Training in short bursts keeps a walk upbeat, fun and helps your dog to not become “burned out” on training. We want our dogs to enjoy, form positive associations with and always look forward to training walks!

The circuit-training concept by its very nature allows one to interject interludes of relaxation, enjoyable walking, play, exercise or combinations of these between the short but focused training segments.

Once dogs understand how training walks are structured you’ll find they will work diligently and with focus to get to the free time and fun interludes!

Your beginning and ending stations should be at home, at the door. Upon leaving make your first station the doorway to train (or reinforce) proper exit behavior. Returning home, reinforce proper entry behavior.

Match training activities to the physical dynamics of each station. For example, the wide stairway of a public building or apartment complex provides a great station for practicing Heel up and down stairs. Elevated platforms such as gazebos, band shell stages or even picnic tables make excellent stations for practicing Down-Stay.

With motion-oriented training activities your stations will comprise the duration of that training event (for example pace-change or U-turn practice along a designated length of sidewalk). It’s easy to follow that up with some leisure or fun walking!

Training becomes modular with this approach, enabling you to change up what’s run at your training stations at different times and on different days. You can easily adjust a dog’s training regimen to keep pace with progress and keeps things interesting. Think creatively about training stations and ideas will practically suggest themselves!

Circuit-training keeps the entire walk fun yet directed. Your dog will become conditioned to receiving and honoring human instruction throughout the duration of every walk and the end result will be a dog that “listens” better!

In Between Training Stations

The fun, interesting things that happen between training stations- leisure walking, exploring, play, exercise, sniffing out new smells and exposure to all sorts of pleasurable stimuli- are actually resources that you control and dole out. In your dogs eyes having control of these resources reinforces your status as “leader of the pack.”

This approach provides an effective means of rewarding your dog for successfully completing training activities and is extremely useful when weaning a dog away from food rewards to substitute more powerful, more meaningful reinforcers.

There is an art beyond the science of conducting successful and productive training walks. If your dog acts wild or misbehaves following a training station try immediately reverting to short bursts of training followed by quick returns to your in-between plan, repeating as necessary until your dog figures out what sort of behavior is acceptable. Even so still keep things upbeat, fun and rewarding to reestablish focus. Do not punish, simply alternate between training and resource apportionment to heighten your dog’s situational awareness and improve communication.

Every walk with a dog in training needs to be focused first on training. Physical exercise, important as it is, is of secondary importance. Dogs need both so plan accordingly but view training as the primary reason for every walk. Above all remember that your walks are ultimately about bonding and having fun together!

Suggestions For Training Activities

Heel is a lot of fun and has many uses; it’s one of the best things to learn and practice outdoors! However I strongly recommend that owners first teach a Heel game indoors, off leash (also a separate article).

Once your dog catches on to how fun it is to stay at Heel position ‘no matter what’ as together you navigate around furniture and hug the perimeters of rooms and hallways as if you had terrain-following radar you’ll have created a favorite game that you can take outdoors! When a dog loves Heeling indoors and sees it as a favorite game teaching a formal Heel outdoors becomes close to effortless!

Keep Heel fun outdoors by practicing it intermittently using the circuit-training concept. Never require a puppy or a dog that’s beginning training to do long, oppressive walks at Heel. Instead train in short, fun bursts and increase Heel time incrementally.

Speed and direction changes add even more fun as your dog is challenged to remain at Heel in shifting scenarios and gets rewarded for doing so! Acquiring the mental skill to adapt to Heel under shifting conditions helps develop complex thinking abilities- especially problem solving- as a dog learns to think sequentially (gains the ability to anticipate, process and adapt to multi-step instructions and multiple-event scenarios).

Practice About-Turn, both left and right. With progress you can add other types of turns and movements such as Figure-8s. Learning to anticipate and perform abrupt turns with a human (be sure to give accurately-timed turning signals and rewards) keeps a dog on its toes and listening for your cues. Do this at Heel to increase the fun!

Practice “Automatic” (fast) Sits with using unpredictable timing. Be creative with combining Sits, Turns and Halts (i.e. give a “Come Around” cue, execute an About Turn and Sit your dog after a chosen number of steps. Wait, say, 10 seconds, call your dog to Heel and then execute another About Turn to resume your original walking direction).

Teach your dog to anticipate a “Stay” cue when approaching intersections. Pause for the desired interval and when ready give a “crossing” cue (“OK, Let’s Cross!”). Condition your dog to pause, check for cars at street crossings and then cross at a quick pace once all is clear (wave cars to pass if a driver is stopped and waving for you to go; insist upon them going first and cross immediately after they pass so that your dog gets used to crossing after cars go by, not in front of them). Convey a sense of haste with crossings (always having paused first) even if there are no cars; the idea is to condition your dog to never linger in roadways! After crossing have your dog ether sit or do something else away from the curb to get their reward.

Play versions of “Leave It” - “Take It” games using high value treats or favorite toys. Do these in both stationary and in-motion contexts (walking past the distractions).

Practice Recalls using a retriever training line even if you don’t have a retriever. Twenty feet is a good beginner’s line length. As your dog’s recall skill increases you may move up to a fifty-foot line and longer. Eventually a solid recall will become habit and you’ll no longer need the line. (Note: Helping to design a fun and effective recall game appropriate to the dynamics of your specific route is a training service that I provide!)

A large percentage of the recalls will be at full line length but by no means must you always wait until your dog reaches the end of the line. Change things up! Recall your dog sometimes from only halfway out and do some from only a few yards or a few feet out! Recall training is more effective and more fun when the distances are varied.

Even on botched recalls when you have to bring the dog all the way in using the line be sure to praise your dog every time with enthusiasm using verbal, touch and food reinforcement just as if they had completed the recall perfectly!