5 tips to streamline your dog training

If you are struggling to teach your dog, try these tips!

• Keep your location the same:
  Find somewhere to train where your dog can listen and learn. When your dog has started to learn what you want, then you can then try to take your training to other locations.
• Find something your dog wants to use as a reward:
  If your dog isn’t keen and interested in what you have to offer, you will need to consider other options to reward them.
• Pick one thing: choose to focus, change or improve one piece per session. Think of training like a language to communicate… but how difficult would it be to learn the language if you were trying to learn several words in one sentence at once?
• Before you change anything:
  Make sure your dog is guessing right! Your dog should be getting your goal for the session right most of the time, before you change anything.
• Keep sessions short:
  You can train as much as you want, but try to keep each session under 1-2 minutes before you take a break.

Malli Hutchings is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer located on the Southern End of Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.