Pause! How to Keep Dog Training Intact When You Can’t Practice

What do you do when life seems to get in the way of training the dog? You’re really excited and you want to change your dog’s behavior, but things just keep coming up.

Whether you got sick, took a new job, decided to move, or added yet another after-school activity, life happens! As a professional dog trainer obviously I believe in the importance of dog training, but my life doesn’t consist of only dog training so why should the average owner’s?

When families feel worried or frustrated because their plans to train get derailed by the unexpected in life, I want them to know that it’s okay.

It’s okay for dog training to take a back seat while you renovate your kitchen or volunteer many hours for your son’s theater production. There is a pause button for your dog’s behavior and it’s okay (and ideal!) to use it during the big things of life.

Management is the pause button for your dog’s behavior.

Management involves structuring the environment so it’s almost impossible for your dog to practice the bad behaviors. Read more about it here: “The Almost No-Work Way to Fix Behavior Problems”.

During the busy times of life, you may not have time to practice the good behaviors with your dog, but as long as he’s not practicing the wrong behaviors, you won’t loose too much ground.

Just to be clear: the pause button keeps the behavior from getting worse while you’re busy, but it doesn’t improve your dog’s behavior. Active training and practice takes you forward; repeated bad behavior takes you backward; management holds you steady.

What behaviors are your dog practicing?