When your trainer explains what to do for training, sometimes it sounds a bit overwhelming. We start to think about how much time we have, where we have to be, and what we have to get done. But thankfully, training shouldn’t take as long as you think, especially if you have a puppy. So let's take a look at the appropriate training session length for puppies.
When puppies are young, they do not have a very long attention span and tend to sleep a lot, kind of like a human baby. Because of their short attention span, training needs to be short and sweet. The amount of time you should spend on one training session (meaning training a specific behavior with any age of dog) is three to five minutes. That is the maximum! The best option for puppies, especially if you get really good with a clicker, is thirty seconds! Yup, you heard me right, thirty seconds! The reason is that in a small amount of time, your puppy will have less time to make mistakes. When puppies, or any learner for that matter, start to get tired or worn out, they begin to make more mistakes. Those mistakes become “part of the process,” so to speak, and can hinder learning. So, set a thirty-second timer next time you train with your puppy and see how much you can get done! You need to be proficient with your clicker timing and have clean loops to do this, but it can make your training so much more effective!
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