How To Solve Your Dog Training Problems In 30 Days
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It’s almost New Years here in California and what better time then now to start thinking about New Years Resolutions! Specifically, new years resolutions for the dogs and their dog training and behavior issues.
Do I think you can solve dog training problems in 30 days? NO and YES!
- NO because dog training should be done over the life time of your dog not just for 30 days. Through your leadership your dog will learn what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, but training needs to be consistent. It shouldn’t be just a 30 days and done. You need to constantly work on teaching and training good behavior to your dog(s).
- YES because after training/teaching good dog behavior for 30 days you will form a habit and by forming that habit you will consistently work with your dog on his training and behavior problems. Check out this article I read several years ago about how to form a habit.
Try Something New For 30 Days
Three blog posts popped up in my feed reader the past few days. The first one was from Jessica over at You Did What With Your Weiner (yeah, I love the name of her blog too). Take the 30/30 Challenge With Us was Jessica’s post about her goal to walk her weiners for 30 minutes for 30 days starting New Years day. While I don’t have a problem walking my guide pups 30+ minutes everyday Linus and Stetson are sometimes neglected. So I decided:
GOAL v1.0: Walk Linus and Stetson 30 minutes a day for 30 days starting on New Years day.
Next up in my RSS reader was a blog post from Pamela over at Something Wagging This Way Comes (another great blog name). This one was about Train Your Dog Month Challenge. This one was slightly different then Jessica’s challenge, but I guess I could get away with my 30/30 goal after all I would be working on heeling…correct!? This is a blog about training so I decided I should do a little more than just work on heeling so I decided to up the ante on my 30 day challenge:
GOAL v1.1: Walk Linus and Stetson 30 minutes a day for 30 days starting on New Years day and work on their dog leash aggression problems.
Just a few hours ago I came across Matt Cutts’ blog post Taking A Week Off From The Internet. Check out this TED video from his blog post:
I like to try and stay in Matt Cutts’ good graces so I make sure and follow his blog and keep up to date on his happenings. It’s funny how a light bulb goes off in your head sometimes when you least expect it, but that’s what happened after reading Matt’s blog post and watching his TED video. Matt likes to try something new for 30 days. A few examples are writing a book during the month of November, cutting sugar out of his diet, or growing a mustache. This got me thinking…
GOAL v1.1: Walk Linus and Stetson 30 minutes a day for 30 days starting on New Years day and work on their dog leash aggression problems.
GOAL v2.0: The first of every month start a new 30 day challenge for Linus and Stetson and chronicle on the blog.
It’s funny how a mixture of events (or in my case blog posts) can suddenly get ideas to suddenly click. I like structure and schedule. When I blog only when “the spirit moves me” I end up getting nothing done. A monthly challenge is just the structure I need to start the year off right. Hopefully these 30 day challenges will turn into habits for me and the boys.
Solving Dog Training Problems
So here’s my monthly 30 day challenge goal for 2013:
- Identify a dog training/behavior/grooming problem and put together a blog post on the 1st of the month.
- Put together a strategy that I can work on with my dog every day for the next 30 days (I may have to modify throughout the month).
- After 30 days I will form a habit and continue to consistently work on that problem (that’s my hope anyways).
- Report my results on the last day of the month.
I love the feeling of being productive! A minimum of my first 24 blog posts are now at least in their infancy. The first of the month I will write my 30 day challenge post and the last day of the month I will give you an update on whether or not we achieved success (there will probably be a few posts updating you in between).
How about you guys? Do you have any dog training new years resolutions? Are there any dog training problems you’d like to see us tackle in one of our 30 day challenges?
If you’re interested I’d love to have you join our 30 day challenges throughout the year and it would be great to hear about your progress in our comment section below. Maybe by the time 2014 rolls around we’ll all have perfect dogs!
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Hi Lynn,
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I think you have to talk to your friend about what is best since you are living under his roof. Hopefully you can work everything out with your dogs and your friend.
Take care,
Colby
Hello! I need advise ASAP… Prior to August 2012 I had 8 dogs, 5 wer (females, spayed, shepards and shep/mix, youngest was a puppy oldest 11 yrs.) house and out on property, my oldest Girl is a tri pod due to cancer in her right rear leg. Two (large Rott male/neutered, Pit female spayed) were kennelled and out on property. #8 dane/lab mix male intack, 3 yr. old guff ball, garage and out on property. All but two were rescued from the desert. Unfortunitly I crumbled with the economy, had to place all my pets except 2 dogs, my tri pod and 1 I had since she was born. I have a great friend thats allowed me and the 2 dogs move in to his place so I can get back on my feet again. I spoke to the person fostering my pit in Dec. he couldnt keep her, I was going to keep her at a rescue in exchange for helping them. That all changed when I picked up Sage (my pit) from the person that adopted her cause she ran, jumped into the car, leaned on me and wouldn’t leave my side. If I took her to the kennels she would’ve felt that I was abandoning her all over again. My friend said she could come here with me for awhile. I have not put the dogs together because I’m afraid my tri pod will get hurt if they get in a tuff, she’s a senior handicap dog and I dont want anything to happen to her. My friend is pushing to have them together or find Sage a home. What can I do so this will work well for all of us?
Thanks Jodi! I’m so used to working with the puppies that I think I sometimes forget I need to stay consistent with my own dogs who are well-behaved, but still need a little work. Thanks for the support!
You are so right, if you just start small great things will come. And it is true, training your dog is something you must work on constantly. When people tell me what great dogs I have, I say that is a lot of time and money right there, we are working with our dogs constantly. 🙂 Good luck in your training goals Colby.
Thanks! I should do fine with the 30/30 I hope I can get Linus’ leash aggression on track. We’ll see how it goes. Getting him out and about every day will be good for his training.
You’re going to have to help me out with some of these 30 day challenge training goals. Hopefully we can get the boys to be perfect little angels 🙂
Hi Roberta,
I’m just going to concentrate on the walking and leash aggression this month. I’ll probably tackle some grooming issues later in the year. I don’t want to overdo it. I’ve been following Matt Cutts for a while, but it’s the first time I thought about applying his challenge ideas to my dogs training. Thanks for stopping by!
Colby
Great idea Colby!! I can’t wait to hear what you will be up to! Good luck!
I’m doing both Pamela and Jessica’s challenges, too. I’m walking Bunny because I can easily see Morgan pulling me to my death on icy paths. She and I have a battle of wills about her pulling on the leash, actually, Kuster has that problem, too, but given his occupation, I’m not sure I can get him to quit. I’m forbidden from messing up my husband’s working dog, but I would love to have something that works for getting Mo to quit pulling! I’ll be cheering for you this month and watching to see how it goes!
I’m accepting both challenges from Jess and Pam – Walking, I, like you, will focus on my dog, Justus; by working/walking him everyday, I hope to have a better dog by Feb. Pam’s grooming challenge is for all my dogs: nails every two weeks (I have 17 dogs here), bathe every month unless needed more often while attending to hounds’ ears at the same time. I’ve set other challenges for myself in community involvement and work.
I’d seen Matt Cutts TED talk before; really, one can do anything for 30 days – it’s just working in the change esp. the first week.
Happy New Year!