Untrained dogs are a menace and spoil everyone else’s walk. If you have a dog you also have a duty to train it. “But I just don’t have the time,” you wail. Well, you DO have time, and we can show you how.
Clare was fed up with Max. He just wouldn’t listen to her at all. She knew he was still just a puppy at only six months old, but his charging round the house, stealing and chewing toys, socks and shoes, jumping up at the children when they were playing in the garden and trip- ping her up by getting under her feet all the time, was getting her down.
She had enjoyed the training classes she’d been to, but the things they taught there didn’t seem to help with his behaviour at home. She was really struggling.
Does this story sound familiar?
Have you eagerly gone along to training classes – but then struggled to do the practice once you got home and found yourself buried under the weight of stuff that has to be done every day to run your home and family?
You’re not alone. Everyone struggles to find the time to train their dogs.
You know you need to – Aunt Edna has refused to visit again because Rufus jumped up and knocked her over the last time and your children’s friends won’t come round anymore because he pesters them and steals their toys.
I’m not going to ask you to find any additional time anywhere – you’re just going to fit training into what you already do.
And best of all, your dog will behave better generally, because he’ll be tired mentally – and tired dogs are good dogs.
Here are five easy ways you can fit training into your everyday life:
Kettle training
How many cups of tea or coffee do you have each day? Quite a few, I’m guessing. So why not use the couple of minutes while the kettle boils to do some training?
TV advert or programme breaks
It’s great to flop down in front of the TV in an evening. I’m not going to ask you to miss your favourite programme – but why not do some training in the advert breaks or the breaks be- tween programmes?
While the dinner is cooking
There’s often a few minutes spare while the dinner is cooking. Even if you have to stand and stir a pan, you can practice some wait/stay training.
Or you could plan your menus so that food just needs throwing in the oven – giving you even more time to do some training while your meal cooks.
Better still, get your other half to do the cooking while you train your dog…
Watching TV or listening to the radio
You can multi-task sometimes. Whenever you’re watching TV or listening to the radio, why not do some gentle handling training?
Finally, and probably best of all:
Train on your walks
Ditch the earphones and train on walks!
Simple, single exercises like sit, down, wait/ stay or leave it are great for those short training sessions while the kettle boils, or during TV ad breaks.
Your daily walk is not just about physical exercise for you and your dog. The more training you do with your dog, the more interaction you’ll have and the better your bond will become, making more difficult things like recall easy to achieve.
A simple recall game to play in short sessions is to throw a treat a short distance away from you, let your dog go and eat it, call him, praise him all the way back to you, then give him a fuss and a treat when he gets to you. Then throw a treat out again to repeat the game.
You can do just about any training on walks. Our Perfect Pet courses give you loads of different games to play to help you teach your dog to walk nicely on lead, to come back when called, and lots of relationship building, good manners and handling practice games.
Find out more and book now on the website www.downdog.co.uk.
