When deciding to add a dog to their household, most people immediately consider how they will teach him. Whether you intend to keep your new best buddy as a pet or enter him into a competition, he will benefit from training.
These days, you can choose from a wide variety of training options, such as individual sessions with a trainer, group classes, and even online tutorials and lectures. Given so many alternatives, it can be challenging to choose between training your dog at home and in a group setting.
Advantages of Home Training
There are several advantages to training at home, which should not be overlooked. To begin with, you’ll have far more leeway in arranging your work hours to accommodate your other commitments and responsibilities in life.
There are typically many more open hours with trainers who give in-home courses than there are with those who only teach in groups. With online classes, you can get your education whenever it works for you, even if that’s 3 in the morning.
Not only may you exercise whenever it’s most convenient for you, but the content of your at-home sessions can be modified to meet your individual needs, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach of a group class.
If your dog has a habit of running out the door or barking at the neighbor’s cat, for example, you can focus on modifying just those habits.
You’re free to go at your own pace, pausing to think about a command more thoroughly if you need to. At the same time, dog training at home can be a lifeline for dogs that are easily distracted or reactive in a group situation.
When you train your new puppy at home, you can begin instruction immediately, however in group programmes, your dog will likely need to be fully vaccinated before enrolling. It is true that the risk of your older dog contracting kennel cough or another contagious illness is reduced when you train him or her at home.
Negatives of Home-Based Exercise Routines
In-home dog training, like any other practise, is not without its drawbacks. One major negative is that your puppy is missing out on valuable opportunities to socialise and become accustomed to being around other dogs, which is important whether you plan on conducting therapy work, competing, or even just taking him for walks in the park.
One more drawback is that your dog isn’t learning to listen to you while you’re outside the house, when there are many more distractions. Over time, he’ll have to figure out how to listen in a noisy setting. If he is trained at home, he will not be subjected to this.
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Mutual education is another opportunity lost. You can learn from the experiences of other dog owners as you observe them interacting with their pets and ask the instructor questions.
Your dog and you may be having trouble with the trainer’s approach to teaching a new habit, but another student in the class may have found success with a different approach.
You should choose the course of action that is best for your dog, but there is room for both. Training at home can help keep distractions to a minimum, so do that at first. Once he has mastered basic commands, you can move him on to group lessons.
Private facility training can be a great intermediary step for dogs with behavioural issues like reactivity or anxiety.
Despite the novelty of the setting, neither you nor your dog need fear the presence of any other visitors. Consult an expert trainer if you need help deciding what to do. That’s not the first time for them!
