Healthy Dogs

Enriching Your Dog's Life

Training

Enroll in a reward-based training class to increase your dog’s mental activity, enhance the bond between you and your dog, and help her understand your expectations of her. Contact a CPDT (Certified Professional Dog Trainer) for group or private classes that can give you and your dog lots of great skills to learn and games to play together. Please see our Finding Professional Help article to locate a CPDT in your area. There are many kinds of training to investigate, such as basic obedience training, clicker training and trick training. To learn more, please see our articles, Training Your Dog and Clicker Training Your Pet.

If you’ve got a competitive streak, you and your dog can participate in competition obedience or Rally Obedience (Rally-O), an exciting new sport in which dogs navigate a numbered course with their handlers and perform a series of heeling patterns and obedience exercises. If you have a mixed breed dog, please see www.apdt.com/po/rally, http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPages/Home or http://www.ambor.us/ for more information. If you have a purebred dog, please see www.akc.org/events/obedience or www.akc.org/events/rally.

No Free Lunch

When you and your dog have learned some new training skills, you can start a No Free Lunch program. Here’s how it works. You control all the valuable resources in your dog’s life, such as food, water, affection, toys, walks, petting and playtime. Instead of giving these things for free, ask your dog to work for them! The work will exercise her brain and help her become more obedient. Just give your dog what she needs and wants after she does something you ask her to do. For example, if your dog wants to go on a walk, ask her to sit before you clip on her leash and open the door. If your dog wants dinner, ask her to sit-stay while you put down her bowl. If your dog wants to play a game of tug, ask her to lie down before you start the game. Your dog will happily learn to work for everything she loves in life.

Short on Time?

It’s often difficult to work time with your dog into your hectic daily routine. But if you’ve got a busy schedule, you can find help. Consider the following time-saving ways to add some excitement to your dog’s life:

• Look into the possibility of taking your dog to a dog daycare at least once or twice a week.
• If you live close enough to work, consider going home to spend your lunch break with your dog.
• If you can’t make it home during the day, hire a dog walker to take your dog out for a stroll instead.
• If you have friends or family members who don’t work during the day, ask if they’d be willing to let your dog visit them while you’re at work.