Finding the optimal training time for your retriever
I often hear owner’s say, “I just don’t have time to train my dog!”. While I understand busy work and family schedules, this excuse usually equates more to not having the knowledge and/or interest than an actual time crunch. Or maybe the task just seems overwhelming to some people. Training your dog doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Let me help you understand how many hours (or minutes) a day you should train your dog.
How much training does a dog need each day?
Obviously, how long you need to train your dog is going to be based on what you need your dog to learn. Most people are looking for basic obedience. They want their dog to listen to them. While some dogs may be more stubborn than others, basic obedience training does not take a long-time commitment each day.
The trick to basic obedience training is that it requires consistency. That means you must commit to doing the training each day or at least every other day if you want to see progress. Basic obedience training can often be completed in a 10–15-minute session once a day.
How long should my training session be?
If you are working on the basic commands of SIT, HERE or COME, DOWN and HEEL, a consistent program of training once a day for 10-15 minutes a day can work wonders. Long obedience sessions generally create more problems than they solve. Most dogs don’t love doing obedience work, so you will only have their attention for a short period of time. If you feel you need more training time each day, you are better off splitting your training into two-10-minute sessions than trying to do a 20- or 30-minute session.
How long should each training session last?
Professional dog trainers rarely measure their training goals based on time. Rather, they have a goal or a progress desire they are working towards.
When we train retrievers for hunting and competition, we do not base our sessions on a set amount of time but rather on a goal that we hope to accomplish. For instance, we may want to teach the dog to remote sit or SIT away from us on command. The session to complete this goal may take 10 minutes or it may take an hour depending on the dog. We train for that goal.
Now that means that sometimes we find that the session is taking too long, and the dog is getting fatigued or can no longer concentrate. In those cases, we must be flexible and alter our plans. Instead of completing our goal in one day, it may take two or three.
Dog training is mostly about reading the dog and knowing when you are no longer making progress and being patient and flexible enough to make this call when needed. Be prepared to adjust your expectations. Sometimes your dog may be sick or just not feeling well, other times you may have to adjust your training time based on your dog’s attitude. Or maybe your dog is still struggling with yesterday’s lesson, so your progress is baby step slow.
What if my dog isn’t progressing in training?
If you are struggling with training your dog, and you don’t see any glaring reasons for the struggles such as sickness, you may just be dealing with a stubborn dog. This can be challenging because some dogs are very, very stubborn. You need to learn to understand when your dog is really struggling to learn and when he/she is just being a jerk.
As professional trainers we deal with a lot of stubborn dogs. And sometimes the best thing to do when a dog wants to quit training or wants to, what we call “leave the classroom”, is to push through the lesson. This is a fine line because if your dog is just being stubborn, and you call it quits based on your dog’s behavior, then your dog won. And he will know that he won and next time he will rebel even worse.
So, while you do need patience and to be able to read your dog, sometimes you just need to be more stubborn than the dog. If you win those battles, in general the fight is less the next day.
How many days a week do you train?
We all need rest days, and this is also true for dogs. You should not plan to train 7 days a week, even if it is just obedience. It is better to plan for a 5-day training week with a couple days off for rest. A dog needs to rest his/her body and mind so that they can learn and progress during the training week.
Different breeds may require different approaches
It is easy to think a dog is a dog, and that they all learn at the same rate and in the same way. But just like humans, some dogs need a different approach or method to learn a task. And some will learn quickly, and some will take more time.
Even within a breed you will find this to be true. Not all retrievers will learn in the same way or using the same methods. As a dog trainer, you must be willing to experiment with new training approaches to find one that your dog responds to and learns from.
Working dogs often driven by training, can’t get enough
If your dog is a working dog, whether that is a hunting dog or a sled dog, you may find you need to do more training than just obedience work. Retrievers live to retrieve and often require much more exercise and training time than some other breeds.
In addition, if you are training a retriever for hunting, there are many other aspects of training that will be required and those will take more time than basic obedience training.
Hunting dogs must be conditioned to hunt. This means that they need to run a great deal each day to keep their muscles toned and ready to perform their job. A hunting dog may require a half hour or more of conditioning each day. Upland dogs need even more!
Teaching a skill vs enforcing old training
If you are teaching your dog a new skill, it will require more training time than simply maintaining a skill your dog already knows. For instance, it will take more time to teach the SIT command than to maintain that skill over time. Once your dog knows all the obedience commands and performs them on command 90 percent of the time, you can move to maintenance mode.
Maintenance mode means you are simply maintaining the skills you have taught your dog. This can often be done in a very short, 5–10-minute session each day.
For maintaining working dog skills, you may need a little more time as there are more skills to enforce, but your time will still be much shorter than the training mode.
How many sessions should I do each day?
How many sessions you need to do each day will vary greatly with your individual dog. If your dog is obedient and doesn’t buck the system much, then one 5–10-minute session a day should be good. But if your dog is still learning and is not consistent in obedience, then you may need two 10-minute sessions a day.
How to fit dog training into a busy life?
As you can see, it doesn’t take a lot of time each day to maintain your dog’s obedience training. But many people are very busy and seem to struggle to fit yet another chore into their busy days. I hope that by knowing that you only need to spend 5-10-minutes on this task daily or a few days a week will help you to prioritize it. But I find that routines are the best way to form a habit, so I suggest you find a time of day that works best for training your dog. Maybe it is first thing in the morning, you take your dog on a walk and during the walk you stop a few times and make him/her SIT. Then you walk away from your dog a few times, and make sure that he/she STAYS sitting. These small obedience training steps can make a huge difference in the long run.
Final thoughts on how many hours a day should I train my dog?
If you want to keep your dog’s obedience sharp, it doesn’t take long. By spending 5-10-miutes a day you can keep your dog in rock-star shape. If you are still teaching your dog new things, 10-15 minutes a day will do it. Just make it a routine that you follow each day and reap the rewards of an obedient dog.
Remember, if you really want your retriever to grow and progress this year but doing the training yourself sounds overwhelming or maybe your schedule is just too busy to get it done, I am here to help! You can email me (ottertailkennels@gmail.com) or just give me a call. I would be happy to discuss your goals for your retriever and tell you about the programs I offer.
Until next time, happy retrieving.
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