The 3 D’s of Dog Training

How’s your dogs ‘wait’ at home? What about at the park? And at the beach? You might have found that your dog can listen to you and follow cue’s perfectly at home, but seems to struggle when you head out. That’s where understanding the 3 D’s of Dog Training comes in. These are distance, distractions and duration. Whenever we are teaching our dog a new behaviour and asking them to do it in a new place, we have to take the 3 D’s into consideration. Dogs struggle to generalise behaviours to new places. So if you train a Down, Stay at home and they can successfully stay whilst you walk 10 metres away, don’t expect them to be able to do the same somewhere else straight away. In this post, I’ll break down what the 3 D’s of dog training are, how they can affect the success of our training and where most people go wrong. 

Distractions

Distractions refer to what is going on around your dog when you ask them to do a behaviour. Every dog will have different things they find to be distracting. Common distractions include other dogs, people and prey animals like birds or squirrels. For example, you might find your dog’s recall is great at home but they seem to forget all about you when you go to the park. This is because the number of distractions has massively increased. 

The key to improving your dog’s training, especially recall, around distractions is to build up the level of distraction slowly. So practise at home, in a quiet, low distraction environment. Then practise in the garden, where there are slightly more distractions. Then outside the front door. Then in the front garden, driveway or just outside your home. Then at the park when it’s quiet. Then, lastly, practise when there are a number of distractions around like the park on a busy day. 

Duration

Duration refers to how long they can maintain a behaviour. The longer you ask them to do the behaviour, the harder it is for your dog. Not all behaviours have a duration factor. These include a spin or a jump. 

For example, you might be working on a down stay with your dog. To teach this successfully, you will want to build up the duration of time you ask them to remain in the down stay for in seconds. So you would cue ‘down, stay’, wait for 2  seconds then mark and reward. You can read more about marking behaviour here.  You can then repeat the cue and wait for 5 seconds. Then 8 seconds, 10 seconds and so on. It’s important to randomise how long you ask your dog to remain in position for so they don’t think they’ll always be waiting for longer and longer periods. Your dog is likely to get bored and frustrated like this. So in the down stay example, you would have them stay for 3 second, then 5 seconds, then 10 seconds, then 7 seconds and so on. 

Distance

Distance refers to how far away you are from your dog when you ask them to do a behaviour. The further you are away from your dog, the harder it is for them to do the behaviour. Distance can be a particularly challenging parameter for training as you can’t reward your dog immediately with them at distance. 

For example, you might be working on training your dog to sit at a distance. You’ll want to cue them to sit with them right in front of you. Then mark and reward them. You can then release them or ask them to stand if they know this behaviour. Then take a step away from your dog. Not a big lunge back, just a regular step! Then ask your dog to sit again. Mark this behaviour, then return to them to reward or toss a treat for them to catch. You can continue to build on this process by taking steps back each time. If your dog is struggling, take smaller steps and build up to greater distances. You can also place little markers on the floor with masking tape so you know exactly how far away you are getting from your dog. 

The 3 D’s of Dog Training

If your dog gets frustrated, loses focus, moves away or gives up on the training you’re doing with them, you are likely asking too much of them. Take a step back and practise at the last point at which your dog was successful. Think about how you can break it down into smaller steps that your dog can succeed at- known as splitting. If your dog could do a down stay for 5 seconds but got up and walked away after 10 seconds, try 7 seconds in your next session. 
You’ll also want to train each of the 3 D’s separately. So master your dog’s recall at a distance, then go back to a short distance when you add in distractions and so on.

What next?

• Looking for one to one dog training? Contact us to arrange in person or online training.
• Read more blog posts here.
• Perfect Recall: Teaching your dog to come back when called every time. Our guide is free to download when you join our email list- sign up here.