Only got ten minutes? Here’s what ten minutes could do for your dogs behaviour…

Many people don’t start dog behaviour training at all because they don’t feel like they have the time to see it through. But I’m here to tell you that if you can find just ten minutes a day, you can actually make quite a difference to your dogs behaviour. Ten minutes a day is a whopping five hours a month, or 60 hours a year! Here’s five examples of what you could achieve with your dogs behaviour this year, with just ten minutes a day…

No time for trial and error

If time is limited for you, you definitely don’t want to waste it doing the wrong thing. This is not the time for experimentation. So get straight to the right solution, or at least as close as possible, with a training plan that has been put together by an experienced behaviourist. And not just any experienced behaviourist. Choose one that will include an assessment as part of the process. Getting to know your dog, what makes him tick, what makes him unique, and what’s important to him is how you know what solution to use. There is no one-size-fits-all fix. All the advice you’ll find on the internet has worked for someone, but knowing what will work best for your dog takes experience and a full assessment. Without that you are back to trial and error, and you don’t have time for that.

1. Reactive Behaviour

By being careful and balancing quiet walks with well managed, ten minute dog behaviour training sessions, you could achieve close to a 100% success rate. This means that every interaction with a trigger would have a positive outcome, and would mean you would be moving forward with each encounter. You might not be the fastest, but you would be making very definite progress. Imagine how different your dogs behaviour would be after a staggering 3650 minutes of focused training, especially when the alternative is to do nothing because you don’t have several hours for training.

2. A Great Recall

If you practised recall every day for ten minutes that would add up to 300 minutes of training a month! That’s a huge amount of recall practise. My 30 day recall programme starts from absolute scratch and guides you through distractions, habit making, and everything else, and that needs 20 minutes a day for one month. If you followed that, but gave it only ten minutes a day your dog would have a pretty reliable recall in two months from now! Imagine the difference it would make to your dog to be able to explore and make friends freely – you’ll be ready by the spring, if you start now!

3. Separation Anxiety

If you started desensitising your dog from their main separation anxiety triggers, in ten minute dog behaviour sessions, from today. Then I estimate you would be able to leave your dog for a full ten minutes, virtually stress free, in 4-5 weeks from now. That might not sound like much, but being able to be alone for ten minutes is a huge milestone in separation anxiety rehabilitation. Once your dog can manage that, the ball is rolling fast in terms of your progress as that’s the hardest bit for your dog to cope with.

4. Loose Lead Training

If you only have ten minutes a day, you can make a huge dent in your loose lead training by being smart with how you do it. Just like a guide dog knows they are at work when they wear their harness, and they are off duty when they are on a lead and collar. Your dog will notice the difference when you make training sessions and normal walks feel different to each other.

So, you’ll need a new lead, and a harness that is very different to the one you normally use. I prefer to use a short lead for loose lead training and a longer one for “normal” walking. Now, you do your ten minute training sessions when you have your new lead and harness on, and just let your dog pull like normal when he is on his old lead and harness. To speed things up, make your training sessions super consistent and focused – it’s only ten minutes after all. When he finds his ten minutes sessions easy you can just keep the new harness on and roll out your training to your normal walks.

5. Barking at the Front Door

Got a dog that goes mad at the front door? Ten minutes of practise a day (five hours in a month) is plenty to make the front door boring, and to make a new habit of sitting calmly when people arrive. It’ll help to get a doorbell you can trigger from the inside, so put that on your shopping list. Then when you get ten minutes, start ringing it and practice answering the door. I go through how to do it in this video…

Handling Big problems?

If you have a big problem that feels overwhelming, it can help to break it down into smaller parts. Each smaller part can then be tackled in your ten minute sessions. Once your dog has mastered all the parts, you can start to put them back together again. For example, if you are answering the door, you could start by teaching your dog a sit-stay in the hall way. Then when they are good at that, use your ten minutes a day to desensitise your dog to the door bell. Then work on sitting for attention. Spend just ten minutes a day, for two weeks on each part, and in six weeks you’ll have a dog that can easily sit while you answer the door and invite people in.

Everything else…

In fact, almost any problem can be solved with short ten minute dog behaviour sessions, as long as you are careful to avoid the problem behaviour when you aren’t in training. If your dog is anxious about other dogs, and they see and react to dogs daily, ten minutes will never make any difference. But, if you avoid other dogs between sessions, and focus hard on training the rest of the time, you’ll make decent progress.

The same goes for dogs that have separation anxiety, if you work hard in your ten minutes and get a puppy sitter, or take your dog everywhere in the meantime, you’ll not undo all your hard work between sessions.

Check out this blog on the 80:20 rule for more about why your success rate matters so much…

Time passes anyway

Doing something every day for six weeks, or six months even, might feel like a long time, but that time will pass anyway. But if you start now, in six weeks your future self will thank you because you will be nearly done!

What do you wish you had started six weeks, or even a year ago?