I may have mentioned once or twice that I get really into planning and goal setting. The dogs are not immune to this! When I’m doing my planning for the next year, I always include a little section for my dog training goals.
Obviously the entirety of our training has been focused on Lucas and Newt. As things are starting to improve and we’re thisclose to an integrated household, I’m turning my attention to 2014. I thought I’d share a little bit about my dog training goals and dog-related planning.
Here’s what I’m shooting for:
- SAFETY! For all three I want to continue working on their recall. We have a fenced-in backyard, but we’ve had some weird occurrences lately that reinforced the importance of a solid recall.
- Barking. I’ve started teaching the “enough” cue, and we’re getting there… but we’re not there yet.
- Cooper is super smart and a fast learner. I made a list of 50 tricks to teach him in 2014. I’ll be sharing the list – and our progress – as we go!
- Lucas is ongoing with leash reactivity, but the main thing I want him to learn next year (which we should’ve tackled AGES ago…) is to stay calm when someone comes to the door. I don’t have a plan for this yet (any suggestions???) but it’s going to involve Cooper, too. They’ve started a worrisome behavior: When the doorbell rings, they redirect all their craziness onto each other and end up in a scuffle. Sigh. It’s always something.
- Emmett needs more mental exercise, so I have a stack of puzzle games and tricks to work on with him. Not as many as Cooper because it takes him 10 times longer to learn anything than Coop, but stuff to keep his mind active!
Another big project I’m undertaking is to update our budget. Three dogs and a cat are expensive, as we’ve talked about before. We’ve been trying to stick to a family budget, and pet care – food, monthly meds, medical care, toys, and so on – are a big slice of our overall budget. More on this in another post, too…
Finally, I’m also going to be filling out all those pet care printables I shared a while ago, along with our emergency preparedness (more on that later in the week) and compiling a copy of everything for our pet sitters. Now that everyone is on daily medication, it’s super important to me to keep a really close eye on all their stats!
So, those are the goals for 2014! Next up: Creating a plan for each goal! Don’t worry… I have a spreadsheet! 🙂
Do you set goals for dog training? What do you hope to achieve with your pets in 2014? Agility champs? Loose leash walking? Less barking? Or are you more laid back less structured than I am?
Wow, I am super impressed by how structured you are! Goal setting is so important for so many reasons, mostly because if you don’t know what your goals are or what you want to achieve, you aren’t likely to get anything done. At least, that’s how it works for me. I need to be better at adding a little structure to my life, I think.
Good luck in carrying out all of your plans! I look forward to reading about it as you go!
Truth? If I don’t plan, I don’t do… anything! I’m so easily distracted (have you read the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? that’s my life), and I get sucked into these like crazy holes of wasting time. I need structure to prevent that!!
Can you do a post about the enough command with barking?? We NEED that 🙂
Absolutely!! I put it on my schedule to tackle in a few weeks when we will (hopefully) have better control over the command! 🙂
Its a family photo! Congratulations!!
Thank you!! I’m seriously so proud of this little herd!
I’m amazed that someone else makes even more lists than me! BOL You’re right though. It’s a great habit to have–especially for some of us that seem distracted as all get out. You just keep up with them. It’s SO fun to be able to check something off a list. Isn’t it?
The thing when the doorbell rings sounds like some kind of territorial dominance thing to me. Possibly they’re arguing over who’s going to protect you at the door?
I trust Victoria Stillwell’s ways, so maybe these would help you? http://positively.com/2011/06/04/barking-barking-barking-etc-etc-etc/ And she’s got a whole youtube channel FULL of videos where I found this one for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDarHoeN4eo&list=SP0C724F6F6A597540&index=27
I know that’s not much help with what you asked, but it’s all I’ve got. Hope you can solve it soon so it quits driving you crazy.
OMG. I have lists for everything. It drives John nuts! 🙂 I’m going to check out those resources right now. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to share!
That picture makes my heart sing. What an amazing job you have done with all four of them. Look – even the kitty is sitting on command. 😉
If you figure out how to teach them to not go bonkers at the door, I will be reading with bated breath. We have a glass front door so short of completely covering it, I have no idea how to approach it. (Plus, Bella generalizes it so she actually starts going nuts when she hears the UPS truck pull in the driveway. Hrumph.)
We did teach her “quiet” though for ordinary barking sessions (not those full-on whackadoo reactions to the mail guys). We first taught her to speak on demand so she had something relative to relate quiet to. She does it pretty well now. Except, like I said, when the postman cometh. 😉
Thanks so much, Leslie! I’m pretty proud of my little herd. For the door thing, I’m heavily in the research phase, so I’ll definitely share what I learn…
I get a little obsessed with my list making and my goals, but one thing I haven’t focused on lately is specific dog training goals. I worked on training a lot more with Ace when he was younger, and I really haven’t taught him anything new in a while. I would also like to sharpen up some of his basics like his recall and walking calmly around other dogs. He loves other dogs and tends to pull towards them, ignoring me 🙂
I’m the same way with Emmett… he does so well overall, just like Ace, that it’s easy to let it go a bit. Sharpening basics is a great way to go!
Wow great article never thought of setting goals for training. As for the door and keeping the dog calm you can try ignoring the door at 1st until all dogs are quiet and then slowly go to the door. Make sure all dogs are quiet before you let them in.