Our household includes four canine members. All of our dogs live happily under our roof with us. Without anthropomorphizing them, we do consider them part of the family. Our dogs are a major part of our life. Always have been.
Because they live in the house with us, they must all be well-trained and get along well with each other. It’s not easy training several dogs at once, I’ll admit. I can’t ever remember a time, though, when I’ve had only one dog in the house needing training. Always at least two at once. Usually, I have one or two older dogs that help with the teaching. The young dogs naturally follow the behavior of the older trained dogs. This makes housebreaking easier and manners-training easier. Our routines of mealtime in their kennels, sitting for a treat or at the door to go outside are all mimicked by the younger dogs. They even seem to catch onto the no-jumping-up-on-people-when-they-come-to-the-door by taking their cue from their elders.
That said, it’s a challenge making time for each dog to have some private one-on-one time with the human training them. It takes careful planning. I find it best for my schedule to do my one-on-one with the dogs first thing in the morning. Each of the young dogs gets a separate workout that focuses on skills they need to learn – the basics: Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Heel – along with a short working walk, meaning that they walk heeling at my side. The trained older dogs get a walk for pleasure. Pleasure walking refers to walking with a slack leash. They know how to Heel. They Heel on command – so don’t need the practice. They know the difference and will do what is asked of them. Aside from the one-on-one’s, training is just part of everyday life around here – from morning ’til night. Training need not be dreaded or boring or considered a chore. Training always, always should be perceived as being FUN.
I will be the first to admit that some dogs are easier to train than others. Some breeds of dogs are easier to train than others – and some dogs are easier to train than others within the same breed. Violet, our Australian Labradoodle, is an extremely quick learner. At 10 months, she passed her Canine Good Citizen Test and she is scheduled to have her Therapy Dog Evaluation on her first birthday in September. That’s quick! I’ve had several Australian Labradoodles in my therapy dog training classes and they, too, have picked up skills very quickly. My English Setters take longer to train. However, that said, some of them have trained almost immediately and others have taken a good year. Dogs are individuals, just like people!
Basically, we want our dogs to be Canine Good Citizens – in our home and out in public. They are happy being trained and knowing what is expected of them. A well-trained dog is a happy dog! Yes – there are days when I think to myself, Wow, this would be so much easier with just one dog to deal with… But, the challenge presented by having a pack is well-worth the effort!
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