How Long Are Your Training Sessions?

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Here's "installment three" of the common training mistakes discussion...

3. Your training sessions run too long or too short

Teaching new behaviours to a dog is a process of evolution, not revolution. The key is in knowing that it’s usually going to take numerous sessions to perfect a new behaviour.

Time spent on a training session should reflect some positive result; as soon as you attain some obvious level of success, reward, then quit. Don’t carry on and on, as you’ll likely bore the dog, and actually condition it to become disinterested in the new behaviour. Likewise, don’t end a session until some evidence of success is shown, even if it’s a moment of focus or an attempt by the dog to try to perform. Remember that ten one-minute sessions in a day trump one ten-minute session every time.

 

What do you think?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I love the idea of one minute training sessions. I knew they should be short, but never thought of making them that short! That wouldn't feel like "work" for me or for the dog. 

[Adina P]

I train for long periods. Typical when I am working a dog is 40 min except with pups which is less. But that doesn't mean I might not do a quick practice with a short stay here and there. I think don't want to drill into boredom something the dog already knows well, but it is also good for a dog to develop stamina and be able to work for an extended time. I wouldn't drill recall over and over, but I would heel, sit stay, recall, heel, down stay,heel, stand stay, heel, and so on ... If the stays are longer, it adds up fast and the dog is not bored.

[Dawn Ross]

I make a few training mistakes but this definitely is not one of them. I don't think we ever spend more than 5 minutes on training unless Maya & Pierson are really into it. I can tell when they are starting to get less enthusiastic so I make sure to end the training session before they reach the boredom point. Pierson learned rollover by spending less than 3 minutes per session 2-3 times a day and had it down by the 4th day. So if we add all that time together, he learned rollover in about half an hour. He never would have learned the rollover trick so fast if I had spent that entire 30 minutes all at once in one day. So it shows how several small sessions can be far more effective than one long session.

[Star and Goldie]

I love the way you use the roll over example.  It makes perfect sense. He wouldn't have mastered it in 30 minutes at one time but spaced out over several days totaling 30 minutes makes even more sense when you look at it that way!

[Star and Goldie]

I'm definitely NOT guilty of having long training sessions. My schedule and every way I'm pulled just doesn't allow it. I do three 5-10 minute sessions a day and then if we are out on a walk or to the park- that is a constant training session mixed with play time. She has to follow some kind of command before I'll throw a ball or I'll also just call out commands when we are at the park, etc...

[Kyoko]

I think mine is 2 ~3  minutes,   5, 6 or 7 times a day...  Bunch of mini sessions using their kibbles... ( two of them are definitely at their meal time. " Eat n Learn ")

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I train for longer periods, but never just on one thing.  Throughout the day we "practice" things that I've already trained...and those are the quick sessions.  Every walk is still a training walk, and those are close to an hour.

[Adina P]

I was thinking about this more.  It seems like most people don't really have time to do loooong training sessions.  So it seems perhaps that isn't the problem.  Perhaps the actual problem is over-drilling things.  Not so much that dogs can't train for more than a few minutes, but that their response goes downhill and there's a point of diminishing returns with drilling one thing over and over.  I know my trainer told me that if I got a really great response (better than usual) to something, I should make it clear to the dog that he did GREAT and leave that thing alone for a bit.  Otherwise, the dog is going to think he's STILL not getting it..."why else would my mom just keep making me do it over and over?"  A bit anthropomorphizing, but I think there's a valid point.  Heeling and recalls and anything that requires some precision, repeated ad nauseam starts to lose its significance if over-drilled in one session.  That can happen in 5 minutes or 30 depending on how the training is done.