Today, we will go over how often should you train your dog for everyday dog owners!
I remember when I first started to learn about dog training, I’d go from blog posts to youtube videos trying to understand how dog training worked. It was super confusing and frustrating.
This no-nonsense guide will cut out all the noise and show you exactly how often you should be training your dog.
Prerequisite What Is Your Goal
One of the first things that you must ask yourself to fully understand how often should you train your dog; is what goals you have for your dog.
Is your goal to have your pup compete in dog sports like agility, obedience, or protection?
Or do you want an all-around companion that is well-behaved?
The answer to this question will significantly influence how much time and dedication is needed for training.
For instance, if your goal is to train for competition, more training is needed due to the complexities of the behaviors required to teach your dog than a companion.
How Often Should You Train Your Companion Dog
If your goal is to train a well-mannered companion dog, then the answer is dependent on what your dog knows and doesn’t know.
Is your dog potty trained?
Does your dog understand their name?
Does your dog chew furniture?
Does your dog pull on the leash?
Does your dog jump on guests or counters?
Doing an overall assessment of what your dog knows and doesn’t know is critical.
If you have a dog that has never lived inside a house, then your essentially teaching your dog everything they need to live with you.
Training As A Lifestyle
With any dog we bring into our lives have to teach them boundaries, basic rules of our household, and basic commands.
When you consider this, you’re constantly training your dog whether you realize it or not!
You train your dog when you walk through a doorway, eat at the table, when guests arrive, etc.
One of the easiest ways to think of how often should you train your dog is viewing training as a lifestyle.
Dogs are living, breathing creatures that are constantly learning on a daily basis.
So when you ask yourself how often you should train your dog, ask yourself how often a human teaches a child?
You don’t just spend 5 minutes telling a child how to live in the big world we live in; you’re showing that child everything from not drawing on your walls to looking both ways to cross a street.
Now you may think that example is a bit extreme, but when you train a dog, what you’re doing is teaching that dog how to behave in a world with every distraction you can think of.
Dogs are always trying to understand, “what does this have to do with me.”
How Often Should You Train Your dog For Basic Obedience?
Now that we understand that you are constantly training your dog, whether you realize it or not, let’s hop into how often to train your dog for basic obedience!
For basic obedience, which is essentially teaching your dog behaviors that are to be performed on command, training time does matter!
When teaching a dog new behavior such as “heel” or “down” instead of constantly working on it, you ideally want training sessions to be short, sweet, and to the point, no more than 15 mins!
Why soo short, you ask?
Well, because you instead leave your dog wanting to train more than having a grueling hour-long session.
For most everyday dog owners training your dog for 15 mins twice a day may be enough, but this again is entirely dependent on your goals and your particular dog!
If you have a dog that is highly hyperactive and always wants to do something, then I recommend incorporating training as much as you can!
How Often Should You Train Your Dog For Competition
For those of you who may want to train your dog for a competition, you’re likely wondering whether you have to train your dog more.
How often should you train your dog is entirely dependent on the type of competition you may want to compete in with your dog.
In general, competition may require more training time to teach your dog the behaviors needed and teach your dog how to perform those behaviors in different contexts with different distractions!
Conclusion
Thanks to ‘how often should you train your dog The beginner’s guide,’ you don’t need to spend hours stressing over whether your not training your dog enough or training your dog too much.
As you saw in this short guide, how often you train your dog is entirely dependent on your goals with your dog, your dog, and your lifestyle!
When you train your dog the right way, you’ll begin getting a well-behaved dog, especially when you begin to view dog training as a lifestyle!
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