Indoor Winter Training
February in Minnesota,
There's still a chill in the air and on the ground as well, with over 2 ft of snow.
Our dogs still want to work, though, and we want to help them. We can do so at our pace and in our space. You can have training sessions in the comfort of your own home. Training doesn't have to require a lot of room.
Learning to slow down can be work in itself for a dog that likes to get out and move. We touched on this a bit in the last blog post with teaching the dog touch. Now lets look at it in another way.
Take your dog for a slow walk around a room in your home. Walk around the coffee table or kitchen table or where ever it works for you. First go around with your dog on the inside of the turn then stop and reverse direction so that the dog is on the outside of the turn. Keep the dog even with your hip and close in with out pushing into you or pulling away.
If you have an issue with your dog surging ahead, slow down even more. You set the pace. Dogs want to move out. The slower we go the more the dog needs to pay attention to you and concentrate.
Work on keeping it positive and up beat with out making it a chore. Several short training sessions are better than one long one. Pick your pace and work on getting the dog to slow their speed just a bit. End on a positive note even it it's something else that the dog already knows how to do well like a simple sit or down command.
Happy Valentines day and keep your best friend close to your side .
There's still a chill in the air and on the ground as well, with over 2 ft of snow.
Our dogs still want to work, though, and we want to help them. We can do so at our pace and in our space. You can have training sessions in the comfort of your own home. Training doesn't have to require a lot of room.
Learning to slow down can be work in itself for a dog that likes to get out and move. We touched on this a bit in the last blog post with teaching the dog touch. Now lets look at it in another way.
Take your dog for a slow walk around a room in your home. Walk around the coffee table or kitchen table or where ever it works for you. First go around with your dog on the inside of the turn then stop and reverse direction so that the dog is on the outside of the turn. Keep the dog even with your hip and close in with out pushing into you or pulling away.
If you have an issue with your dog surging ahead, slow down even more. You set the pace. Dogs want to move out. The slower we go the more the dog needs to pay attention to you and concentrate.
Work on keeping it positive and up beat with out making it a chore. Several short training sessions are better than one long one. Pick your pace and work on getting the dog to slow their speed just a bit. End on a positive note even it it's something else that the dog already knows how to do well like a simple sit or down command.
Happy Valentines day and keep your best friend close to your side .
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