Put the crate in your bedroom, next to the bed if you can. The puppy has just lost every smell and sound they knew. You, breathing a metre away, are the only familiar thing left.

Bring home a blanket that smells of their mother and keep it in the crate. Set a bedtime and give a small treat when they go in willingly. Whining in the night gets one quiet, boring trip outside, then straight back. It usually ends by four to five months.

You can hang a hand in the crate. Don't lift them into your bed unless that's the ten-year plan.

House training isn't a technique, it's a taxi service. Out after every sleep, every meal, every play session, after excitement like visitors, before bed, before you leave, when you return. Then, in between, every 45 minutes to an hour depending on age.

The reason is physical: dogs don't reach full bladder capacity until around 12 months. Young puppies need to go at least every 45 minutes while awake.

Reward outside toileting immediately, every single time. The rest is patience.

If you find an accident, it's already too late to teach anything. The puppy can't connect your anger to the puddle. Punishment just teaches them it isn't safe to toilet near you.

Catch them mid-stream? Call their name to interrupt, calmly, and finish the job outside with a reward. Then clean with one part biological washing powder to nine parts water, and rinse, so the smell doesn't invite an encore.

Every accident indoors is information: which trigger did you miss, and when.

Bite inhibition is the skill under the skill: the puppy learns how much mouth is too much. Puppies have about 28 baby teeth, and play biting is normal, necessary development, not defiance.

Littermates teach it by yelping when a bite lands too hard. You can mimic it, a high-pitched ow!, though for some puppies the noise winds them up more, then you go quiet instead.

A dog that one day bites from pain or fear, and doesn't bite down hard, is a safe dog. That's the prize.

The first three months are a window that permanently shapes the adult dog: how they react to people, noise, and the whole human world, gentle exposure now writes the defaults.

Vets put the stakes in one line: behavioural issues, not infectious disease, are the number one cause of death for dogs under three. That's the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, quoted by the AKC.

So the window is not a luxury topic. It's the safety topic.

Loose leash is a trained skill, and the training is: reward the slack. Mark and treat every glance back at you while the leash is on. The word yes, or a clicker, always means a treat is coming.

The key move is the leash-end lookback: puppy hits the end, you say their name once, they look back, you mark, reward, and walk on. After enough repetitions, the check-in becomes automatic.

And let them win sometimes: sniffy walks where they choose the route, several times a week, are part of the plan, not a failure of it.

Eight out of ten dogs find it hard to cope alone, and half show no obvious signs, which is why you video them from time to time. It's distress, not revenge, and it's teachable.

From day one, in tiny doses: step out and return, then shut the door, then a minute, then ten. A stuffed Kong at each stage tells you the truth: a dog too worried to eat has told you to go back a stage.

Once they're happy alone for an hour, longer stretches are usually fine. Cap ordinary days at four hours.

Everything in this book is one habit wearing different coats: catch them doing it right and pay them. The sit at the door, the check-in on a walk, the paws-down greeting, the quiet crate entry, mark it, treat it, mean it.

Practise a few minutes, several times a week, with whatever your dog loves best, food, tug, your voice. Ignore the bad, reward the good, keep every experience positive, and confidence compounds.

A year of small payments buys a calm adult dog. That's the whole trade.