With the summer holidays being here, many of us will be looking at a change of routine. This can be a bit of an adjustment both for us and our pets! Maybe the summer, for you, means much more available time to spend with your dog or maybe you’re worried it’s going to throw off your rhythm and make it tricky to fit in the regular training and time together that you know your pup needs and deserves. Whatever the situation, we’re here to help with our top tips for how to incorporate training into the summer holidays.
Kettle Training
No matter what you have planned for the day, we can ALL find a couple of minutes to do some training with our dogs. Kettle training is perfect – you don’t need to set aside a chunk of your day, simply grab the treats out of the fridge and get a few reps in while you wait for the kettle to boil! You can also do this while you wait for your toast to pop up or the microwave to ding!
Check Out New Environments
Taking our dogs somewhere new is great enrichment for dogs of any age and can be a great part of socialising our younger dogs. We know it can sometimes be tricky to break out of our daily routine and get our dogs out on trips like these, so many the most of the holidays by planning trips out to new places where your dog can tag along. This will have the added benefit of giving you a peaceful evening, as all the excitement should lead to a tired dog who is happy to go to bed when you get home!
Join Summer Courses
We absolutely love bringing quality, exciting and enjoyable training to you and your dogs. We know that many of you wish you had more time to spend with your dogs – so make the most of the summer by joining our incredible summer courses such as our Fun
Gundog and
Scent Detectives courses at our Barham site or our Ultimate Lead Walking and Ultimate Recall masterclasses held in Ipswich, Martlesham and Colchester! These courses are designed to make training easy and fun for everyone and we know you’ll be amazed at what you and your dogs can achieve together this summer.
Enrichment at Home
Find new ways to have fun with your dogs by providing novel enrichment activities at home! From new toys from the shop, homemade treats, interactive puzzle feeders or frozen snacks, there’s no end to the fun you can provide without even leaving the house. A paddling pool on a warm day or a ball or sand pit always go down a treat, and foraging games are a brilliant way to get our dogs using their noses. Try something as simple as scattering food across the lawn or wrapping kibble up in an old towel for them to snuffle through, or get creative with shreddable cardboard contraptions! If we’re lucky enough to get some warm weather, check out our blog on keeping your dog cool so they can enjoy the sunny days safely and comfortably, too!
Training at Home
School might be out for the kids but the dogs don’t know that – if you and your pup and missing your weekly classes, stay in touch and keep progressing by joining our Dogversity online learning school! With 250+ professional training tutorials, you can search for exercises you feel like working on or you can work through our courses such as the Dogploma, Dogree or even our online Scent Detectives course! Sign up to become a VIP member now and you also get access to our exclusive, members-only facebook community where you can get help and support from our team of experts and take part in regular live sessions with our behaviourist and founder, Zoe! https://www.bestbehaviourdogtraining.co.uk/dogversity-online
