A Pocket Full of Time

You’ve signed up for a series of weekly hour-long dog training classes. Your phone is set to “Do Not Disturb” and you are completely present for the entire hour. Your dog has your undivided attention. But what happens when you go home? Life happens. It may not be realistic or even advisable to train for an hour straight every day. Training takes concentration, accuracy, and fast reaction. The longer you train at one time, the more those training skills may degrade.

Here’s a training life hack for you. Find pockets of time to train. Take 2 minutes in the morning and give your dog a working breakfast. I don’t mean with a food puzzle, I mean with training! Using her kibble as rewards, pick one behavior to work on, and train it for 2 minutes in the morning. Feed your dog her remaining breakfast after the training session. Coffee’s brewing? Food heating up in the microwave? Waiting for a phone call, email, or text? Train, train, train! Mute the TV commercial and train. Make a new habit, taking advantage of some of these training opportunities.

Bonus round! By keeping training sessions short, you are improving your ability to concentrate, be accurate, and have fast reaction time. It’s better to have short productive training sessions than long sessions wrought with mistakes and frustration. If you or your dog are getting frustrated, training is no longer fun, and you’re going to be less likely to practice.

These pockets of training time are cumulative and quickly add up! You only need minutes a day and a handful of treats to make progress together with your dog. Take 2 minutes to have some training fun with your pup right now!

Need training ideas? Contact us at www.behaviorunited.com