How do you fit training your dog into your busy schedule? At my house, we are three hounds with various classes four days a week, and a lot of homework. Fitting in our training is surprisingly easy with just a bit of adjustment to our routines! The key to success is to keep it short and fun for dogs and humans!
Nose work training is more than nose work!
One secret to our nose work training is training with friends and in group events. We have class once a week, usually meet with friends to search once a week, and one to two times a month join a group search event. Facebook has some great nose work groups for our area with searching opportunities! Mom enjoys searching with others for the social aspect, and we enjoy getting to search in new locations. Last weekend I took part in a mock trial at an architecture office which was tons of fun!
Besides getting to work on nose work, practicing with friends or groups means learning patience and discipline. Nose work always involves a lot of waiting around. While waiting I can practice stay, sit, focus on Mom, etc. We are also bringing Madison along to learn to explore new areas and to learn to wait patiently in the car while we go out and search. By combining all the opportunities nose work gives us to train, we keep up to speed, and Mom enjoys hanging out with friends.
Team training while watching TV!
Madison is working on obedience training right now, and she is also working on agility along with Bailie. Surprisingly, agility and obedience training cross paths a bit. Learning to wait, focus on your human, and follow your human are all common things they need to work on. In the evenings when the TV is running and there are commercial breaks, it’s a great time to practice some commands with the two crazies!
Training in tandem helps the younger pups to learn faster. Learning by example, we call it. Another benefit of tandem training is learning to wait your turn. Madison might have to sit and stay while Bailie lays down or does a quick come. In agility, it is a busy atmosphere where dogs are all doing different things and your dog needs to focus on you and do what you say, not what other dogs are doing.
Training your dog on a walk!
With obedience training comes loose leash walking and learning to sit, down, stay, come, all in distracting environments. Madison gets her walk with Mom every day around noon, and they work on her obedience homework outside on the road. A puppy’s attention span is short, so they work on a few things, then just walk for fun, then work on things again, the entire walk taking ten minutes tops. Short training opportunities are best for dogs of all ages.
Cross training and fun, not frustration!
Figure out how to combine your sports training to make things easier, and always make training a fun time that ends on a positive note. The goal is not to over challenge your dog and frustrate them, you want your dog to enjoy training and to be successful. For us, Obedience and agility go together as they are based on the human leading the dog, but nose work and tracking are based on the human following and trusting their dog which makes for two types of training. Mom takes us to classes four days a week. Not all of us go to all the classes, but we still have plenty of time to train outside class by fitting training into our day to day activities! Training your dog should be fun for you and your dog!
We are joining the Positive Pet Training blog hop with Wag ‘n Woof Pets, Tenacious Little Terrier and Travels with Barley.
we always do some training lessons while we walk, the mama said I’m a good student…sometimes ;O))))
Well, everyone one knows there is always a class clown. Bailie does that at our house, maybe you are your own class clown?
I think you are right… butt I get more tomatoes than standing ovations for my jokes LOL
Hey guys- did you see who won the hound group at Crufts. You all should be so proud. Let’s all root for best in show!
We did see that. Awesome!
Okay, I admit, I looked at the beautiful pictures of my gal pals more than the words. I went to the horse ranch last Sunday. As soon as I get there I get undressed from my leash and run free. There are many animal smells, but that does not interest me…imagine that! I never go far from my mommy. Have a wild weekend! XOXO, Sparkle
You are way to well behaved! Mom would never be able to wrangle us back to get our leashes on! We love Mom, but we have our priorities and they lie within our noses.
Classes 4 days a week! Your mom must be superwoman 🙂 Our training center is an hour away, so both dogs get one class per week, but they seem pretty happy working on things at home the rest of the week. I love that your mom uses commercial breaks for training!
Our schools are about a half hour away, but we love our classes, so the drive is worth it. Bailie and I have nose work Mondays, Madison has nose work Tuesdays and Wednesdays obedience, and Thursdays Bailie and Madison have agility. Luckily tracking isn’t a class, and is just practice…once Mom can walk again. It all works out, although we are super busy but we all love it.
Well said. There are opportunities for training at anytime – physical and mental.
No time is just a poor excuse usually. We always manage to fit in a bit here and there.
Y’all are amazing wizards of training!
We work hard at it, but we enjoy it.
You all really pack a lot in, and make the best use of all your time. The bond that your Mom is creating with each one of you through all this training is one of the best benefits. I like how your Mom makes some of your training time into a social time for her as well, she gets to spend time with people that share the same interests as she does, which has to be so fun!
Training with friends is so much fun for everyone! We are excited to start getting back to normal around here now that the boot is gone. It will be a slow start, but we are just happy to get started.
You do a fabulous job with training your girls. I’m always so impressed ♥
We all try our best!
Four days a week! I’m impressed. I’d love to make some training friends, I like training with other people but hard to find people. Thanks for joining the hop!
We are lucky as for tracking and nose work there are a lot of fb groups that set up training events.
Great tips! Have a great weekend.
I really like the pic of Madison in the car – it’s hilarious! I think it’s awesome you do outings for Nosework that aren’t necessarily with an instructor but more a social outing for friends. That’s why I love nosework so much!! I do this with a friend typically before trials and we love it. I’m super impressed you’re also doing agility. Walter hated waiting on that “table” 🙂 I gave up!
The table is the easy thing right now. When I start to be able to run again, that may change, but now everything is slow motion for the girls so hanging out on a table fits right in! We love our nose work community. Just got back from searching at an advertising agency. The exterior was in a weird alley with lots of scary sounds and sights. Great distraction work!
I am amazed at how much Madison has grown lately. Sprouting up like a weed. Super cute. Are you bringing the girls to BP in May?
For sure two of us, maybe three, we will see.
Great tips here Emma! We rarely train during commercial breaks because either what we are watching is recorded, and we skim through the commercial, or the dog daddy flips the channel. 🙁 We do practice obedience on our walks though, it’s a great time, especially if there are people or other dogs around. I don’t know how your Mom finds the time for all of this!
She is pretty busy, but she loves doing stuff with us so much. It is fun for us all.
We have to budget in travel time to our training area so that adds a lot of time to our training.
Once again, your training is more like our tracking. Tracking is something extra we have to really set aside time to do.