5 Tips for Making Training Your Pup Simple & Fun
Luke giving me a high five and a target with his nose to my hand! Photo credit: Sue Tallon
It’s no coincidence that January is National Train Your Dog Month. The start of the year is a great opportunity to prioritize training with your dog. Building in some time for training now will pay dividends throughout 2024. When it gets busier it can feel harder to make the time and unwanted behaviors can feel even more frustrating. Training is also a great way to deepen your bond with your pup. It needn’t be daunting; it can and should be fun for you both. How do you make it simple and fun?
5 Tips for Making Training Your Pup Simple & Fun
For some pups playing with their toys is a better reward than food treats! Photo credit: Jung Fitzpatrick
1. Make it Pawsitive!
Reward your dog with treats, praise, or play when they behave the way you want. Positive reinforcement creates a positive association with the behavior, making them more likely to repeat it. End each session on a positive note.
If you’re aiming for a 5 minute training session for Down and your pup does really well on the 3rd try at 3 minutes, end it there with lots of happy praise and a treat. The impact of that success will carry over into your next session for both of you.
The opposite of this is also true. If you start to get frustrated, end the session by breaking for play - ending on a positive note for both of you. Continuing to train when you are frustrated will actually make the training session less successful. Believe me, I know from experience when I was learning to train dogs! When a dog sensed that I was getting impatient or frustrated, the dog usually paid less attention to the training. It’s kind of like hanging out with someone in a bad mood. No fun!
On the other hand when I have a very good training session with one dog, I typically carry that elation into my next training appointment. More often than not, that next training session with a different dog will go well too because the dog and I are both feeding off my high.
2. Keep Training Sessions Short and Sweet
Aim for training sessions that last around 5-10 minutes to: 1) keep your dog’s focus and interest, and 2) make it easy for you to fit into your schedule. It’s better to end a training session with your pup wanting to continue rather than losing his attention with a longer training session.
If you’ve lost your pup’s attention, then the training session is no longer really a training session, and it’s likely no longer a positive experience for your pup either. It may be neutral, which is fine but you don’t want to drag it out and have the session become a negative experience (not fun, boring, or worse, frustrating) for you or your pup.
3. Be Consistent
Consistency is crucial in dog training. If you have a family or live with others, have a conversation with everyone to make sure that everyone understands and agrees on the rules and expectations for your pup. If you don’t want your dog on the bed at night but your partner or housemates let her up on the bed, you’ll be sending mixed signals. The more consistent you and your household are, the faster your pup will learn.
Asking your pup to sit before feeding is a great way to incorporate training in your daily routine. Photo credit: Jung Fitzpatrick
4. Include Training in Daily Activities
Rather than making training a special thing you have to schedule into your day, integrate it here and there into your daily routines. For example, ask your dog to wait before going through doorways or getting out of the car. This reinforces good behavior throughout the day and keeps the training short and sweet. Be sure to have some treats on you to reinforce the desired behavior!
5. Start Small
Start with basic manners like Sit, Down, Wait, and Targeting before moving on to more challenging skills such as Stay, Leave it, Drop it, etc. Training and learning are muscles that need warm up, practice, and maintenance over time for both you and your pup. As you train more together and succeed at easier skills, you will both gain confidence and can start to build up to more difficult behaviors together.
I would never ask a client to start training their pup to do a Down Stay for 15 minutes in a busy cafe at our first session or first few sessions together! That would be like asking a new driver to parallel park in reverse on one of San Francisco’s crazy steep hills! To start small, I’d ask a new driver to pull into a parking spot of a big and flat parking lot and give kudos for being neatly between the parking guidelines.
Teaching your pup new behaviors and skills with the above tips in mind will keep it simple and make training a fun learning and bonding experience for the both of you. Enjoy the process, celebrate small victories, and remember to keep the training sessions pawsitive!
Need help getting started? Overwhelmed by the thought of training? Let’s chat!
Bonus: Reading resource — Interested in learning more about positive reinforcement (R+) training? I highly recommend: Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor. It’s an easy and entertaining introduction into R+ training.
Photo credit: 2PhotoPots
