Own more than one dog??
And wonder how to train them all?? It is possible. Many owners have two dogs. This way they keep each other company and out of trouble. Or at least we hope.
But there’s a few households out there that have more than two dogs – like FOUR dogs!! And it can be difficult to keep up with them especially if they aren’t trained. So how do you train four dogs at once? You use two two-dog e-collar systems to train the basics and then work them all together to test their ability to resist distractions.
In our featured video this week, we are showing how “place” works with four dogs. As long as all the dogs remain on place, even if they move around as you see in the video, they are doing what we’ve asked them to do. They are staying on place even though there is movement.
They didn’t just start like this. We approach multi-dog household training just like we do one-dog household training – at the beginning. We make sure each dog understands the basics of the command and what we are asking them to do. In this case, we ask the dog to stay on a designated place for a period of time until we release them from their position.
Once each dog understands the command through practice, we test them with a few distractions. Things like walking away, walking through a door, sitting down for a while, just enough to test their ability to stay on place.
Then we graduate to multi-dog training where we work all the dogs together. Since they all live together, it is important for them to learn that just because they are all together doesn’t mean they get to be crazy!
They will forever be in this stage: practicing and reinforcing the place command together.
Training is a lifeline process, not just a one-time thing. These pups will do amazing and have learned an important skill that will give them freedom. Because when mom (and dad) are calm and less stressed, the pups get to play!
