Do you get to the end of the day - or worse, the end of the week - slump into your armchair and say, “Oh no! Forgot to train the dog!”
I understand. Our lives are already full to bursting with all the things we have to do .. and all the things we think we have to do .. and fitting in lengthy dog training sessions just seems to slip through the cracks.
But the trick is - don’t have lengthy sessions! If you do want to have a training session, then by all means do - but five minutes is the most you’ll normally need. (That is until you get into serious competition or performance training - which perhaps you never will want to do.)
For getting our family dogs and puppies on the same page as us - and becoming the perfect companion we wanted when we went to all the trouble to find them! - you need to use All Day Training.
All Day Training
“Wossat?” you say.
Well, it’s my recipe for getting my dogs trained at the same time as running a couple of businesses and writing books.
It’s how you can manage your family, your work, and your dog!
You see, all day long you are interacting with your dog. Every interaction is a training opportunity - it’s not isolated to lessons or classes.
And all day long you have the chance to ensure that that interaction is moving you forward in life together.
My puppy needed ONE DAY to learn that jumping at the door of the crate or playpen resulted in no escape, while sitting automatically opened the door!
It took another week or so (nine weeks old) to learn that staying sitting when the door is opened is a new requirement to get out.
And then a week (now ten weeks) to learn that this works on house doors too. No door-crashing! No squeezing through cracks!
And how long did this valuable lesson take?
Just a moment.
Just a thoughtful pause in my daily doings.
Instead of throwing the crate door open and being thumped amidships by a wild puppy, I just needed to consider what I would like him to do, then ensure that that was built into our daily round.
The beginnings of an ACE Recall
Another skill your dog can be learning, without effort, all the time, is to respond immediately to his name.
Without this, you’re going to be shrieking and yelling when you want him to bound back to you across a field!
How to get your dog to LURVE his name? You need The Precious Name Game …
.. and you can find out exactly how to play The Precious Name Game in our free Workshop here.
What else?
You can extend this method to everything you want your dog to learn.
You want him to pick things up for you? Incorporate that into your interactions with him.
You want him to greet people politely? Start with teaching him how to greet you politely. And you should have many, many, opportunities in a normal day to do this. Don’t forget to keep this in mind when you’re returning from an outing and he’s going to be extra-excited - this is the ideal time to test your teaching!
You'll find lots more tips and new ideas in my books. And did you know that buying direct from the author can save you money? Go check them out!
What else would you like your dog to learn with so little effort from yourself?
Comment below and let’s take a look at how you can do that!
