Drawing the Line: How to Balance Training and Life - a podcast by Ty Brown

In this post, I’d like to speak to you about how to create a healthy relationship between training time and “real life.” I find myself talking about this a lot because many of our clients struggle to find that balance. They tell me: “When I go outside to a field or park to practice this, my dog does amazing. But when we’re just around the house, he has problems.” I always reply that these two situations are in fact different, because we’re behaving differently and expecting different things from the dog.

When people are out training, they walk a certain way and pay 100% attention to their dog. They have their training gear and treats with them all the time, and they’re ready to follow through on their commands. But when they’re just hanging out in the house watching TV, they don't always follow through. As a result, their dog realizes that they have two sets of rules: one for who they’re out training and another for when they’re not. In these scenarios, we teach our dogs when to pay attention to us. That ends up being a big problem.

There are a couple ways around this issue. The first is to make sure that no matter where you give a command, you’re in a position to back it up. This mostly applies during a training period of a few months, since you typically reach a point when your dog just listens to you if you’re doing things well. Especially at the beginning of a training program, however, you need to be able to make sure that your commands happen every time you give them. Regardless of whether you’re watching TV or having a training session in the yard. If you don’t, then you’re showing your dog that you’re not serious and won’t follow through.

We also recommend something to our clients called integration training. Integration training is setting up scenarios where you’re otherwise occupied but also ready to teach your dog. Watching TV or making dinner? That’s a great time to work on down stays and place commands. Giving your dog his meal? Then work on a sit command. Walking through a door? Work on waiting! You’re anyway in the middle of doing something, so why not do two things at once? Integrate training with everyday moments so your dog realizes that even when you are making dinner or tidying the bedroom, your commands will still be reinforced.

Sadly, a lot of dogs realize that they don’t get commands unless they’re out on the training field. If you can integrate training more into your daily life, your dog will start to understand that they need to be obedient at all times. The key here is to not create such a wide differentiation between training and living. Those two areas of life shouldn’t feel far apart. Living with your dog should feel similar to training him.

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