The 3D’s of dog training

If you’ve ever watched your dog bolt off towards a family having a picnic, another dog, a bird or whatever while you yell their name pointlessly, you’ve probably wondered how to bridge the gap between your dog’s obedience at home vs their obedience when out.

Enter the 3Ds of dog training: Distance, Duration and Distraction. Distance: how far from the dog are you when you give the command. Duration: how long the dog is expected to hold a behaviour. Distraction: the level of excitement and interest for the dog in the environment.

The key is to only challenge one of the elements at a time, in small increments. For example, if you are working on recall, practice giving the command from a greater distance away from the dog but only in an environment that is of similar distraction level to where you normally practice. If teaching your dog to stay, increase only the time spent in the stay, then only increase your distance from the dog in a separate training session- don’t increase both how far away you are as well as how long you ask them to stay, at the same time.

Horse trainer Warwick Schiller says you need to teach your horse the answer to the question before you ask the question. The same applies to dogs. Teach them the behaviour before you need to ask for the behaviour in a challenging setting.

Setting you and your dog up for success by asking for only a slight increase in the behaviour each time will reduce frustration for both of you.