Last month I followed a daily challenge from the School of Canine Studies which was set up by some well-known trainers. Each day we had two short videos to watch – one with some information about a particular training technique or concept and one with suggestions for a short training session to illustrate the idea.
None of the stuff covered was particularly new to me – I’ve been round the block too many times to have missed much – but it was good to be reminded of things. I particularly appreciated the training ideas, for three main reasons.
Firstly because it’s so difficult to think of what to train each day. The temptation is to just do the same old things, which becomes boring.
Secondly, the routine of having a new thing each day made training fun again – for both Gus and I – and gave us a library of things to try which I can now repeat and re-use in our future training sessions
Finally, it made me do some training every day for a whole month. Now there is some research that says if you do something regularly each day for 21 days you’ve formed a new habit. My aim is to maintain this new habit by setting aside five minutes each day to train with Gus. If I have more time I can do more, but even on busy days I can find 5 minutes.
We’ve added homework sheets to our Perfect Pet course where we give our clients ideas for five minute training sessions. So I thought I’d start to share these with you too.
I’m going to you a suggestion for what you can train in a five minute session. You’ll then have three or four days to practice that one thing until the next idea comes along. And by Christmas you’ll have set up a great habit and have lots of ideas for training – and your dog will be one of the best behaved dogs around.
Copy the training tips into your own notebook or online document so you can track your own progress and create a training tips reference book or file to keep and use in future.
Please post on our Facebook page or email us to let us know how you’re getting on – every day if you want. And ask if you hit any problems.
Let’s start with Today’s Training Tip:
Tip 1: Improving your dogs attention on you
– Grab a handful of treats (your dog’s dinner)
– Show your dog you’re holding some treats, and when he sniffs or looks at you, praise well and give him a treat
– Toss a treat to the side on the floor for your dog to snaffle
– When he turns and looks back at you again, praise well and give him a treat before tossing another treat as before
– Repeat until the handful of treats has been eaten
Note: Try not to speak except to praise your dog – no cheating by calling his name!
Keep training
Carol