Master these five before moving on to anything else.

Sit

Sit is almost always the first command to teach because it is simple, natural, and forms the basis for many other commands and polite behaviours. To teach sit, hold a small treat close to your dog's nose and slowly move your hand upward. As your dog's head follows the treat, their bottom will naturally lower toward the ground. The moment their bottom touches the floor, say sit clearly, deliver the treat immediately, and praise warmly. Repeat this five to ten times in short sessions until your dog begins to anticipate the movement and sits on the verbal cue alone.

Stay

Stay teaches your dog impulse control and is one of the most practically useful commands for everyday life. Once your dog has mastered sit, ask them to sit and then open your palm toward them and say stay. Take one step back. If they stay, return immediately, reward generously, and praise. Gradually increase the distance and duration over multiple sessions. Always return to your dog to reward rather than calling them to you, which teaches the stay command clearly.

Come

Come, also called recall, is arguably the most important safety command your small dog can learn. A reliable recall can prevent your dog from running into traffic, approaching an aggressive dog, or getting lost. To teach come, crouch down to your dog's level, open your arms, say their name followed by come in a happy, enthusiastic voice, and reward explosively when they reach you. Never call your dog to you to scold them. Come should always predict wonderful things.

Down

Down asks your dog to lie flat on the ground and is a useful command for managing your dog in public spaces, at restaurants, and during veterinary visits. To teach down, ask your dog to sit, hold a treat in front of their nose, and slowly lower your hand to the ground. As their nose follows the treat, their elbows will lower to the ground. The moment their belly touches the floor, say down, deliver the treat, and praise. This command often takes more repetitions than sit so be patient and keep sessions short.

Leave It

Leave it is a critical safety command that tells your dog to ignore something, whether that is food on the ground, a dangerous object, or another animal they want to approach. Hold a treat in your closed fist, present it to your dog, and wait. When they stop sniffing and pawing at your hand and pull away even slightly, say leave it, open your other hand, and give them a different treat. Gradually progress to placing treats on the ground and asking your dog to leave them.

2. Housetraining Your Small Dog

Housetraining is the training challenge that frustrates small dog owners more than any other, and small breeds do genuinely have a harder time with housetraining than large breeds for physiological reasons. Small dogs have smaller bladders and faster metabolisms than large breeds, which means they need to eliminate more frequently and have less time between needing to go and actually going. A young small dog puppy may need to go outside every one to two hours during the day, which requires a level of consistency and attentiveness that many owners underestimate.

The key to successful housetraining for small dogs is the same as for large dogs, only more so. Take your dog outside frequently, especially after waking up, after eating, after drinking, and after play. Choose a consistent outdoor spot and always go to the same place. Wait patiently and reward your dog generously the moment they eliminate outside. Never punish accidents inside, which causes anxiety and confusion rather than learning. Simply clean up thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner to remove the scent and redirect your dog outside more frequently.

Crate training is one of the most effective housetraining tools for small dogs used correctly. Dogs instinctively avoid eliminating in their sleeping area, so a correctly sized crate teaches bladder control naturally. The crate should be just large enough for your dog to stand up, turn around, and lie down comfortably. A crate that is too large allows your dog to use one end as a toilet. Use the crate positively, never as punishment, and never leave your small dog crated for longer than they can reasonably hold their bladder.

3. Leash Training Your Small Dog

Leash problems are extremely common in small dogs. Pulling, refusing to walk, stopping and sitting down, and lunging at other dogs and people are all behaviours that small dog owners frequently struggle with. The good news is that all of these problems are trainable with patience and consistency.

To teach loose leash walking, start in a low-distraction environment like your home or garden. Put your dog on leash and begin walking. The moment your dog walks calmly beside you without pulling, reward them with a treat and praise. The moment they pull, stop walking completely. Do not move forward again until the leash is loose. Your dog will quickly learn that pulling stops all forward progress while walking calmly beside you results in treats and continued walking.

For small dogs who refuse to walk or sit down and refuse to move, never pick them up or carry them through their resistance. This rewards the unwanted behaviour and teaches your dog that sitting down results in being carried, which is exactly what many small dogs are hoping for. Instead, make walking forward exciting by walking enthusiastically, using a high-value treat to lure them forward, and rewarding every step in the right direction.

4. Addressing Excessive Barking

Excessive barking is one of the most common and most frustrating small dog behaviour problems. Small breeds including Chihuahuas, Yorkshire Terriers, Pomeranians, Miniature Schnauzers, and Dachshunds are known for their vocal natures, and while some degree of barking is natural and appropriate, excessive or chronic barking is a trained behaviour that can be addressed with the right approach.

The first step in addressing excessive barking is understanding what is triggering it. Is your dog barking at strangers approaching the house? At other dogs? At sounds outside? Out of boredom or frustration? At you to demand attention or food? Each of these triggers requires a slightly different approach, but the underlying principle is the same. You cannot reward the barking, even inadvertently, by giving your dog what they want when they bark.

For alert barking at strangers and sounds, teach your dog a quiet command. When your dog barks, calmly say quiet once, wait for even a brief pause in the barking, and immediately reward the silence. Over many repetitions your dog will learn that quiet predicts a reward while continued barking gets them nothing.

Never shout at a barking dog. From your dog's perspective, you are barking along with them, which confirms that barking is the right response to the situation.

5. Socialisation as a Training Tool

One of the most powerful and most underutilised training tools for small dogs is structured socialisation. A well-socialised small dog is significantly easier to train than an undersocialised one because they are calmer, more confident, less reactive, and more able to focus on their owner in the presence of distractions.

Regular attendance at a small-dog-only daycare like Puppylove Dog Daycare in Waterloo provides consistent, structured socialisation that directly supports your training efforts at home. Dogs who attend daycare regularly are exposed to a wide variety of dogs, people, environments, and social situations in a supervised and positive setting. This builds the confidence and emotional resilience that makes training dramatically more effective.

At Puppylove, we also reinforce basic manners and positive behaviours throughout the daycare day. Dogs who attend regularly arrive home calmer, better socialised, and more responsive to training than dogs who spend long hours alone. Book a complimentary evaluation at Puppylove Dog Daycare today and see the difference that structured socialisation makes to your small dog's trainability and overall behaviour.

6. Training a Shy or Anxious Small Dog

Shy and anxious small dogs require a particularly patient and gentle approach to training. Fear and anxiety shut down learning, so the first priority with a nervous small dog is always to reduce their anxiety level before attempting to teach new commands or behaviours.

Build your shy small dog's confidence gradually through positive exposure to new experiences, people, and dogs at a pace they can handle. Use desensitisation and counter-conditioning to change your dog's emotional response to the things that frighten them. Desensitisation means exposing your dog to the scary thing at a low enough level that it does not trigger a fear response, and gradually increasing exposure as your dog becomes comfortable. Counter-conditioning means pairing the scary thing with something your dog loves, like a high-value treat, so that the scary thing begins to predict good things rather than fear.

Never force a shy small dog into situations they are not ready for. Flooding, which means overwhelming a frightened dog with the thing they fear in the hope that they will get over it, is not only cruel but counterproductive and can make anxiety significantly worse.

7. Consistency Is Everything

The single most important factor in successful small dog training is consistency. Every member of your household must apply the same rules, the same commands, and the same consequences every single time. If one person allows the dog on the sofa and another does not, if one person rewards jumping up and another tries to stop it, your small dog receives conflicting information that makes learning significantly harder and slower.

Write down the house rules and the commands you are using and share them with every person who interacts with your dog. Use the same word for each command every time. Always reward the behaviours you want and never, even occasionally, reward the behaviours you do not want. Consistency does not mean perfection. It means making the effort to apply your training principles as reliably as possible, as often as possible, for as long as it takes.

8. Keep Training Sessions Short and Fun

Small dogs have relatively short attention spans compared to working breeds, and training sessions that go on too long quickly become counterproductive. The sweet spot for small dog training sessions is five to ten minutes, two to three times per day. Short, frequent sessions produce faster and more durable learning than long, infrequent ones.

Always end training sessions on a positive note, with a behaviour your dog knows well that you can reward enthusiastically. This ensures your dog ends each session feeling successful and eager to train again. Training should be something your small dog looks forward to, not something they dread or disengage from.

Incorporate training into everyday life rather than treating it as a separate formal activity. Ask your dog to sit before their meals, to wait at the door before going outside, and to come before being let off leash. These everyday reinforcements of trained behaviours are some of the most powerful training tools available because they create a dog who responds reliably in real life situations, not just during formal training sessions.

When to Seek Professional Help

If you are struggling with your small dog's training despite consistent effort, or if your dog is showing signs of fear-based aggression, severe anxiety, or behaviours that are worsening rather than improving, it may be time to seek support from a professional dog trainer or behaviourist.

Look for a trainer who uses positive reinforcement methods exclusively and who has specific experience working with small and toy breeds. Be cautious of trainers who use punishment, aversive tools like prong collars or shock collars, or dominance-based methods. These approaches are particularly harmful to small dogs and have been thoroughly discredited by modern animal behaviour science.

Your vet can also be a valuable resource if your dog's behaviour has an anxiety or fear component. In some cases, veterinary support including behavioural medication can make training significantly more effective by reducing your dog's baseline anxiety to a level where learning becomes possible.

Training and Daycare Work Together

One of the questions we hear most often at Puppylove Dog Daycare in Waterloo is whether daycare helps or hinders training. The answer is that done right, daycare is one of the best things you can do to support your small dog's training progress.

Regular daycare attendance builds the socialisation, confidence, and emotional resilience that makes training more effective. It provides physical and mental stimulation that reduces the boredom and pent-up energy that drive so many small dog behaviour problems. And it exposes your dog to the kind of consistent, structured, positive environment that reinforces the values and expectations you are working to build at home.

At Puppylove Dog Daycare in Waterloo, we work exclusively with small and toy breeds in a cage-free, supervised environment designed to bring out the best in little dogs. Our team understands small breed behaviour and temperament deeply, and we actively reinforce positive manners and behaviours throughout every daycare day.

Start Your Small Dog's Training Journey Today

Training your small dog is one of the most rewarding investments you will ever make in your relationship with your dog. A well-trained small dog is a joy to live with, to take out in public, and to share your life with. The effort you put into training your dog now pays dividends for the entire span of your dog's life.

If you are in Waterloo, Ontario and looking for a supportive, experienced small-dog-only environment to complement your training efforts at home, Puppylove Dog Daycare is here to help. Our cage-free, small-breed-exclusive daycare in Waterloo provides the structured socialisation, positive reinforcement of good manners, and breed-aware supervision that supports and accelerates your small dog's training progress.

Every new dog begins with a complimentary 2-hour evaluation, and if your dog is cleared, their first full day is completely free. Contact us today to book your evaluation and take the first step toward a happier, better-trained, more confident small dog.

Puppylove Dog Daycare — Waterloo, Ontario's small-dog-exclusive, cage-free daycare and certified grooming salon for small and toy breeds. Serving Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, and all of Waterloo Region.