Everything on demand

The thing is with everything so easily obtainable in todays world, be that food delivered to your door, films on demand or sending and receiving messages instantly. We all expect everything done quickly and because of this we jump from one thing to the next if we don’t see instant results without really giving it ago, which leads to a big problem owners face when training their dogs.

I hate to break it to you but there really is NO quick fix to training your dog! Please take a minute to absorb that, although I guess you’ve possibly heard it before, it is in fact true! Training a dog is a big commitment, some people get lucky and it takes maybe a couple of weeks at most. However, for the majority of owners it will take months to get a new behaviour mastered like lead walking or coming when called reliably, especially if the dog has been rewarded for pulling or running away previously.

It is up to you as an owner to make that commitment every day to your dog's training. Once they understand the commands you may only need to refresh their training once or twice a month. So don’t worry too much, you're not going to be walking your street back and forth for the rest of your dogs life.

How long should your training sessions be?

Did you know from the moment you get up and see your dog the training begins, every interaction with or around your dog is training. With that in mind you could use this to your advantage, such as; if you have a dog who gets overly excited when the lead comes out you could spend the time moving the lead around the house to desensitise them, so the lead coming out doesn’t always mean a walk.

But when it comes to actual training sessions this is up to you and your dog, you don’t have to do an hour long session (unless you want to.) Simply spending 10 minutes and few times a day to dedicate to training would suffice. Obviously the more you put in the more quickly your dog will learn.

When training Miku to my method it took her four days to understand the technique and what was asked of her, each day I spent two sessions working with her, one session was 20 minutes and the others were 30 minutes. Yes she needs reminding very occasionally but mostly she will walk to heel anywhere.

Each training session should be fun and rewarding

That said watch your dog and make sure they’re enjoying it. My dog Miku gets frustrated and bored very quickly, especially if training the same command repeatedly. So not only do I get her to do a number of different techniques during a session I also make most of them short, such as 10 to 15 minutes, some days it will only be 5 minutes depending on her mood.

Each session should end on a positive, so play a game of tug or fetch to make it enjoyable for your dog. Something for them to look forward to at the end of each session. Not only is it fun for them it strengths that bond between you both.

Remember the more time you put in with you dog the quicker you will get your desired outcome, but please remember that teaching a dog any command is not a quick ordeal.

Next read how to teach your dog to get into the ‘heel position’