Here are some ideas for keeping or making your dog’s training fun again, that doesn’t mean losing consistency or repetition, but can revive your dog’s love for learning!
Sometimes, falling into a slump in our work life, exercise routines or social lives can be inevitable, and the same can happen in dog training. Repetition and consistency are two key things to train your dog, but those two terms can often lead to boredom; by definition, you have to do the same thing again and again.
Here are some ideas to keep or make your dog’s training fun again, which don’t mean sacrificing consistency or repetition, but can revive your dog’s love of learning!
- Visit a new site for training. Training your dog in the same location can not only become boring quite quickly but can also make the training location unique. You can be amazed by the effect a new location can have on you and your dog, so run your dog through a new park, try a new route on your walks instead of always following the same track, explore a new trail in Austin with your dog.
- Taking some time off. Many times a week, we see clients coming out to our unlimited group classes and sometimes it seems that their dog is heading up a level in progress. At this point, we often suggest decreasing the number of courses attended each week or taking a week off from the traditional format of group learning. Now, this may seem to go against the whole thing of consistent and repetition but it doesn’t have to do. Taking some time off does not mean throwing out all the rules and stopping to hold your dog accountable, rather you leave only the formal classroom part of the training for a short time. When the dog and owner are normally refreshed and ready to advance after their absence!
- Teach them something new. While obedience is the main reason why people enrol in our Austin dog training classes, they often realize there are a lot of extra, fun things that can be taught to your dog. If your dog seems bored by the whole come, sit and down routine, try teaching it something new, such as trick training, agility, K9 sniff games, flyball or treadmill training.
- Challenge a friend or classmate to a friendly competition. When we add the word competition to our vocabulary, our attitudes can quickly change and make the process interesting again. Set up a date with a friend and play a game that involves practising your dog’s skills. A few ideas include putting your dog in a Down/Sit / Stay / Run / Get some distance from them and having them do a recall race, seeing which dog can do most push-ups (seated to down, down to sit / ) in one minute, or who can send their dog to a place from the farthest distance, etc.
- It takes the pressure off of you. Sometimes we are in such a hurry to begin training or overcome a certain hurdle that we put too much pressure on ourselves and our dogs. The great thing about an unlimited training program is that we train at the speed of your dog; we don’t have to throw too much information at your dog at once. Sometimes we just need to relax and remember to have fun – it will pay off – your dog will learn
