It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you embark on dog training. Whether you’ve just brought home a new puppy or rescue, or you’re dealing with behaviour challenges, it can feel like there’s too much to do and no time to do it.
You might think that you need to be setting aside hours of time for long training sessions but you really don’t. Training doesn’t have to be time-consuming or complicated to be effective. Your dog, just like you, is learning all the time. This is both good and bad. On the good side, your daily interactions shape your dog’s behaviour in powerful ways. On the bad, your daily interactions shape your dog’s behaviour in powerful ways…..
To make it work for you, rather than against you, focus on building some strong routines that help your dog succeed without adding extra effort to your day. Small changes can make training feel easy and natural and part of how you and your dog live together.
If consistency with training has been your weakness (isn’t it for everyone?) then having some simple daily routines you can rely on means you’re training even when you’re not conscious of it.
Why Small Daily Training Habits Matter
We all spend our lives predicting outcomes to get what we want-including our dogs. That’s why routines help; they make it easier for your dog to predict what works, reducing confusion and frustration. That doesn’t mean that we have to have a rigid schedule with no room for flexibility. It just means that when certain things happen, like a knock at the door, the same sequence of events happens after. For instance, in my house, when someone knocks on the door, I cue the dogs to go to the kitchen, if they haven’t gone there already, I shut the gate behind them, toss a handful of treats on the floor for them, then answer the door.
Initially, when I started this routine, there was lots of barking and I had to use bigger cues to get them in the kitchen, both verbal and physical, by walking to the kitchen myself. But because I did the same thing every time, it really didn’t take long before the barking lessened (we still get some, but it’s still diminishing) and they reacted to just my verbal cue, and now often take themselves off to the kitchen as soon as I move to the hallway.
The routine doesn’t work so well with my husband, though. He isn’t as predictable. He will ask them to go in the kitchen, but there isn’t the payoff of scattered treats every time. So there’s more barking that continues until he opens the front door.
Building in small routines and training moments into your day will make your life easier and your dog will be able to predict what’s going to happen and what behaviours will pay off.
5 Easy Dog Training Habits That Make a Big Difference
1 – Reinforce Good Behaviour When It Happens
Kathy Sdao formalised this concept with her SMART50 system (See, Mark and Reward Training, 50 times a day). Instead of setting up training sessions, simply notice and reinforce behaviours you like as they happen throughout the day.
You can reinforce with a treat or their usual food. Or you can reinforce with something else they would like. For example, if your dog has been quietly settled while you’ve been working, why not see if they’d enjoy a fuss for a bit. Or if they’ve waited politely at the door, releasing them to the garden can work as reinforcement.
My favourites for using this system with are for calm settled behaviours, and for when my dogs are entertaining themselves. I work with many dogs who depend on their owners for their entertainment. Often this happens because their owners are so great at providing for their needs through games, food toys etc. but it also means that their dog hasn’t learned that they can go do things themselves without their owner’s involvement.
Start by providing lots of ways for your dog to safely entertain themselves – chews, toys etc. Then when you notice them playing on their own, or lying down for a good chew, reinforce it.
2 – Use Routines to Make Training Effortless
Routines don’t have to be fancy, just predictable. And it works best if you’ve set things up so it’s easy to carry out the routine, for your dog and for you.
For instance for my answering the door routine there is a pot of treats hanging by the kitchen doorway so it’s easy to grab a handful to scatter as I close the gate.
We have mealtime routines too. All their medications and supplements are kept in the utility room on a little shelf. When it’s mealtime, we go out to the utility together. My dogs get their medications and supplements and then I give them their food. Because they know the routine and it stays the same every time, they can wait patiently for their food.
3 – Set Your Dog Up for Success with the Right Environment
One of the biggest problems I see is dogs being put into situations they aren’t ready for. You need to introduce skill levels incrementally. Being able to walk politely on lead in your garden doesn’t mean that your dog can immediately move on to walking well in a busy street or in the middle of the park.
Working step by step can be tricky. It’s easy to accidentally push your dog into situations they aren’t ready for. That’s when having a Plan B helps. For example, you might allow your dog off lead in an enclosed field because their recall is reliable there, but choose to use a long line when in parkland with deer and squirrels around. Or you may choose to use your standard walking setup to walk the streets around your home, but move to a double ended lead and two points on a harness setup when you’re in busier places and your dog needs a little more guidance.
These ‘Plan B’ strategies are often called management. They prevent your dog from practising unwanted behaviours, making success more likely. Using gate systems to prevent your dog accessing areas at home, or window film to prevent them barking out the window also count as management.
Management and setting your dog up for success are essential if you want your dog to learn alternative behaviours. Otherwise it’s a bit like trying to brush your teeth while eating a chocolate fudge brownie. The more they practise the unwanted behaviour because you aren’t managing those situations well, the more rehearsed they become and the more your teeth are covered in brown goo. You need to stop eating the brownie and then brush your teeth. Just like you need to stop the unwanted behaviour from happening at all, and then work on your preferred alternatives.
4 – Give Your Dog Choices to Build Confidence
This isn’t the same as letting your dog do whatever they would like 100% of the time. Dogs, like people, feel more secure and safe when they have some control over their environment. Offering them choice wherever possible can help improve their confidence and reduce frustration.
This could look like letting them decide which route to take on your walk. Or it could be as simple as letting them choose what position they take up when you ask them to wait. That’s a favourite of mine actually. Dogs don’t have to sit all the time. Not when really most of the time we just need them to stop for a second. For instance when I teach my dogs to wait at doorways, I don’t care whether they sit, down or stand, or meander backwards and forwards in the hallway, as long as they don’t rush out the front door for safety’s sake.
You can also hold preference tests to see what food, treats and toys your dogs would prefer. You can provide multiple resting spots so they can choose different places depending on how they are feeling. I like to give my dogs access to outside as much as possible so they can come and go as they please.
Not all things are possible for all situations, but you are really only restricted by your own imagination.
5 – Focus on One Training Goal Per Day
If you are in the middle of a training regime of some kind it’s easy to think you have to train all the things every day. But it’s the fast track to overwhelm, for you and your dog.
Consistency is key, so it’s much better to pick one skill to train that day and focus on that. You can stick to that skill for several days, or change it up. Whatever your preferences or needs are.
Once you’ve got routines sorted, management in place and are doing your SMART 50, you really only need to add one extra skill to work on to your schedule. Spend your 5mins working on that skill and you’re done for the day!
Training doesn’t have to take hours to be successful.
Troubleshooting: What to Do If You’re Not Seeing Progress
If you feel like you’re reinforcing the right behaviours but aren’t seeing progress, here are a few things to check.
Are you being consistent?
Successful repetition is key. Is your management working? Are you consistently reinforcing the behaviour or do you sometimes ignore it when your dog has done the right thing because you’re busy? How can you change things so it’s easier to reward your dog when they get it right?
Are you expecting results too quickly?
Have you pushed them too far too quickly? Behaviour change takes time. When you recognise that your dog doesn’t quite have the skills for the situation, go back a step or two. Put your management back in place and think through how you can make the steps smaller so your dog remains successful.
Is the environment too challenging?
Sadly we can’t control everything so it’s easy for situations to be harder than we anticipated. Cut your loses if you aren’t able to get your dog back on track and try again another day when you’ve been able to think through what to do differently. Just because they can’t do it today doesn’t mean they’ll never be able to. But only if you take the time to teach them how.
You are making progress but you can’t see it.
This happens all the time because our brains focus on the negative. My recommendation is to track your progress. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Maybe just writing a line a day for how things went a la Matthew Dicks Homework for Life. I highly recommend a reflection practise to help support the changes you are making and tracking your progress.
Quick Recap: 5 Simple Dog Training Habits
If you only take one thing from this post, remember this: small, daily habits create lasting change. Here’s a quick recap on how to set your dog up for success:
- Reinforce good behavior when you see it—reward the small wins.
- Create simple routines to make training effortless.
- Set up your environment to prevent unwanted behaviors.
- Give your dog choices to build confidence and reduce frustration.
- Pick one training goal per day to keep things manageable.
Dog training isn’t about perfection—it’s about small, consistent choices that add up over time. By reinforcing the good stuff when it happens, creating predictable routines, and setting your dog up for success, you’re making real progress—even when it doesn’t feel like it.
If you’re feeling stuck, remember: it’s not about training harder, it’s about training smarter. Pick one simple habit from this post and try it today. You might be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.
And if you ever need a reminder that progress is happening (even when you can’t see it), try jotting down a quick note at the end of each day. A few weeks from now, you’ll see just how far you and your dog have come.
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