Once you’ve learned the basics of positive training and have picked up enough ideas from blogs and books to keep you busy for the rest of your dog’s life, you may still feel like you’re falling behind.
This is especially true if you’re disorganized, lazy, or just inconsistent with keeping up the same amount of training from week to week. Like me, for instance.
Last week, we had global-warming style warm weather. Me and Matilda and Cow went out for a walk almost every day, and I was impressed at how great they’ve been doing at loose-leash walking – not the easiest feat when you’re walking two dogs at once.
This week, it’s rainy, windy, cold and gloomy. Yeah… we’re not going out there.
Our dogs deserve our best efforts at providing training, exercise and mental stimulation. I know my dogs need to learn more tricks and to practice their skills. It’d be ideal if I could work on their training each day, but even as a dog blogger, I haven’t been perfect at it.
And yet, we’re still making steady progress despite my lack of consistency.
It’s Easier To Learn Without Daily Training
Are you feeling guilty about not training your dog every single day?
Don’t.
A study of 44 laboratory beagles showed that dogs can retain skills whether they practice three times per day, once a day, or just 1-2 per week.
What’s even more interesting is the fact that, the less frequently the dogs practiced, the quicker they mastered the obedience task. Daily training was more effective than 3x daily training, but dogs who were trained just 1-2 times per week were the fastest at picking up the new skill.
The study does not delve into why this happened. Maybe the beagles who had three training sessions per day were getting bored and demotivated. Maybe, after so many treats and commands, their attention span faltered.
I’d also like to know if it makes sense to work on loose-leash walking just twice per week, then spend other days working on other tricks. It’s unclear if these Beagles were only trained for one task for the duration of the study, or if they spent any time working on anything else.
Mealtime As Training Time
If you’re still a fan of daily training, you may use your dog’s meals as motivation. At times, I use my dogs’ entire meals as rewards for super-long training sessions. We might work on fetch, heel and other tricks until the entire bowl is gone.
However, this doesn’t actually seem to be the most effective idea. When I take out the food, my dogs are laser-focused on the meal and have trouble concentrating on the task. It’s not until the middle of the session that they are at their brightest.
A 2012 study showed that hungry dogs have a harder time with tasks. The dogs had to search for a treat – some were fed 30 minutes before the task, some, 90 minutes, and some were hungry.
The dogs who performed best had eaten 30 minutes before the search.
Hungry dogs and those who had eaten 90 minutes before performed with about the same level of success.
So, it turns out that the best time to train your dog might be after breakfast or dinner.
This makes using food rewards a bit more complicated, because you don’t want to overstuff your dog.
However, you can feed your dog a small meal a short while before training. If you use high-calorie training rewards, you can cut back on meal portions to avoid letting your clever dog become obese.
Don’t Worry About Consistency Or Time
When it comes down to it, dogs are resilient. Even if I keep training my dogs at mealtimes, they’ll still learn, even if they don’t learn at their best when they’re hungry.
Even if I don’t stick to perfect 15-minute sessions, they’ll still learn if we train sporadically during a 1-hour walk, then spend 5 minutes here and there throughout the week.
By keeping training-related gear in sight, training is on my mind more often. When I keep leashes, sweaters and harnesses in a convenient spot, it’s easier to get out for a walk.
Do whatever it takes to train your dog more often, but don’t worry if you’re not perfect. Nobody is! Your dogs will still learn and they’ll love you all the same.
I LOVE this (probably because I’m lazy and inconsistent, and you just validated me). You really turned up some interesting research. But I’ve seen evidence of it with Luke. Because I AM inconsistent, and sometimes when we take a break from something for a day or two, all of the sudden, he GETS it.
What I really like about this, is that it lets us be less than perfect. Most of us know we can do better, but sometimes the more pressure we put on ourselves, the less successful we are. Giving ourselves a break sometimes can help us humans, and how great to know it’s probably not hurting our dogs either.
Thanks for joining the hop too!
Jan K recently posted…Checking in with Samantha
Aren’t dogs just amazing? I love how they exceed our expectations when they learn.
Lindsay Pevny recently posted…[Free Download] 2017 Pet Industry Events
I figure it averages out and lazy days here and there won’t kill him. I try to do something each day whether it’s a longer walk, an outing to some place new, a nosework session or something. He doesn’t need all the things every day! Thanks for joining the hop.
Mr. N definitely gets more action than most dogs, though!
Lindsay Pevny recently posted…[Free Download] 2017 Pet Industry Events
Lindsey,
Nice post!
I’ve always recommended and do myself regular training. Now this study you’ve highlighted is very interesting. We really have so much to learn about our canine companions! I think I’m going to test it on my 3. I’m sure they’ll be happy as bugs in rugs about it!
Thanks for this enlightening information!
Rosemary recently posted…The Best Safety Harness for Dogs in Cars
I definitely noticed it with Matilda when we were trying nosework at home! I used three nearly identical pasta sauce jars with tissues inside, one tissue with eucalyptus oil dripped on it. She was just pawing at whichever jar was closest to her, making guesses, but after intermittent practice she got the idea.
What’s even more interesting is the fact that, the less frequently the dogs practiced, the quicker they mastered the obedience task. — this is SO interesting! We only do Nosework once a week and they seem to learn a lot week to week. I always thought if I did more practice session before trials this would benefit them but I actually think it could cause more harm than good. Great research!
We definitely don’t train the same things daily. You have to spice it up to keep it interesting for yourself and the dog. Working in training with every day life is the best, and it saves time too.
This is a great reminder that there’s no one right way to train! We train all day long every day–but I also have border collie mixes that get into trouble if they aren’t constantly using their brains. We don’t do all of our behaviors every day, though. Barley gets agility once a week and sometimes in the yard if it’s nice enough to bring a couple jumps out. Rye and I work on different things she needs for class every day so that by the time the next class rolls around she’s practiced everything at least a couple times during the week.
Hi Lindsay! Useful tips 🙂
During winter or summer when its really cold or hot outside, I’d rather spend my time indoors cuddling with my dogs. During the day, I work until noon, and have the rest of my day with my daughter and dogs. I’m not sure if playing is somehow training, but I do know a successful training is done when your dog develops a habit, and so does the owner. I just realized this is why my training are not successful. Looking forward for your next contribution!
These are interesting points! I always thought that frequency was all-important for obedience training, but this makes me feel a lot better about my training schedule. It makes sense that hungry dogs aren’t as effective at training as well. Thanks for sharing!
I think you came up with an excellent idea that was less stressful for all parties involved. Innovative thinking! I’d call it creative, proactive thinking, not laziness 🙂