- Sep 10, 2025
- 299
- 370
My son started highschool this year and my wife teaches. I had a lot of plans for what I wanted to do with my dog but then life got in the way. It's been a tremendously busy fall/winter for me.
Between my wife's schedule, my son's extracurricular activities and my stressful job, I'm not putting any quality time in with my dog during the week.
He gets a brief walk in the morning and a play session when I get home and that's about it. We do a little more on the weekends but frankly I'm tired and I haven't put much effort into any training.
Today I made it point to put some actual, effective and meaningful work in. Conventional opinion says "short sessions are best" and I agree with that, especially in the learning phase. But, I wanted to take advantage of my lone day off.
We left the house at 8:30 this morning. We got to our training area at 9:15. (It was 30° outside but sunny and nice) We started off with on-leash obedience, took a break. Then we had a play session. Took another break. Then we worked on off-leash obedience and took another break. Then we went for an on-leash walk, finished the walk off-leash, played again and then finished up for the day.
The whole thing lasted a little over two hours. I addressed some bad habits I let creep in, the dog had an absolute blast and it turned into one of my best training sessions in a very long time.
We got home around 1:00 and I rewarded him with two whole chicken legs. He's been laying around sleeping ever since.
Ignore conventional opinion, do your own thing, make time for your dog, and most importantly HAVE FUN.
Between my wife's schedule, my son's extracurricular activities and my stressful job, I'm not putting any quality time in with my dog during the week.
He gets a brief walk in the morning and a play session when I get home and that's about it. We do a little more on the weekends but frankly I'm tired and I haven't put much effort into any training.
Today I made it point to put some actual, effective and meaningful work in. Conventional opinion says "short sessions are best" and I agree with that, especially in the learning phase. But, I wanted to take advantage of my lone day off.
We left the house at 8:30 this morning. We got to our training area at 9:15. (It was 30° outside but sunny and nice) We started off with on-leash obedience, took a break. Then we had a play session. Took another break. Then we worked on off-leash obedience and took another break. Then we went for an on-leash walk, finished the walk off-leash, played again and then finished up for the day.
The whole thing lasted a little over two hours. I addressed some bad habits I let creep in, the dog had an absolute blast and it turned into one of my best training sessions in a very long time.
We got home around 1:00 and I rewarded him with two whole chicken legs. He's been laying around sleeping ever since.
Ignore conventional opinion, do your own thing, make time for your dog, and most importantly HAVE FUN.
