Training Two Dogs at Once

What does a live training session look like in a two-dog household? Here’s an unedited video as an example of how I work with two dogs where one dog is really the learner, and the other is the distraction. Often I recommend that my clients work with their dogs for 5-15 minutes per training session 3-4 times a day, depending on the difficulty of the skill they are working on. The harder the skill, the less time AND the more I rotate in other (slightly easier or more well-known) skills to help with both motivation and the learning process. The easier the skill, the longer the duration of work and the steadier I build in distraction.

*** If you want to see progress working with two dogs at once, I strongly suggest that you work with each dog separately – get in that one-on-one time with them individually before attempting to bring them together and expect them to respond well. Dogs get distracted quickly, and there’s the competitive factor that enters the equation, so training each dog on skills separately first makes it much easier to train them together and expect results. A couple of things to help you with any training session with your dog: – Have a brief play session first (5-10 minutes) – Start with an easy skill and/or the skill you left off with during your last session to get things going – Check your tone – does it say fun or fun police? – Know when your dog has reached their limit – notice in this video Astra struggles a bit towards the end. She had a 10-minute romp house play session first and did some impulse control work before I started filming which was a bit much for her. – End on an easy “win” – something you know that they can achieve, reward them for it and celebrate for a few seconds after giving them their release cue such as “free” mentioned in this video.

Most of my YouTube content is not designed around examples of live training sessions but is more educational and informational, with a little “how-to” thrown in here and there. If you like this type of video, you can see more of my in-action sessions and work with dogs on the spot via the following channels: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sara.ondrako TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@saraondrako Facebook: http://facebook.com/saraondrakobehavior