I’ll start with a confession. Loose lead walking is an absolute nightmare and it’s not something I care about maintaining with my own dog. I feel it’s only fair to add that he only weighs 6.5kgs!

I love training with my dog. I love watching him figure out what I’m trying to achieve and I love how much he loves getting things right. But with my own dog, I’ve really got to be in the mood to train. Whatever we’re working on has to be really important to me, whether that’s because it’s a vital life skill or because I want a silly video for Instagram, I’ve got to care enough to work on it.

So, which behaviours are important to me?

First and foremost, for my dog right now, letting go of things is THE most important skill he has. If there’s something in his reach, he will pick it up, if it’s not in his reach, he will find a way to get to it. We try with ‘leave it’ but I am very rarely quick enough so a ‘drop’ is so needed for us. It’s something we practice a lot and we keep it fun, things Skeeter finds are very precious to him, so his history of letting things go has to be positive. I’d say the next on my list of priorities is recall. Hardly a surprise that we love our walks and he loves being off burying his head in tufts of grass, so it goes without saying that I need him to come back to me when I ask.

Not everything that is important to me has much use in the real world, but a behaviour I love and reward a lot is his chin target, because there’s not a photo in the world that can’t be made cuter by asking him to rest his head down.

Like I said, they don’t all have to be life skills, just whatever is important to you!

We could keep going with this list of behaviours that are important for me and my dog all day long and it would be a very long time before I get to loose lead walking. For anyone who hasn’t had the joy of meeting Mr Skeeter, he is a 6.5kg Jack Russell/Poodle cross. He’s tiny and I swear he’s got hollow legs! With all the will in the world, he isn’t going to pull me over. He naturally doesn’t pull a great deal, mainly when he gets a sniff he needs to cock his leg on, boys eh?

So how do you stick to your training plan without making yourself miserable?

Firstly, pick your timings. If you’re in a rush and need to post a letter, don’t try and loose lead walk your dog to the post box and back, you won’t have time, you’ll give up and let your dog pull you there and your training will suffer.

If you’ve had an absolute nightmare day at work, it’s raining and you’re hungry, don’t bother. Drive somewhere fun and have an adventure on a long line instead. If you’re not in the mood, your training will suffer!

Also consider whether your dog is in the mood, as I said hormones and growing can wreak havoc with your plan. If you can see your dog just isn’t feeling it, maybe it’s windy, maybe it’s bin day, maybe the window cleaner has been, maybe their teeth are sore, the list goes on. But either way, that dog right there just might not be in the mood work with you and guess what? Your training will suffer!

It’s okay to say ‘not today’ and try again tomorrow.

But to stick with the lead walking example, what’s not okay is to let your dog pull you today because you’re not in the mood and then tomorrow expect them to walk nicely. Talk about mixed messages!

More importantly, it’s okay to decide something is not important to you and admit that you’re simply never going to train it.

Recall is important, even if you never plan to let your dog off lead. Accidents happen and your dog needs to know to come back to you. So I’d say this one is non-negotiable.

A ‘leave it’ and/or a ‘drop’ is a potential life saver. With so many things in our home that can do harm to our dogs, we need to teach these behaviours to keep them safe, again I’d say pretty much not up for discussion.

Lead walking though, I reckon there’s more of a conversation to be had there. Is your dog pulling so hard it’s choking itself? You’re going to need to work on that. Is your tiny puppy going to grow to be huge? Again, that’s going to need your attention. Maybe your elderly parent is going to be walking your 10kg dog, you might not mind the pulling, but I bet your parents will.

Why am I saying all of this?

I firmly believe a lot of the problems pet dog owners have with their dog are caused by the human not knowing what they want from their dog.

What would I like you to do about it?

Humour me, write a list of the behaviours that are important to you. Then as a side note to that list, maybe write the ones that you see other people teach, but that mean nothing to you.

Then finally, be honest about what you’re prepared to work on.

Discuss it with everyone who is going to be involved in the dog’s life. What matters you, might not to others and what you couldn’t care less for, might be top of the list for someone else.

These creases need to be ironed out.

To new puppy owners, don’t feel the pressure to have a dog that can do it all. I had lady in class say ‘oh do we not have to train that if we don’t want to?’ It’s okay if you don’t want to, it’s okay if you just can’t be bothered, because it’s just not that important to you, we know it’s hard work, especially if you won’t reap the rewards! Focus on what matters to you, what keeps your dog safe, what helps your dog fit seamlessly into your life.