If you’re about to embark on your first journey in dog ownership, you need to prepare yourself for the challenge of training. Not only will your dog be happier if he is well behaved, you will enjoy him more if he’s not trashing your house and sabotaging your peace and quiet. You also need to consider what breed best suits your family. Not all dogs are good with young children and most of them need at least a moderate amount of daily exercise. Here are some tips to get you started when you’re ready for training:

Find 15 minutes every day to focus on teaching your dog the basics. Any longer and you’ll lose his attention. Choose one person in the family to serve as his ‘den leader’ and do the training. Once the dog has learned his lessons, he should respond accordingly to anyone in the family. Your dog’s name is a big part of his training, so keep that in mind when going through the name books. His name shouldn’t be too complicated or he might not realize that you are talking to him. Make sure that he’s looking at you when you refer to him by name the first few times.

Start by introducing your dog to his crate. Dogs are den animals by nature, so they love to have a place to call their own, especially when they are home alone. As such, there is nothing cruel about crating your dog. If your new dog is still a puppy (and not yet housebroken) make sure the crate is small. Dogs do not soil in their den, so the smaller the crate the less likely he’ll have an accident. (Once he’s grown, make sure it’s big enough to make him comfortable.) Put him in for a few minutes several times a day and gradually increase the time so he’ll get used to it. Your dog will build confidence that you will indeed let him out if you establish a pattern this way. At night time, keep the crate near the family, specifically where the person who is leading the training sleeps. While it’s perfectly fine to let your fully trained dog sleep in bed with you, the crate is where he should be when you are first training him.

Next comes leash training. Remember what you learned about the amount of exercise certain dog breeds need? His ability to walk on a leash at your side will have a direct impact on how pleasurable your walk time will be for the next several years. He needs to know that you are in charge and he is not to drag you around the block in search of squirrels. Check your vet’s office for names of local obedience sessions and take a few classes to get you started.

You’ll want to teach your dog to respond to several voice commands, but the first you should master is “Stop!” There are many scenarios in which responding accordingly could spare you both some heartache. While it is fun to strengthen the bond with your dog by teaching him to shake, play dead and roll over those things can come in time.

End with something that the dog has mastered so you can end the session with a good dose of praise and perhaps even a treat if you’d like.

Julie Clark Robinson has written articles on dozen of subjects. Among the education related subjects she has written on are online education and California colleges and universities.