Life Isn't Perfect. Go Out & Train Your Dog Whenever You Can & Have Fun.

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.

I'm really glad you made this post. I know we talk a lot in the form about the day to day with WL Shepherds, but I want everyone to make no mistake- we have more to our lives than just one dog. We are our dog's whole world, but remember, adult dogs sleep 12-14 hours a day minimum. Even more for puppies. Even for high energy dog, it is not necessary to be up in their face all day.

murph said:

I'm really glad you made this post. I know we talk a lot in the form about the day to day with WL Shepherds, but I want everyone to make no mistake- we have more to our lives than just one dog. We are our dog's whole world, but remember, adult dogs sleep 12-14 hours a day minimum. Even more for puppies. Even for high energy dog, it is not necessary to be up in their face all day.

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I view sleep & rest with our dogs the same way I do with babies. It's a skill, some are born with it and others have to learn it. This dog is learning how to sleep and he's starting to like it. LOL.

This is exactly what real life training looks like. Not perfectly optimized, not Instagram-friendly, just showing up when you can and making it count.

Short sessions are great, but context matters. You gave him structure, breaks, clarity, and fun and that’s why it worked. Two hours done thoughtfully is very different from two hours of grinding reps. You reset habits, filled his cup, and reminded both of you why this partnership matters.

That last line is the key: have fun. When the dog goes home tired, content, and sleeping hard, you did it right. Life gets busy, what matters is that you didn’t disappear, you adapted. That’s good handling.

Malakai The Great said:

This is exactly what real life training looks like. Not perfectly optimized, not Instagram-friendly, just showing up when you can and making it count.

Short sessions are great, but context matters. You gave him structure, breaks, clarity, and fun and that’s why it worked. Two hours done thoughtfully is very different from two hours of grinding reps. You reset habits, filled his cup, and reminded both of you why this partnership matters.

That last line is the key: have fun. When the dog goes home tired, content, and sleeping hard, you did it right. Life gets busy, what matters is that you didn’t disappear, you adapted. That’s good handling.

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If you're not having fun, you're not learning, you're wasting time.