Working long hours is just one of the many excuses new puppy owners use, instead of finding time to train the new member of their family. I have heard a few that frustrate me as a dog trainer. Number one on that list is “my puppy knows how to sit/down/stay” so it will be okay to not work on training each day. This thinking will surely slow down your dogs progress.

Behaviors certainly aren’t built in a day, but adding a few common sense rules into your dogs daily life, can be the secret weapon you need. The good news is, time is on our side. We’re not talking an hour a day or even 30 mins at a time. How does 5-10 minutes a few times each day sound? When I pass this information along to dogs owners, you can see a glimmer of hope that this dog training may not be all that time consuming. Yay for Fido! 

Rules for the most part are easier to follow when they are not too complicated. Dogs thrive when their routine is consistent and rewarding.  What does consistency have to do with anything?! Silly owners.  In dog training sit means sit, stay means stay, the first time we ask. The challenge with this, is we tend to be emotional loonies around our dogs and the result of that is plenty of free meals. We have all been there! Free meals are the rewards that you give to your loyal student for just looking “so darn cute”.  I will be the first to tell you that I act like a new father each time my dog walks into the room. If you are around dogs long enough, you become comfortable talking to them in a wonderfully peculiar way.  Try walking into your holiday party and asking co worker Carol if she would like a belly rub or telling Stan that he’s a really good boy! It may not be ideal for them but your dogs love it, so incorporate this into your training each time.

Setting boundaries does not have to be difficult or time consuming. It will be easier to keep a training schedule if you write it down or add an alert to your phone. First thing in the morning is one the best times to train and work with a rested, alert pup. so be sure to add that to your list. This means you’ll have to wake up earlier but puppy will be hungry and eager to please, so get yourself moving. The bonus to this is will be the extra cup of coffee you will enjoy! More importantly, you will have set up the start of a great training day for your dog. If you need time to sit and watch TV in the evening, how about training during each commercial break?This bonus training is win-win for everyone!

Once you choose a behavior that you are going to practice in the morning, return to the same training later in the day. The key here is to be consistent with the words that you are using, and that you are rewarding every single time the puppy gets it right! The next day go back to reinforcing what you were working on the previous day. Teaching them something one day and then not reinforcing it only leads to confusion and training errors for puppy.  Im certain that this new routine will lead to marked improvements and a sleepy dog!

Lastly, nothing beats bringing your new puppy to a weekly training class. Each new session will provide you with fun training ideas and puppy will get to explore an exciting new environment while socializing with other dogs. This will give you the confidence to put a new and simple training plan in place at home.

Its a great day to train

-Mike