Posted on

Loose Leash Walking Series: Part One

The arrival of Spring is the perfect opportunity to head out with your dog after a long winter and explore the world…but that peaceful stroll can turn frustrating quickly if your dog pulls, strains and jumps as you hang on for dear life!

Loose leash walking is a hard skill as it involves deliberate practice and multiple components of obedience training. It can be an even bigger challenge when you factor in ‘city living’ distractions. Buses, cars, bikes and other dogs are always going to exist and pop out of nowhere on your walks and for your safety and theirs, dogs of all sizes should remain calm in the presence of them.

Is this your dog as soon as they see a squirrel?! Read on!

The most common complaint with walking is excessive pulling and excitable behaviours around distractions such as people and other dogs. These behaviours not only present a safety issue for owners, but they can also lead to less walking overall. A frustrating 30 minute walk daily can sour the relationship you have with your dog and make you less inclined to walk them. You may seek alternative methods of exercise but this is a solution we never want to see because loose leash walking is a life skill and can absolutely be taught with the correct foundations.

As we stated earlier, walking is hard and it is not a skill that can be achieved overnight. Unlike your Sits, Downs, and Targets, walking requires many layers of proofing; that is, practicing in various environments and distractions, with a consistent level of reward and structure. Despite this fact the question “what should I do when my dog pulls?” is usually the most asked in training classes.

There are many ways to interrupt pulling, but this blog post will focus instead on what to do when your dog is not pulling. By making this your primary objective and goal, you become proactive in your dog’s training. Rather than waiting for pulling to occur on a walk and training your dog then, you will anticipate their pulling and start to teach an alternative behaviour.

THE FOUNDATION OF LOOSE LEASH WALKING

The ‘secret’ to teaching your dog to walk well on leash lays in teaching solid foundation skills. These skills are a culmination of impulse control, handler awareness, management, and engagement and focus. Together, they create incompatible behaviours to pulling. If your dog has some measure of impulse control, they are less likely to pull. If your dog is aware of you and their environment, you can anticipate times when they pull. Finally if your dog can focus and redirect their attention to you willingly, you have a very useful way to structure your walk.

The assumption should always be that dogs will pull – they are animals after all. The training we want focus on is teaching the dog a measure of control that inhibits excessive pulling. So, the first step towards stopping your dog pulling is to start Engagement Training.

Most people understand focus to be your dog’s ability to direct their attention towards you (and we will touch base on this skill in our next blog!). Engagement training, however, is a relatively new concept in companion training. Engagement is your dog’s willingness to work with you (and in this case, check in with you), ideally without the obvious presence of rewards.

The premise is this: without hot dogs and cheese, will my dog Ebony still check in with me and want to do work with me? Can she do this in a new environment? Can she do this with other dogs walking by her, or people? The answer is yes, because I have built her engagement incrementally over the years. I have taught her that doing stuff with me is fun and rewarding, and something to look forward to. First, we used food and secondary rewards such as toys and then the environment. Eventually, the work itself became rewarding through repetition and practice.  

Heeling – a skill based entirely on Engagement. Could I make my dog do this if she didn’t love to? Probably not.

How does this help our walking? Well, engagement is a foundation skill. If you teach your dog that checking in with you on walks and in outdoor environments are good things, you are already being proactive about where their attention is wandering before it leads to excessive pulling. When you throw in hard distractions such as another dog that your pup could potentially pull towards, you are already ahead of the game and can set up the scenario to work to your advantage.

If you have taught your dog to frequently check in with you to the point that its muscle memory and fun for the dog to perform, suddenly walking becomes more about that activity. By practicing this, you have a skill to fall back on when distractions begin to creep up on your walk. You are no longer solely dealing with ‘a dog that pulls’ –  Instead, you are putting the majority of your time and effort in to teaching them better skills that help your relationship become stronger.

Engagement training differs from ‘focus work’ because it is not a cued skill, it is simply based on creating a fun dynamic between you and your dog. While Focus and Attention are excellent tools to use in your walking, building engagement lays the groundwork for those very skills to be solidified later on.

Practicing engagement for beginners will need to start outside of your walks, but in the meantime while your dog learns, you should also be practicing management!

THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT ON WALKS

The other part of the ‘waking equation’ would entail management, and ensuring your dog is set up to succeed. If you are aware of her tendency to pull towards strangers, for example, this is a perfect opportunity to either practice your training skills or manage your dog.

If you have not brought appropriate rewards to train your dog or are unprepared for these scenarios, then you will mange the situation by stepping aside as strangers walk by (for example), or by creating distance by crossing the street. The last thing we want to do is set up our dogs to fail by attempting to walk too closely to their kryptonite and risk them practicing inappropriate behaviours. It is always best to keep your training as clear as possible for your dog and especially clear on what behaviours aren’t allowed (such as jumping up on people).  

SO, IF MY DOG PULLS, WHAT DO I DO?

You start by teaching engagement in easy locations!  

This is the fun part! Starting your dog on engagement drills is best in the home first and then an open area like your yard. The basic premise is that we want to reward the dog and make it fun when they ‘engage’ with us, and move with us. This can mean glancing at us, in direct or direct eye contact, looking up at us, or turning their body towards us.

To make the exercise easier, we would recommend starting this on leash but try to think of the leash as a guide rather than a preventative measure. You want your dog to choose to engage with you over the environment whether you have the leash or not in the future.

THE DRILL

  • Start indoors with your dog, and have a handful of rewards ready to go. Move 3-5 steps away from them, and if they follow you mark and reward them.
  • Try to feed them as they move with you – backwards, then forwards.
  • Allow them to break that focus to glance around and do whatever they like. Its important not to ‘force’ your dog to check in with you, as the power of this skill comes from the dog ‘choosing’ to do it and subsequently being reinforced for it. This means no verbal commands or cues such as their name or ‘come’
  • As soon as they check back in after taking a break, mark and reward again, and take a few steps backwards with your dog.
  • As you progress through the exercise, you should notice your dog choosing YOU over the environment more and more, and you can walk in multiple directions with their sustained engagement. This is good!

If you think about it this way – what incentive do dogs have to check in with us when the world is so exciting? Most dogs usually just want to explore the world with their senses, so its important to remember that teaching them to engage with us is a process and should involve reinforcement. The more you practice, the more progress you should see over time. We like to recommend you use a higher value reward for these drills, especially if you are working outdoors. Most dogs tend to stop eating ‘regular’ rewards in more distracting environments – this is normal and part of the learning process.

Keep your training sessions short for this exercise. Five to ten minutes of consistent reinforcement is sufficient in new environments. Remember we want to avoid flooding them and overwhelming the dog.

Moving out of the way of distractions helps control your dogs reactions to them if you are unprepared for training

IMPLEMENTING DELIBERATE PRACTICE

The main ingredient to successful loose leash walking is practice. This means that outside of your dog’s usual activity you will need to practice building their engagement.

An easy way to break the training down?

  • If you walk your dog 2Xa day, try to practice this drill 2X as well, before or after your walk.
  • Practice these drills in the yard before meal times
  • Grab a handful of rewards and head out to your driveway, and practice the skills there for a few minutes.

Engagement training doesn’t just help your walking! It is the foundation for every life skill you want your dog to learn and it’s the key to getting your dog to want to work with you and learn with you.

Happy Training!

Posted on

So, you want a well trained dog?

When you hire us for training services, we always start with a discussion as to what your behavioural goals are for your dog. This can be specific or general but in most cases the common answers we receive revolve around the following sentence:

We want a calm, good, family dog. A dog we can take places and trust with the kids. We want a well trained dog.

These are not unrealistic goals. They are absolutely attainable. As trainers, goals make us excited and help create a clear guideline for us to help you. Goals for your dog are a fabulous way to narrow down specific behaviours you want to achieve. What normally occurs after our goal setting discussion is an in depth chat about ways to reach that goal – through management and practice sessions.

So, you want a well trained dog?

Here is the truth that no one likes to talk about (but we will because that is why we created this blog!). Training requires work on behalf of the owner and family. Since we are influencing behaviour changes, there are no overnight fixes and no short cuts. Training a dog requires consistent, well-thought out practice. This specific type of practice is known as Deliberate Practice.

What is Deliberate Practice? Simply put it is the intentional and systematic method of improving upon a goal. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions or sessions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and a plan to improve performance over a period of time.

This applies directly to dog training. The more you practice training your dog in a specific skill the better you and your dog will be at that skill. The more ‘SITS’ you work on in your home and outside of it the more your dog will offer it readily and quickly. The more you practice teaching your dog to be calm in distracting environments, the better they will be. Think of it like any other hobby: learning to play the piano, or to play soccer or study. As time passes and the more deliberate practice you carry out, you may start to notice a funny thing: The more you work with your dog, the more they want to work with you.

I like to call that the sweet spot of training. That is where I find my joy – not only with my own dog but in my clients as well…but you have to do the work to find it.

If you train your dog frequently with the intent to improve specific skills, your dog will benefit and so will your long term goals!

So, if you want a well trained dog, understand that consistency and practiceare the largest predictors of success in reaching your goals. Do you do your homework consistently? Do you follow through on the skills we teach you in class and outside of it? Do you ask for help when you hit a roadblock in your training? Do you put in the hours of practice outside of the classroom or do you simply practice once a week in class?  

As trainers, we often face high expectations and scrutiny from owners but the reality is we spend very little time with your dog. Unless they are boarding with us, the dog is rarely in our care and we do not always see them at their worst behaved. So, in order to improve upon those negative behaviors that drive you to hire us in the first place; you have to do the work.  

Our job titles don’t help promote this fact. We get it. The term ‘dog trainer’ itself is a bit misleading – the title suggests we work with dogs directly and we do to a certain extent – this is often the easiest part of the process. When it comes down to it, however, what we really do is work with humans. Dog training is about coaching you how to effectively communicate and teach your dog habits that fall in line with your lifestyle. We give you the tools and knowledge, and you need to execute them consistently in order to see improvements.

The truth is although enrolling in classes or private lessons are positive steps towards bettering your dog, training extends beyond these experiences. Expecting your dog to be fully trained after eight weeks of classes is both unrealistic and unfair. Learning occurs outside of the classroom and your home, therefore so to should your training.

The bulk of your training sessions should be done in incrementally difficult environments – not just at home or in puppy class.

Sometimes, when dogs are not succeeding or ‘getting it’ in training sessions and we are frustrated, it can be easy to blame the dog for bad behaviour. Instead, when you are disappointed in your dog’s behaviour, you should ask yourself the following questions


Did I set my dog up for success?

Is my dog ready for this stage of training?

Did I expect too much of my dog, in this specific scenario?

Is everyone is my household being consistent with the training?

And most importantly…

Have I put in the effort working with my dog on this particular behaviour?

Changing your mentality to be proactive verses reactive is fundamental to changing your dog’s behaviour because ultimately we must change ours first. We must get up earlier to walk them, we must manage them appropriately and we must find time do the work.

Think of it like a partnership; as trainers we rely on you to practice the exercises we give you so that we can continuously work towards your goals.  The truth of the matter is that we want you to succeed. We fully believe that you can – dogs are intelligent and constantly learning. We want to help you shape that learning into behaviours you desire. We are here to set you on the right path, with the right tools.

So, you want a well trained dog? Time to get to work.


 

Posted on

House Training: Creating Long Term Success

As trainers, we often receive emails from owners with new puppies hoping for some tips and advice to speed the housebreaking process up. It can be frustrating, annoying and set backs tend to create panic for dog owners. “Will my dog ever pee outside or let me know she has to?” The answer is yes but….

The bad news with housebreaking is that there is no real way to ‘speed it up’. The learning process is entirely dependent on your dog, your routine, and your ability to manage your pup (which we will dive into in this post!). It goes without saying that you should face the reality that you will likely be cleaning up an accident or two! And that is OK. This is all a part of the house breaking experience, and I promise you once it is done, it will be a vague memory and you can move on to other behavioural goals for your dog.

Oh so cute but a lot of work goes into house breaking puppies!

What we can do to ensure success for your dog’s house training is to keep management and routines predictable and consistent.

The general rule with young puppies is that their age correlates with the length of time they can feasibly ‘hold’ their bladder for. For example, two months would correlate to two hours of bladder control for this age. As the dog matures in age, so to does their bladder control. As trainers, we tend to play this rule on the safe side and instead suggest you take your new puppy out every 30 minutes to an hour. Yes. You read that right.

Why?

  • It is a lot easier to ensure our dogs can hold their bladders for an hour first before trying two hours and continuously cleaning up accidents while blaming the dog. Once your puppy has gone a stretch of time with no accidents, we can build upon it.
  • We need to take into account how active young puppies are and how that affects their ability to hold their bladder. Dogs can easily learn to hold their bowels and bladder overnight for seven hours – because they are sleeping! Like you and I, inactivity causes their bodies to naturally slow down but this is not typical during the day when pups are active and consuming liquids/food consistently.

For this reason, we always recommend starting bathroom breaks in small increments and building your dogs bladder control slowly. To simplify the process, The Leash Rack has created a schedule for you to follow and build upon for success!

If you have a new adult dog and you have little history of the dog’s house breaking routine – this post is still helpful and the schedule can be applied easily. You can start with hourly ‘pee breaks’ or communicate directly with the adoption agency/foster home to see what their particular routine was like. It is important to note that a change in homes and routines can cause any dog who has mastered house breaking to regress. Stress and environmental factors can cause dogs to have setbacks so it is important to be forgiving and understanding as you navigate through the experience.

Here is a rough outline of what your new puppys day may look like, with potty breaks and activity built in.

7AM

– puppy wakes up, potty time

– play with your pup, train them, feed breakfast

8AM

– potty time, crate time/quiet time

If you work during the day, leave a pee pad out or have a friend or a hired dog walker help let your pup out. New dogs should not be left alone for the entire work day. We strongly recommend the use of a crate for times you’re away or an expen. Don’t know where to start? Check out our previous Crate Training Post here!

 10AM

– potty time , play with puppy, train puppy, supervised quiet time

12:00-1:00PM

– potty time, play time, training time

– lunch time

– potty your dog after feeding, or within the hour

2:00-4:00PM

– play time / train time, potty time

– quiet supervised time

4:00-5:00PM

– potty time, supervised play, a walk

– dinner followed by a potty break

6:00-8:00PM

– wind down time, chew time, potty time

9:00-10:00PM

– potty the dog and bed time

Once, a long time ago little Ebony had to master this skill too!

TIPS FROM THE PRO’S

  • If your dog has an accident, try to interrupt them gently and redirect them outside. If you miss it, tough luck! Clean up the mess and make note of what may have caused this accident , and resolve to manage your dog better
  • Clean your accident spots with a cleaner designed for dog urine – Natures Miracle is a popular product and sold at most pet stores. This cleaner breaks down the enzymes in urine that create the pattern of ‘marking’ in dogs, and it works on all types of surfaces.
  • Use your crate! Crate training speeds up potty training because dogs are reluctant to pee/poop where they eat and sleep. The golden rule for house breaking is if your dog cannot be directly supervised, she should be in her crate!
  • Manage the amount of freedom your dog has. If your dog has come inside from the yard without doing her business, then she should not be allowed to roam free in the home with a potentially full bladder
  • After play, exercise or exciting events (ie: meeting a new family member!) are the most overlooked times when a dog may have an accident, so after playing with your dog try to take them out as soon as possible! A helpful tip to remember this? Think of the fact that we always use the washroom after a busy activity or before bed time. The same goes for our pets.
  • Reward your dog for pottying outside. This is a big deal and you want to encourage this and celebrate it – but don’t celebrate too early as your pup could get excited and distracted before finishing up.
  • If your dog is easily distracted or hyper, try to take your dog out into your yard on a leash to encourage them to potty quickly. If you are in a condo or apartment with no yard, take your dog out on leash and heavily reward a fast potty. If your dog prefers a certain spot, take them to that spot immediately.

As your dog grows and they begin to learn their ‘bathroom’ routine, you can start to increase the amount of time they go without a potty break. For example, a dog that has had no accidents for a week and a half at a one hour interval can try holding it in for one and a half to two hours!

We get it. It is a lot of work. No one says house breaking is easy, but the more diligent you are in the beginning the better your dogs bathroom habits will be. If your dog is having many accidents, cut back the time they are ‘holding it in’ for, follow the schedule above, increase your management and make use of your crate to build it back up again!

Happy Training

Posted on

Crate Training: The First Night

Bringing home a new dog, regardless of its age is a very exciting time until it comes to bed time!

With new puppies, owners often face that dreaded first night together where a puppy may cry or bark when isolated from their family.

With an older dog, it is tempting to leave them out solo to test the waters – an adult dog can’t cause too much havoc, right? Sometimes this backfires and you end up waking up to quite the mess.

So regardless of your dogs age, you face the same questions that first night with your new companion.

  • How do we get your dog to settle through the night?
  • How do we lessen the pet guilt we feel over doing it?
  • Do we let them cry it out, or let them sleep with us just this once?  

For starters, its important to understand that crates can offer both safety and comfort to dogs, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with using one. Safety is important for young dogs or dogs who are generally destructive, and comfort can be taken from the crate as it serves its purpose; a bedroom for your dog. Most dogs crave a den like atmosphere and quiet space naturally when winding down, however as they build their bond with their humans they also want to be close to us. Crate training is thus often made to be the ‘barrier’ for dogs and their humans and this can cause distress and anxiety when they are being forced in there away from their people.

On that first night with your new dog, be sure to set up their sleeping pen or crate in your room. At least for the first few nights, they should be reassured of your presence. In the long term, having your dog crated elsewhere is absolutely possible and in most cases preferable, but those first few nights with new puppy are not the time to test it out.  We have to remember that not only is this a big change for you and your family, but for your dog as well. It is likely the first time your puppy has been without it’s mother and siblings, and for older dogs it is likely the first time they have been in a home or have been outside of their foster home. It can be distressing. So set up a cozy area next to your bed, and make the environment comfortable by adding items your breeder or foster home sent home with you and that smell like their previous home.

Once you are ready for quiet time, lure your dog inside of their crate or pen and feed them a few extra treats in there as you close the door. If it is a wired crate, you can continue feeding through the wires. If it is a mesh or fabric crate, you can keep the sides opened up to reach in and feed them. Don’t wander too far, and plan to stay in that room and head to bed with them.

It is easy to feed and comfort your dog in these fabric crates!

This is where you may hit a road block. Most dogs do not have an issue with a closed in space; its our absence that we need to start training for.  This is why you will remain in the room, close by. Ideally your crate should be so close to your bed that your arm can reach out and touch it. Plan to reassure your puppy and wake up through the night to let them out to potty, but this is what makes this sleep training trick that much easier! You are right there for them to let you know they need to go, and to comfort them easily back to sleep, avoiding a crazy and playful puppy at 3am. You simply lure them back inside, close the door and are within arms reach if they need you.

Its pretty similar to the child who has nightmares and opts to sleep with their parents – eventually that goal is for the child to sleep solo, but there is nothing wrong with offering comfort while they adjust to their new reality.

DAY TIME CRATE TRAINING

During the day is when you can make some headway on crate training appropriately. First, starting with duration (how long can your dog hang out in there quietly?) before adding distance (how far can you go from the crate before your dog panics?)

Examples of scenarios when you can practice these sessions include

  • when you are cooking, move your crate towards the kitchen and have your dog hang out in there while you are in view. You can toss a few rewards for calmness or offer a frozen kong to occupy them, but otherwise she is learning to relax , confined, in your presence
  • if you are tidying up the house or a particular room, placing your dog in her crate while you move around the room casually can help start to build some tolerance for your absence. You can reward her calm behaviour as you move about too!

If you work from home, this set up is easy to implement in your routine but if you don’t we recommend having friends come and help you out with your new pup for pee breaks or hire a dog walking service to keep routines consistent for you. Regardless of your work routine however, crate training should be happening outside of the hours where you leave your dog alone. This is especially true if your dog dislikes it from the get go or needs more motivation to enter it. Training should be done on weekends or evenings.

Surviving that first night is something to be proud of! Rest assured most dogs settle into their new routines quickly and without fuss, but setting them up for success by slowly moving them away from your bedroom will get you on the right path faster and with less trauma (on both ends of the leash).

Need some visuals of what a training scenario may look like? Check out our video!

Bailey learning to tolerate some distance while relaxing in her crate. Keep your training sessions short and successful.


Posted on

3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Training

Responsible dog ownership requires learning how to effectively communicate with your dog and this requires consistency, hard work and thoughtfulness. Like going to the gym, or training for any athletic event – you get what you put in and reap the benefits of the process as you get better at it. If you do nothing to better your situation with your dog, the gaps in our training eventually showcase themselves in embarrassing or just plain terrible behaviours.

As bleak as that sounds, that doesn’t mean the training process needs to be boring, frustrating, or difficult. On the contrary, unlike marathon training, training your dog doesn’t need to be painful at all. Small adjustments in your training schedule and plans can make the world of difference in learning for you and your dog. By eliminating frustration and poor training techniques while ensuring we are creating realistic and fair training plans – the sky is the limit for our dogs and for us.

TIP #1: Choose your Training Environment Wisely

One of the easiest ways to help improve your training is to choose your training environment wisely!

The environments in which dogs learn play a pivotal role in how successful they are. Imagine trying to teach your dog how to lay down or practice a focused heel. If these behaviours are new to your dog, a quiet and familiar environment would be the best choice to start your training. The fact that your dog is not distracted or over stimulated while learning will help them be successful. Imagine these same new skills being taught at a park you frequent where they run and catch a frisbee or play with other dogs. The learning process would be very challenging in the second scenario.

For this reason, learning tends to be the most successful in the home for new behaviours and skills. This means that a quiet bedroom, basement or even kitchen can be the perfect location to learn for your dog (at any age!)

If your dog is already proficient in skills in the home, great! You can make the environment incrementally more challenging. Your backyard or drive way are great places to continue to build known behaviours in the home and are still relatively boring to your dog. As trainers, we see people expecting too much from their dogs too quickly, and in order to avoid this you need to understand that your dog will learn best in familiar environments before making it more challenging.

A good way to test this theory? Ask your dog to Sit ten times in your home. If they struggle with this then you know where your work is cut out for you before heading out into the real world.

TIP #2: Prep your Area and Gear

Once you have chosen your dog’s training environment, now it’s time to prepare your area! Removing any obvious stimuli in the form of dog beds, couches, or toys will help your dog remain interested and engaged with you. This is especially true if your dog is young, very playful, or becomes easily frustrated. By cleaning up and creating an empty calm space, you will give your dog the best chance to learn with you rather than ignore you.

Next, prepare your gear! This means you should have your clicker (if you choose to use one) and appropriate training gear ready to go. If you are practicing Loose Leash Walking, keep your dog’s harness or leash close by. If you are working on Mat Training skills, have your mat up on a shelf and within reach. If you are working on leave its, or any forms of distraction work, set that up ahead of bringing your dog into the training environment.

The benefits of preparing your space and collecting your gear are twofold. The first benefit is that by preparing your area you must create a training plan in advance. You must have a specific idea of the skills you wish to improve upon with your dog for that session. In the same way that coaches in sports plan your workout, you are planning your dog’s learning, which makes the time spent with them more effective. The second benefit is that it allows us to prepare and predict our dogs interactions with certain stimuli. For example, if you struggle with your dogs impulse control, planning out your training area will act as a preventative measure for inappropriate and predictable behaviours such as counter surfing, stealing treats or chewing on shoes. Since the area will be clear of obstacles that could have otherwise been a distraction, your dog will be more likely to make good choices that fall in line with your training plan.

The final step in prepping your area is having your training rewards ready to go – whether this is a toy or food. There is nothing worse than having your dog perform a correct behaviour only to have the reward not be immediately given the precise moment she correctly behaves. This creates confusion. Take our word for it when we say ‘meal prepping’ your dogs training treats ahead of time and having them on hand is worth it and will improve your dogs learning.

Tip #3: Celebrate Your Dog

Celebrating your dogs goofiness, smarts and success are often an overlooked part of dog training but is essential to the training success of of your dog. Unfortunately we are often too quick to see and pay attention to the flaws in our animals. If Fido decides to counter surf, we yell, scold and clap our hands and make it a big deal – if Fido quietly lays outside of the kitchen limits, we are just naturally less inclined to give this as much attention.

Why? Well we are wired to see acts of excitement, novelty and loudness quicker than quiet ‘good choices’ but it is in these exact moments where we should be celebrating our dogs and rewarding them. Rewards can come in the forms of food, toys (a game of tug for example) or access to environmental rewards (such as outdoor playtime or sniffing particular areas on a walk). Studies have shown that play after training sessions increases the dogs ability to learn and retain material – so play! Celebrate your dogs progress and lighten up the mood.

BONUS TIP#4: Leave your Phone at Home (I mean it!)

The final little tip to improve your training is probably the most challenging – and yes, you read it right: Leave your phone at home. Turn it off. Silence it. Stay off it when interacting with your dog. Consider your training time with your dog the same way you consider a meeting with a boss or a co-worker. It would be plain rude to whip out your phone mid-meeting and text away, or receive a phone call. As tempting as it is, leave it out of your sessions.

The temptation of having our cellphones readily available to us destroys training techniques and can create confusion in your dogs learning. Imagine your dog performs a behaviour correctly, only for you to check out of the session to check your most recent messages? You leave your dog hanging and overtime create a dog who wants to check out just as much as you do!

Be fair to your dog. In reality, training should take minimal time (five to ten minutes tops a session) and instead should be considered quality time. You don’t get this quality by constantly checking out to check your phone – in any relationship, canine or otherwise.

ARF Dogs Ebony and Mazie learning skills in a new environment


Obedience does not need to be a boring or a strict affair. By implementing small changes to your training schedule, environment and plan you will create good habits, create cleaner training techniques and maximize the your bond with your dog.

Happy Training!