How Long Does Dog Training Take?

“It depends” is a pretty common phrase to dog training questions, and this is the case when examining how long it takes to train new dog behaviors.

Training session length:

Each individual training session can vary in time. Many times I will train in 1-3 minute quick sessions, with a brief break and then continue for a few more sessions - each with their own break between the session times. This is a pretty common method when clicker training and shaping new behaviors - using a clicker to mark them correct specifically at that moment the behavior occurs (clicker or marker-reward training), and gradually rewarding behaviors until they reach the final goal behavior (shaping).

One of the benefits of these quick/short training sessions is it allows both the person and dog to focus on the task, and then take a break to reset.

But dogs also can focus and work for longer periods of time. Training sessions at dog guardian’s homes usually are in hour-long formats, which does equate to some time with talking and some time actually training.

Puppies sometimes need shorter training sessions.

For separation anxiety training, guardians are expected to train in 20-30 minute total session time blocks per day, 4 days per week with one additional session per week with the trainer. This is a model that has been successful for Certified Separation Anxiety Trainers.

Overall training time to teach new behaviors:

This time varies for each dog for many reasons - people may have different descriptions or expectations of a finished behavior, dogs learn at their own individual pace, some dog breeds have a genetic or hard-wired tendency for certain skills, environmental factors influence behavior, potential health factors can affect behavior, regressions are common and normal, and many more variables apply.

Also using correct training technique can speed up the process - in other words, we have to do things in an appropriate manner in order to get them to work.

Once dogs learn how the training process works, they can learn new behaviors very quickly. It’s common for dogs to throw behaviors at their people, too, in order to try to get something they want like a treat - for example, a dog who has learned a sit behavior, will often times do a very big, obvious sit right in front of people who are eating dinner. It’s basically a dog asking for something.

Positive reinforcement training (reward-training):

Once you learn new skills of how reward-training works, it’s easy to incorporate it into your daily life, whether that is in a set-timed training session, or just taking advantage of real-life situations to reward or remove rewards for certain dog behaviors to increase or decrease their frequencies.

Key reminders:

• We have to go at the learner’s (dog’s) individual pace.

• It helps to have high levels of patience.

• If we work together, I can help you get started and then it will become more evident how the process works, and will make more sense evaluating timeframes for finishing new behaviors.