My Top 10 Training Tips!

Number 1: Why so serious? Training is meant to be fun. give your pet encouragement and praise during sessions.

Number 2: Keep your hands free. Do not preload treats into your hands when you are training. The goal is for the pet to be focus on us, and what we are asking not the treat itself.

Number 3: Keep it short. Shorter training sessions (less than 30 minutes) are proven to be more effective than longer ones (greater than 30 minutes). You want to end the training session while the pet is still engaged so when you begin training in your next session they are excited and ready to work.

Number 4: Don’t force it. Allow your pet to take “natural” breaks during their sessions (cat may roll around. A dog may go and sniff somewhere). This is their way of saying I need a break. Reframe from calling them back to you. You can ask for a targeting behavior to see if they are ready to come back and continue the session, or try to engage in play.

Number 5: All done. Be sure to let your pet know when the session is over. Do not end the session abruptly. I typically will give an “all done” cue and wave my jazz hands to let the pet know the session is over.

Number 6: Practice. I know this seems like an obvious one, but practicing in different environments, with different people, even in different rooms of the house can make the behaviors you are working on stronger and more reliable in a real world setting.

Number 7: I always feel like somebody’s watching me. Your pets are always watching, learning, and absorbing information. Make sure that you are reinforcing wanted, calm, and liked behaviors on a daily basis in daily life, and redirecting or managing the behaviors that you do not. animals will repeat behaviors that are reinforced whether we mean to reinforce them or not.

Number 8: Treat value matters. I will say that again. Treat value matters. We do not get to choose what our pets find to be reinforcing it is their own individual preference. My Australian Shepard Harlan, LOVES his kibble. He would do anything for his kibble. Now, Lavender on the other hand, my dachshund requires higher pay, especially if we are talking about people coming to the door, where the hotdogs at. I like to have various values when I am working with a pet. I typically call this the ABCs. A treats being the highest value. You would typically implement these treats with really hard behaviors like staying on a mat, walking by a stranger, not barking when someone knocks at the door, during a nail trim. B are the middle value treats. C are the lowest value (kibble—unless your Harlan). Once your pet has learned a behavior and it is reliable, you can then decrease the value of the treat.

Number 9: You have my attention: Only conduct a training session with your pet when you are going to be fully focused on them, and you are in a good mindset. If you had a challenging day at work and you are tired, anxious, or agitated DO NOT train your pet. Take a break. Dogs are great at being able to pick up on our emotions and pheromones, and we want our training sessions to remain fun, and productive.

Number 10: Its a commitment: Training your pet is a commitment, and it is FOREVER. Once your pet learns something if you do not continue to work with them and implement what they have learned they will revert back to old habits. Once you realize that training your pet is something that you will be doing for their lifespan is the moment you will be successful with training.