Today’s topic is training a dog by yourself. So, training your dog by yourself can be difficult. I’m here to tell you that I’ve been doing this for quite some time now. Some people will tell you that it takes a village to raise a dog. And yes, I agree. That is true.
Getting A Head Start
But I feel that people can endeavor and take on the challenge of training their dog by themselves. I want to give you a few pointers on some things that you can do. Now, I’m a professional dog trainer. I’m in Houston, Texas, and if you need help, getting somebody like myself involved can be a great way to get a head start on training a dog by yourself.
Why do I say train a dog by yourself? But you’re still hiring a professional? Well, if you want to know, what I do is I do train dogs. I train my own quite extensively, and I do train my client’s dogs. The big thing that I do is coach people. I teach people the technical aspect of training and then also help them build a structure for accountability. Where people know that somebody’s going to be checking up on them to make sure that they are practicing and practicing correctly.
Hiring A Professional
So getting a coach for yourself can be a great way to start the process. Now that’s what I do professionally, and that’s going to cost you some money. Often, a course like that may range anywhere from $500 to about $1,500 depending on the length of the course and the experience of the dog trainer.
Now there is another way to go about this. It is maybe consuming YouTube videos like the ones that I produce. But there are also paid-for videos that dog trainers create that you can buy. A very well thought out course that teaches you how to go out and train your dog to do the things that are important to you.
I think is the most important thing about training a dog by yourself is, on a daily basis, get out with your dog and practice the things that you want them to understand.
4 Things You Should Learn How To Train
Now, for any of you that have been listening for a while, probably already know what I’m going to say next. And that is the things that you should be working on with your dog. Here are the four things that I encourage everybody to learn how to train. Your dog should stay where you tell them to; they should walk nicely on a leash. They should come when you call them, and they should play well.
All those things should be taught using a rewards-based method that also teaches a dog how to respect boundaries. Yes, boundaries. Sometimes that means correction but it should be rewards-based. And your dog should enjoy the training that you’re doing.
So when you consider training a dog by yourself, you could get coached, you could buy videos, you could even buy books. But the main thing that you have to be doing is training on a regular, daily basis to develop those four significant skills. When you do that, and if you keep going, you’ll see that you and your dog will continuously get better.
My Journey
I’ve mentioned this before, and I think it’s worth mentioning again that 16 years ago, when I started my journey to becoming a professional dog trainer, I didn’t know that I was all that skilled at training dogs. The thing that I did do is I kept training every day. I’ve trained practically every day since the beginning of this because I really found that I enjoyed it, and my dogs seemed to thrive with the training that I was doing with them.
Now I’ve used a lot of different methods, but the thing that I did that worked for me is I just kept practicing. I want to encourage any of you that are thinking about training your dog by yourself. It is possible, and to the degree that I can, I’d like to help anybody that would like to do that. There’s a lot of thoughts that I have when it comes to helping people, for sure.
I want to step into people’s homes directly, coach them and then also handle their dogs. But there’s a lot of you reading this that are maybe not in the Houston area and are following because you’re looking for tips. You’re looking for ways to improve your dog training. So I can use YOUR help. And the way that you can help me, is if you could text me what you want to learn about dog training.
That will give me some direction about what content I need to be creating next. Here’s a great opportunity for you to help me out, and I can do the same for you. My phone number is 832-734-5189. That number is text message only, and it’s going to ask for your name. And it’s going to ask for what part of the country that you’re in. Once you answer those questions, then I will be able to see your messages and will be able to respond as quickly as possible.
I hope this was helpful for you. Remember, you can always find more tips like this right here on my website at www.longoriahausdogtraining.com.
Happy Training!
