August is annual back to school month. This is the time when parents get their children ready to head back to class and spend the school year learning and refining their knowledge. In the same way pet parents should take this month to take their dogs back to school. Here are a few things you should know about back to school for your dog.
Evaluate Their Current Skills
All dogs should know basic obedience. This is what is taught in the beginner training sessions. This consists of commands such as sit, lie down, stay, and come. These are essential for your dog to be able to listen at home and when you are out and about with them. You need to see how well your dog does with these commands as this is the basics and what other tricks draw from. This will help you understand where you need to start with them. If nothing else, it is always good to go over basics again and give your dog a refresher course on the tricks they already know to keep them sharp.
Think About What You Really Want Your Dog to Learn
Another thing to think about with training for your dog is what you want them to learn. Do you want them to have fun tricks you can show off at parties? Do you want to give them certain tasks that will be their job? Are you interested  in having your dog become a service dog? These are things you need to think about before you set up your training.
Make Sure You Go with the Right Trainer
You also need to think about finding the right trainer for your dog. You want to find someone who is not only certified but has experience. You also want to find someone that shares the same values as you in terms of training. Look at their website and talk with them. If you will be doing one on one training, then you also want to find someone your dog works well with. This will help you to have the best results.
Tips for Self Training
It is possible to train a dog on your own instead of going through a trainer. However, this is often not as successful and can take longer depending on your dog. Before you do this though you need to make sure you know how to do this. Take a little time to research and watch videos. This will give you a better understanding of how to do this. If you are starting with basic commands make sure you use the right hand gestures so your dog won’t be confused if someone else works with them. Also, keep in mind that you cannot work for hours. You need to be able to recognize when your dog has had enough and stop the training for the day.
