If you watched last week’s video I had a different post and video planned for today. However, given the current state of things, I thought a post and video about useful ideas would be more appropriate. Social distancing means the perfect opportunity to brush up on those things you’ve been slacking on with your dog. Or, a perfect climate for repetition and consistency to train your dog new things.
I put together a short list of different things to do with your dog, for the full video click here.
- Teach your dog ‘place’
- Teach your dog ‘look’
- Loose leash walking
- Desensitizing the doorbell
- Exploring the outdoors
Place
First, the ‘place’ command. I have a video breakdown on how to teach it here. Since many people are working from home, this is a perfect opportunity to work on teaching ‘place’, as well as increasing the duration.
Look
Next, the ‘look’ command. This is another one of my first videos you can find here. This command, when really solid, can be used in a variety of scenarios- including dogs with reactivity.
Loose Leash Walking
Literally one of the best ways to teach your dog to walk nicely on a leash is to start in their own environment. In reality, it’s boring and repetitive so people often skip this crucial step. But now, none of us have the excuse and there’s no better time to start on the right track!
Doorbell Desensitizing
If your dog barks like crazy when someone knocks or the doorbell rings, here’s your opportunity to recondition them! Ask your dog for calm and quiet behavior when the doorbell rings and subsequently reward them for that behavior. Eventually you will have a dog who sits quietly by the door waiting for their reward every time the doorbell rings- how awesome is that?!
Get out and Explore!
Lastly, if you live in a rural area or have access to quiet hiking trails get out and get some fresh air. To avoid feeling trapped inside your home, take regular breaks from working and enjoy the fresh air. The bonus is that fresh air is good for your morale. Just be sure you’re still maintaining social distance if there are other hikers out and avoid densely populated trails. Multiple outings a day will also help your dog’s leash walking skills if they could use improvement.
I hope we all can take advantage of this time to slow down in life. I know every time I turn around my inbox is being filled with a new update, or news alert on my phone and it’s easy to just get overwhelmed or burned out by it all. Right now a huge risk of us over-consuming media in all forms (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, news, etc.) exists and I think it’s imperative we all take care of our mental well-being just as much as our physical. So unplug a little bit, I know I will be, and enjoy your time at home with whomever it may be with!
