Tips for Training Outings
You may be asking yourself: ‘what is a training outing?’ A training outing is where you take your dog somewhere other than your home or training class to work on behaviors. Along with that, you may be wondering ‘why should I take my dog on training outings?’ It’s important to take dogs on training outings to a wide variety of places where you expect your dog to perform certain behaviors (such as the pet store, your favorite park, a home improvement store, etc) because dogs have a difficult time generalizing. What I mean by this is that dogs typically learn behaviors in a certain context, such as at home or in a training class, and it is difficult for them to apply that knowledge in a new or different environment. This is why some dogs seem to completely forget how to sit when they’re outside! Taking your dog on training outings and working on behaviors in new environments helps dogs learn to generalize so they’re more likely to be successful in the future.
I recommend making a list of places you’d like to take your dog, such as patio restaurants and dog friendly businesses, and start practicing. Go slow and keep outings short and sweet at first while you assess and work on your dog’s behavior in new environments. For example, if you’d like your dog to sit nicely at your feet while you eat dinner on an outdoor patio, start with short trips to a cafe with an outdoor seating area and have a quick cup of coffee while training your dog to settle calmly. It’s all about taking your time working on little skills each session to build up to the final expected behavior.
Here are some tips to make sure your training outing is successful:
- Make sure your dog has gone to the bathroom before starting training, especially if you’re working inside a store or other public place. This is crucial for young puppies and dogs that may not be entirely toilet trained yet. Allowing them to go to the bathroom inside a store can strengthen that behavior so your dog learns to go to the bathroom indoors instead of an appropriate place. Most places that are pet friendly expect messes and may even provide cleaning materials for accidents, but it’s best to prevent messes in the first place. Your dog will be able to focus better with an empty bladder and colon as well.
- Double check that the location you are interested in training at is actually pet friendly. Unless your dog is a service dog/service dog in training, they should not be in stores or businesses that are not pet friendly. This is not just a friendly suggestion, it’s the law. Service dogs undergo extensive training to be able to perform a job for a disabled person in a variety of different environments which is why they are allowed in non pet friendly environments. You can check out locations’ pet policies online for most stores, but if you can’t find information, go ahead and give that location a call just to be sure. Most home improvement stores and pet stores are pet friendly, as well as some shopping stores like TJ Maxx.
- Create a little kit with training essentials and emergency supplies to carry with you. I recommend including accident cleaning supplies, extra treats, a spare leash, a toy, hand sanitizer, extra rolls of poop bags and any other essentials you might wish to have on hand and carry with you when you go on training outings. Trust me, having extra poop bags and hand sanitizer is a godsend! Being prepared will help your training outings go smoother too.
- Create a training plan for your outing ahead of time so you are prepared and know what specifically you’d like to work on while you’re out. Remember to keep it fairly simple, as for most dogs it will take a lot of their mental energy to focus on you in a new environment. Keep your expectations low the first few visits to the location until you get a better feel for how your dog handles the new environment. I like to choose a few behaviors to work on with my dog at a time and leave on a successful note so my dog associates training outings with good times.
- Consider your dog’s stress level, coping skills and problem behaviors when choosing a location and time to take your training outing. For example, a dog that is fearful of people would not do well visiting the home improvement store on a busy Saturday morning. A young puppy may be too overwhelmed in a pet store swarming with dogs. If your dog is reactive, I would advise choosing locations and times with low traffic until you work on managing their reactivity. A bustling store is not the place to have a barking, lunging dog because there is limited room to create needed space for your dog and it is likely pushing your dog over threshold. Not to mention it is unsafe and uncomfortable for the other folks trying to use the store or location.
- In the same vein, consider what behaviors you’re working on with your dog when choosing a location. For example, if you’re working on reactivity and want a lot of reps, I would recommend a park that has a dog park and a large field next to it during a time when other people are taking their dog to the park, usually evenings and weekends. If you’re working with a young puppy on socialization, a busy parking lot or outside a store during peak traffic times will give you plenty to socialize your puppy to compared to a quieter time.
- Pay attention to your dog’s stress level while on the training outing. If your dog is showing stress signs it is probably best to end the session on a good note with a simple behavior if possible instead of pushing through. Dogs aren’t learning when they’re experiencing stress, and they will quickly learn to associate training outings with stress if you don’t step in. Depending on your dog, it may be possible to go out to the car and take a quick break before continuing the outing but for some dogs it may be best to cut the training session entirely short instead. A good training session doesn’t have to be long! 20 minutes or less can be a perfect training session for most young dogs.
- Be prepared to focus entirely on your dog during the training outing. I know it’s tempting to combine a training session with a shopping trip, and believe me I’m guilty of it! But I think it’s far more important to focus on your dog during the session to get the most out of it, and if you’re shopping you’re not correcting problem behaviors or rewarding good ones.
- Remember to take a variety of rewards with you. This can simply be a few different values of treats, or even a tug toy for toy motivated dogs. The treats that ‘work’ at home may not be of a high enough value to tempt your dog into working for them in a new environment, so it’s good to have a few options. For nervous dogs, I also like to break up training sessions with a little bit of tug for confidence building and stress relief.
- Keep every session as positive as possible! Dogs have fantastic memories for how a person or place made them feel so it’s imperative that every training outing be as fun and positive as possible. Even if things are going sideways, try to end on a positive note and remember that your dog isn’t trying to give you a hard time, they’re having a hard time. Be patient and understand that they’re doing their best to learn how to exist in a human world when they’re only a dog, and we don’t have the proper language to fully communicate what we want out of them yet.
At the end of the day, doing training outings will open up a world of possibilities for you and your dog. The more you work on behaviors with your dog in new and different places, the more comfortable your dog will be in new environments and the more likely they’ll behave for you. As I said in the beginning, remember to take things slow, keep sessions short and sweet at first. Keep building those skills over time and you’ll notice a huge change in your dog!
I hope these tips help you tackle some new training outings this week! Let us know in the comments on our social media if any of these tips particularly resonated with you, and tag us in your training outing posts!
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