National ‘Train Your Dog’ Month!
Starting The New Year Right with Your Dog
It’s that time of year again. Everyone is making their New Year’s Resolutions. Lose weight, eat healthy, do more yoga, train the dog….
And that is where things go wrong. “Train the dog” is an excellent idea, but to be successful, you need to be specific!
First, take a good look at your situation: Does your dog have behavioral issues? Do you need to work on obedience? Do you want to train just to keep your dog’s mind active?
Second, evaluate the realities: How much free time do you have? How much of that free time are you willing to commit? What will your budget be?
Once you decide these items, make a solid and specific resolution:
“I resolve to take weekly agility classes with my dog”
“I resolve to hire a trainer to help with my dog’s barking/lunging on walks”
“I resolve to work on my dog’s recall around distractions”
These are all good resolutions. The next step would be to implement a plan. If you need to, mark the days and times on your calendar that you will set aside to work with your dog. This may seem like overkill, but it is VERY easy to put training on the back burner when other things come up. If you schedule it like you would for a meeting, it will be a lot easier to keep your commitment. Without a scheduled time it is very easy to come up with an excuse to NOT train.
When starting out, keep in mind to schedule short sessions for yourself. If you try to do too much training, it’s likely you and your dog will get frustrated and not follow through. Start slow and build from there. If you want to practice distraction recalls, aim to set up distractions 2x a week for the first 2-4 weeks. If that is going well, then advance doing it 3-4 times a week. If you want to start off by practicing daily, keep the sessions short!
Lastly-- Don't undo all your hard work if you (or he dog) are having an “off” day! If you are working on recalls, do not let your dog play off leash because you are too tired after work to train them. Give them a bone, Kong, or puzzle toy to tire them out and schedule a time to train the following day.
Now, get out there and train!
What is your training resolution? Let me know in the comments!