While a dog could be a great addition to your family, you may find that dogs take up more time than is available during their training phase. This becomes challenging for busy dog owners as they try to balance work, life, and pet training. The good news is that there are ways to incorporate dog training into your everyday life without straining your already full schedule.
Wally’s World of Dogs: Long Island Dog Training specializes in training all types of dogs and can smoothen your dog training process. Here, we explore some simple yet effective ways to perform dog training when you have a busy life.
Maximize Short Training Sessions throughout Your Day
You may not get thirty minutes to dedicate yourself to your dog in the morning, but you can get five to ten minutes where you get to train them on basic commands. Short bursts of training have proven effective for most dogs compared to long hours which can lead to feelings of frustration for the dog. These short sessions help you and your dog to build enthusiasm for future training sessions and remove the mentality that training is boring, tedious, and unbearable. To make this happen, you need to accept your current busy lifestyle and try to make the best of it instead of pushing yourself to deliver hour-long sessions which are unrealistic, leading to procrastination.
Incorporate Training into Your Everyday Life
Kip Doggy Day Care Melbourne notes that training should be incorporated into everyday life, tasks, and playtime. It’s important to keep it consistent, so if you’re sending your dog to daycare you should inform them of any training you are attempting. For instance, you can take up crate training when having dinner, reward your dog when they sit still in their crate during dinner time, or calm down and practice impulse control before indulging in a bowl of food. When you walk in from work, you can command them to sit and then give them a treat. Look out for opportunities to train your dog when you are navigating your daily tasks.
Include the Entire Family in the Training Sessions
If you have other people living with you in the same house, be on the same page on what you want your dog to learn at different times. While you may be busy throughout your day, it may not be the same case for other family members. Encourage your children, nanny, or roommates to join in with giving the selected commands to your dog. One advantage of this strategy is that it gives your dog the much-needed socialization skills by receiving commands from multiple people. Be clear on what you want your dog to learn to avoid confusion in the training period.
Take Advantage of Mealtimes and Walks
Do not let these two crucial parts of your day go to waste. If your dog is fully vaccinated and ready to go outside, take them along with you when you go for a walk. By doing so, you introduce them to different environments apart from your controlled home environment which they are used to. They also learn how to deal with distractions when given commands. You do all this while still getting in your minutes of workout that is part of maintaining your physical health. A bowl of food is perceived as a reward by your dog; you can make them perform a command before handing a rightfully deserved bowl of food. This is a good way to sneak in some training as compared to placing the food on the floor right away.
Use a Variety of Rewards at a Time
Food is a worthwhile reward for your dog. This is in addition to other rewards like cuddling or going outside as these give you more opportunities for training. Once you identify something your dog loves, see it as an opportunity to train them some more. For example, before allowing them into the backyard, give a command to ‘down’ by the door then open it. Before a cuddle, give a command to ‘sit’ then reward with physical attention. Once you adopt this mindset, you will find yourself more open to the numerous training opportunities all around you.
Busy people can own and train dogs comfortably once they identify the simple, effective ways they can embrace within their everyday lives. Dog training is something you can easily fit into your busy schedule with short bursts of training administered throughout the day.
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