When it comes to dog training, there’s truly no place like home.
In-home private dog training is the easiest way for your trainer to assess your dog’s behaviour in their home environment. Anxious, shy and reactive dogs can learn without the pressure of being around other dogs.
The best part? You get to work one-on-one with your trainer to make lasting changes in your dog’s behaviour with a fully personalized training plan.
Questions To Ask Your Dog Trainer
In-home private dog training is not only an opportunity for your dog to learn; it’s even more important for you to truly understand and retain what you learn during our sessions. Ask plenty of questions to make sure you understand the techniques we use, why we use them, and how you can continue reinforcing good behaviours between sessions.
Here are some examples of questions you might have during a training session:
- What should I do if my dog doesn’t succeed?
- What might be causing my dog to act this way?
- How can my family help keep up with our training?
- Why are we using this technique?
- If I can’t do this, is there an alternative technique we can try?
- How did you do that?
- Can you show me that again?
Doing Your Homework
In order for your dog to retain new skills and form new habits, you will need to continue training with them in between sessions. You will get “homework” in the form of what to do before the next training sessions, possibly with handouts.
Aim to train your dog in short sessions each day, rather than in long, infrequent sessions. You’ll keep your dog’s attention span fresh and avoid frustration. You should be rewarding your dog every couple of seconds during these short sessions to keep their attention and motivation high. If your dog keeps making errors, make the exercise easier or review cues that they already know.
Help your dog generalize their new skills by practicing in different rooms of your home, in your yard, and then in new environments.
If you have a question between training sessions, you can always get in touch with us. If you’d rather wait until the next session, write down your question so you don’t forget.
Why It’s Important To Be Honest
Sometimes, you might be too busy between training sessions to practice with your dog. At other times, you might completely forget.
The truth is, you can train your dog in as little as five minutes a day, depending on what you are working on, and how quickly you’d like to progress. It’s usually not a lack of time that contributes to us being too “busy” to train our dogs, but a lack of motivation, failure to schedule in time, or even a lack of confidence that you’ll be able to succeed.
Please be honest if you do not manage to work with your dog between training sessions. We can work together to create a set training schedule and make sure you truly understand the exercises. If something doesn’t make sense or seems arbitrary, we can talk more about the purpose of each exercise and what signs of progress you should be looking for.
Life happens. When you’re truly too busy to train your dog, we can find a way to make it work. Being honest allows us to adjust your dog’s training plan accordingly. Even dog trainers sometimes forget and fall behind on their dogs’ training. We’ll never judge you or make you feel bad about forgetting to train. We’re here to help you move forward.
Ready To Start In-Home Private Dog Training?
Set up your free consultation for in-home private dog training in Toronto and North York with Healthy Houndz.
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