Things to Know When Training Your Dog at Home

Method

We are advocates of positive training methods. The main idea behind it is that you should reward your dog when they behave well. Since most dogs are natural people pleasers and love to get rewards this way, you will reinforce the behavior and your dog will be more likely to repeat it.

To reinforce the desired behavior you can use a clicker that you can buy in any pet shop or download as an app for your phone. If your dog is new to the clicker, first work on the association that click=reward. Once your dog hears the click and his eyes light up or he is waiting for a reward, you know he has learned the association.

Instead of a clicker, you can use a positive verbal cue like “good”, “yes”, or any other short word, but the benefits of the clicker is that it is only heard during training and is emotion-neutral.

Reward

Some dogs love food but others can be equally well motivated by toys or praise. If you choose to reward your dog with food, the treats should be no bigger than your fingernail and the number of treats given should be subtracted from their daily food intake.

Location

Start training at home in a quiet, distraction-free environment. Once you think your dog has mastered a command well, increase distractions in the room, maybe move the training to the kitchen when other people are around. Later, perform the same commands outside in a dog park. Be patient, new surroundings might be very distracting for your dog, so stay positive and encouraging.

Schedule

Make enough time every day for short training sessions. It doesn’t have to be longer than 15 minutes. Always start and finish on a positive note and finish training before your dog gets bored. Dogo App is a great tool that helps you train your pup at home. It generates a daily training program for you, allows you to track your dog’s progress, and you can set daily reminders. Also, to make sure that you and your dog are on the right track, you can submit videos of your dog performing tricks and commands and receive personal feedback from dog professionals.

Remember that our dogs were bred to be active and working. Since most dogs now spend their days at home on a sofa, it is important to enrich their lives with training. Get into a habit of scheduling a short session of 10-15 minutes. Your dog will love it!