Falling into a slump in our work life, exercise routine, or social lives can sometimes be unavoidable; the same can happen in dog training. Repetition and consistency are two main keys to training your dog, but those two terms can often lead to boredom; I mean by definition you have to do the same thing over and over again. In order to keep your dog’s training fun or make it fun again, here are some ideas that don’t mean sacrificing consistency or repetition, but can reignite your dog’s love of learning!
- Visit a new location for training. Training your dog in the same location can not only get boring fairly quickly, but it can also make the training location specific. You may be amazed of the effect a new location can have on you and your dog, so try running your dog through their paces in a new park, try a new route on your walks instead of always taking the same path, explore a new trail in Austin with your dog.
- Take some time off. We often see clients coming out to our unlimited group training classes several times a week and occasionally it seems like their dog’s progress has leveled off. At this point we will often suggest reducing the amount of classes attended each week or taking a week off from the traditional group class learning format. Now this may seem to go against the whole consistency and repetition thing, but it doesn’t have to. Taking some time off doesn’t mean you throw out all the rules and stop holding your dog accountable, you are just omitting the formal classroom portion of the training for a short time. Upon returning from their hiatus, the dog and owner are usually refreshed and ready to advance!
- Teach them something new. While obedience is the main reason why people enroll in our Austin dog training classes, they often realize their are a lot of additional, fun things to teach your dog. If your dog seems to be bored with the whole come, sit, and down routine, consider teaching them something new such and enrolling in another program such as Trick Training, agility, K9 Scent Games, flyball, or treadmill training.
- Challenge a friend or classmate to a friendly competition. Sometimes when we add in the word competition, our attitudes can quickly change and make things interesting again. Consider meeting up with a friend and playing a game that involves practicing your dog’s skills. A few ideas include putting your dog in a down/stay, getting some distance from them and having them do a recall race, seeing which dog can do the most push ups (sit to down, down to sit) in one minute, or who can send their dog to a place from the farthest distance, etc.
- Take the pressure off. Sometimes we are in such a hurry to “finish” training or get past 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 your dog’s pace, 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!
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