How much time?

SaraB

New Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
5,798
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
St. Louis, MO
#1
Hello all! It's been a while since I've participated more than a brief comment here or there. Mostly because it's been insane this summer and I can barely manage to keep things going in real life, much less all my internet communities!

Random question for the day: How much time do you spend, per week, actively training your dog with a goal in mind? It doesn't have to be for a specific sport, but maybe you just want your dog to bring the ball actually back to your hand, so you are training while you throw the ball. Maybe you are training to get a new title in whatever sport, or you have a big comp coming up.

If you have multiple sports, do you practice each sport every week or only train those when you have something coming up?
 

*blackrose

"I'm kupo for kupo nuts!"
Joined
May 11, 2010
Messages
7,065
Likes
3
Points
38
Age
33
Location
WI
#2
Not as frequently as I should.

I'll *maybe* do an actual training session (15-20 minutes, I guess) once or twice a week. Maybe.

I do reinforce a lot of behaviors throughout the day. For example, before feeding he has to hold various forms of a stay command (down stay, sit stay, stay out of sight, etc., etc.) Every time we go out to potty we typically practice recall. Whenever we play fetch we sit, down, etc. before I throw it.

But actual training sessions...not frequently.
 

SpringerLover

Active Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
3,415
Likes
0
Points
36
Location
B-ville
#3
At least once a day. I could do more, I just get lazy and don't.

I've been better about working on the household/environmental skills I want. She's pretty reliable about "wait" at this point (especially involving doorways), because I make a point of practicing it every day.

But I only do one "training session" a day usually. DO MORE TRAINING! :)
 

SaraB

New Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
5,798
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
St. Louis, MO
#4
At least once a day. I could do more, I just get lazy and don't.

I've been better about working on the household/environmental skills I want. She's pretty reliable about "wait" at this point (especially involving doorways), because I make a point of practicing it every day.

But I only do one "training session" a day usually. DO MORE TRAINING! :)
Pretty sure that beats most people out there!
 

Red Chrome

Active Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
1,568
Likes
0
Points
36
#5
We try for 2x a day, before work and after work. With LoLa she gets a session whenever, maybe 2-3x a week.
 

SpringerLover

Active Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
3,415
Likes
0
Points
36
Location
B-ville
#6
Pretty sure that beats most people out there!
I/we also have different expectations than most people out there. :p

How often do I work Siri these days? Not enough... I worked her last night and that didn't go well at all. (I swear terriers never get adult teeth. I can usually not react to the spaniels sharking food from me, not those little terrier teeth apparently.)
 

PWCorgi

Priscilla Winifred Corgi
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
14,854
Likes
0
Points
36
Age
34
Location
Twin Citay!
#7
Now that I am down to one job...a LOT more than I was! When I was working 2 jobs I really didn't train at all. Maybe one 3 minute session a week.

Now I train at least 2-3, 3 minute sessions a day when we are hanging around the house (I've been setting a timer so that every 45 minutes of studying, I work with the dogs as a break), sometimes more. Now that I have more days off Siri and I have been hiking/going to the park to work at least 4 days a week. And those can range from a quick 20 minutes to 3 hour hikes.

When we are hiking/at the park it is more relaxed integrated training. I will ask for Siri to do little things like practicing crosses with cones, targeting, coming to my side, downs, sits, waits, etc before I throw the ball at the park. On hikes it is probably only 15% of the hike that I am actually asking her to work.

With her I practice disc much much much more after a playdate. I lose steam on disc when I am practicing by myself week after week. Playdates totally re-energize me to the sport. Most of the stuff I do right now with Siri is practicing basics and agility foundation work.

Frodo gets a 3ish minute session whenever Siri does, and we generally work on basic obedience/rally type stuff and he is learning the lower impact foundations along with Siri for agility :p As it gets cooler he will also start going back to the park for runs on a long line where I'm sure we will do more recall work and fun things.
 

PWCorgi

Priscilla Winifred Corgi
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
14,854
Likes
0
Points
36
Age
34
Location
Twin Citay!
#8
I should also say that I am kind of a crappy trainer, so what takes efficient trainers one or two sessions, takes me like 4-5 sessions to muddle through :p
 

Laurelin

I'm All Ears
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
30,963
Likes
3
Points
0
Age
37
Location
Oklahoma
#9
Depends on the week.

Some weeks we only do our classes and then the rest of the week is just playing and hiking (though on hikes I always do some sort of training and usually nosework as well).

Most weeks I'd say 15-30 minutes 5 times a week or so. Not counting like little sessions of working on impulse control with Mia while playing ball.

I tend to focus on things I like... so our weaves get neglected in favor of things like teaching Mia to pick up objects and put them in baskets and working on getting her to stand in smaller and smaller boxes. :p

Nosework itself happens at least 2-3 times a week just because it's easy and the dogs love it.
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
6,405
Likes
0
Points
36
Location
Minnesota
#10
Not as much as I'd like. Squash goes to a rally/advanced obedience (alternate weekly) and to a nosework class once a week each (ideally, sometimes my schedule doesn't allow for rally) but I don't practice as much as I should at home. For awhile I was doing a lot of trick training but I've slacked off on that. Usually these days around the house training breaks out as a result of cabin fever/poor weather/ poor work schedule preventing walks and other exercise.

During the summer mushing is on a hiatus. Now that it's cool/fall training, I try to go at least 3x/week. Maybe someday we'll be picture perfect, but for now pretty much every run is a training run, lol, so I'm counting it.
 
Joined
Feb 8, 2013
Messages
570
Likes
0
Points
16
Location
WI
#11
I'm cheating because I have a Schutzhund field in my backyard :p But we probably go out for obedience multiple times per day and tracking/protection 4-5 times a week. It's not really something that we typically crunch for when a trial is coming up, but we train for trial prep with every session basically.
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2013
Messages
128
Likes
0
Points
16
Location
San Diego
#12
Every day twice a day (few minutes each time) if possible. Create a simple plan and try to stick to it.

By doing it so, things don't drag things out and overall you will likely use less effort and time versus having spotty training here and there.

Cheers!
 

Beanie

Clicker Cult Coordinator
Joined
May 17, 2006
Messages
14,012
Likes
0
Points
36
Age
39
Location
Illinois
#13
With Payton, about a half-hour to an hour every day average. Right now we're working on specific things as it relates to agility. After the trial we'll switch back to more general stuff and probably get to more tricks again.

Auggie and Pepper get probably about a half-hour every day, but it's life stuff, not "this is a training session!" Payton gets that stuff too, so I suppose P actually gets an hour to an hour and a half every day.

Georgie I leave most of the training to my mom. I work with her maybe two or three hours every week (not counting the time I stand back and teach my mom how to train her.) I mostly work with her just on agility skills, though I also like to do a lot of play so she gets some of those life skills whenever I'm playing with her, or when I'm telling her to sit while I'm trying to pee and she wants to jump on my lap...


All of this, except working with Georgie, is broken up in short sessions throughout the day. Georgie usually gets a more class-like working schedule. I like to take her and Payton out together and then alternate between them so they only get worked for a few minutes at a time, then get a break for a few minutes, then switch again.
 

Shai

& the Muttly Crew
Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
6,215
Likes
0
Points
36
#14
A lot of our training is hard to separate from daily life. Self control, releasing by name, directed go outs to the correct foodbowl, fitpaws/body awareness/stretching, just playing slily games and choosing to be around one another, etc. Stuff that I don't even really consider training, but which does translate directly or indirectly to competition or basic life behaviors.

In terms of actually setting up some sort of scenario with a learning goal in mind? Varies. A lot. And it's not uniform between dogs, either. Sometimes they each get as many as three, four, even five sessions in a day if I'm working something specific. Other days all we'll do is silly play and running. Sometimes several days in a row. About a month ago we spent a whole week just swimming every day and doing almost nothing useful at all, haha.

Usually it's somewhere between those two extremes.
 

Red.Apricot

Active Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2011
Messages
2,984
Likes
2
Points
38
Location
Southern California
#15
It varies a lot based on my schedule. Some weeks we just do our one class, which is two hours.

This week, we're going to rally/obedience class tonight (which is two hours), Tuesday we're going for a hike and we'll train after for probably 15 minutes (heeling patterns, most likely). Wednesday we might do 5 minutes of nosework practice. Thursday we're doing nothing. Friday we will probably go to the park and do 15-30 minutes of rally/obedience practice. Saturday we're going to a nosework class; that's 3 hours (although Elsie only works for maybe a half an hour total). Sunday we'll probably do nothing.
 

Laurelin

I'm All Ears
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
30,963
Likes
3
Points
0
Age
37
Location
Oklahoma
#16
Saturday Mia and I did an hour before I realized how long we had been training. We were playing ball for part of it though.
 

Elrohwen

Active Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2013
Messages
1,797
Likes
0
Points
36
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
#17
It depends. I tend to be lazy and taper off training in favor of just having fun, but then I get into it again. We do two hour long classes a week typically - nosework, plus a fun obedience/rally type class. This winter we'll drop the obedience and try agility for a bit. I'm typically training for the full obedience class, working on focus and remaining calm, because that's our huge issue.

If I'm working on a specific trick or new behavior, I'll throw in a few 5-10 min sessions a week. I like to get in some nosework practice once a week, but don't always find time for it. Walks involve the most training and we'll work on focus, some heeling, ignoring other dogs, and other life-skills. Sometimes I'll do recalls and choose-to-heel stuff in our field on the way to or from the walk.
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
7,099
Likes
1
Points
38
Location
Illinois
#19
Not including the lulls I sometimes get into where pretty much I just don't train for awhile. I typically get in a training session for about 5 minutes two to three times a day but at least once.

I've been pretty much just focusing on disc lately because we have one last comp coming up I feel very unprepared for but when I don't have that looming I tend to do once or twice a day working on known behaviors for 5 or so minutes each and at least once a day working on new behaviors.

I feel like my training is very much dictated by my whims and the weather. Sometimes I get into a mood where everything in the world is going to be shaped. All tricks will be trained and then we're doing so many short sessions throughout the day.

Other times it's self control work I've decided I need to work on and nothing other than that gets worked on.

Then during the winter I do a lot of smaller trick training inside because outside is gross and in the summer I get less into training training and more just biking, hiking and swimming.

So I guess I fluctuate a lot.
 

FG167

Active Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
2,709
Likes
0
Points
36
Location
Jefferson, GA
#20
How much time do you spend, per week, actively training your dog with a goal in mind?

If you have multiple sports, do you practice each sport every week or only train those when you have something coming up?
Robin: flyball 2-3 sessions per week, agility 2-3 sessions per week, we're also taking an obedience class.

Limit: depends on what we're working on, how stressed he is. Usually 1-3x a week on whatever he is currently finding fun (tricks/obedience/flyball stuff/agility etc).

Eden: learns the weaves when I rent the field ETA: she already has all the other equipment and such that she needs to know and she despises drills so I usually just play with Eden with no structure and work on weaves when it's convenient.

Kastle: he trains every single day, at least once, usually twice. We're getting ready for IPO I (which is a three phase sport and therefore takes a lot of time) and in the morning we either track or do ob. In the afternoon we either do obedience outside for ball or in the basement for food (working on moving stand right now with food). On the weekend we train all three phases Sat and Sun.
 

Members online

No members online now.
Top