How to Prepare for a Dog Training Session

How you prepare for a training session can make all the difference in whether your dog is engaged, eager, and ready to learn! Here are my top 3 tips to know before taking a dog training class:

1. Make sure your dog has energy to focus!

Common phrase I’ve heard from students: “I took her on a long walk before class so that she’d be more tired and able to focus.”

Training requires a lot of mental energy from your dog (and physical, if you’re doing agility). A tired dog will have a harder time focusing on the task at hand. Maximum physical and mental energy sets the foundation for a focused dog, and building engagement is how to get them to focus on you.

Bottom line: your dog will be better prepared to engage with you if they have rested up before class!

2. Make sure your dog is hungry!

Common phrase I’ve heard from students: “I only fed him half of his dinner so he’d still be hungry.”

This is a very human thing to do and one that I identify with as a soccer player. Before training, I made sure to eat something so I wouldn’t be hungry. Except that I wasn’t being fed rewards as part of my soccer training. Food is the most common reward used during training, and dogs will be more engaged if they are hungry. Dogs may get A LOT of food during a 1 hour class. So much so that you might need to adjust how much dinner they get after the class.

Bottom line: your dog will be more interested in whatever you are training if you give their meals AFTER class!

3. Bring a lot of treats at different value levels to class!

I’ve seen a lot of dogs dismiss treats offered to them in training classes because they find the distractions more interesting. You want to have something higher value to offer them if that is the case - something like hot dogs or cheese.

Bottom line: Outweigh distractions and keep your dog engaged by bringing a variety of high value treats - and lots of them! 

Dog training is a team effort. Your dog is doing the best they can in class, but we can help them by making sure they have energy to focus and motivation to train. If the two of you show up ready to learn and have fun with it, you’ll continue to build positive experiences that shape a better relationship between you and your dog!