Training should be at the top of every responsible dog owner’s to-do list. Dogs deserve to be taught how to successfully navigate our human world, and effective dog training reduces nuisance behaviors while promoting public safety.

Plus, training is a great bonding activity, and trained dogs (and the humans who love them) have more fun! When your dog is well-trained, you’re more likely to include him in your adventures—from lunches with friends at dog-friendly eateries to road trip, fun dog sports and more!

What Is DIY Dog Training?

DIY dog training is teaching and managing your dog’s behavior independently instead of relying on a professional trainer. It involves using everyday routines and short training session to help your dog learn basic behaviors.

Is DIY Training Right for You?

Every dog can benefit from DIY dog training when it comes to the basics. And the truth is, even when you attend a group class or work one-on-one with a trainer, you—the owner—are still the one doing most of the training. The trainer’s job is to train you, so you can practice with—and train—your dog!

DIY training plans are best suited to teaching skills that promote manners, civility, and basic safety when in public. If you’re trying to rehab a dog who grossly lacks these skills—or who struggles with anxiety or aggression issues—we recommend consulting a qualified positive-reinforcement trainer for help.

Basic Principles of Successful Dog Training

Modern dog training centers on the principle of positive reinforcement—the act of adding something pleasant (a reward) after a desired behavior occurs. Simply put, behaviors that are rewarded will be repeated. Rewards can be anything your dog enjoys: treats, praise, petting, chasing a ball, a game of tug, a good sniff in the bushes, and more.

Being mindful of the following will help set you and your dog up for success:

• Consistency Counts. Dogs love to gamble. If something works occasionally, they’re more likely to keep trying. If you’re trying to teach your dog not to jump up on you, your family, and your guests, you need to maintain this expectation across the board to be fair and prevent confusion. It may seem cute and cuddly when he jumps up on a Saturday morning and you’re in your pajamas, but it won’t be so cute when his feet are muddy and you’re dressed for work! Make sure everyone in the family is on the same page to uphold clear and consistent expectations.
• Timing is Everything. Aim to deliver the reward (the treat, the toy, etc.) within two seconds of your dog performing correctly. This helps your dog connect the reward to the behavior. Be mindful of what’s happening as you deliver the reward. For example, if you’re working on “sit,” it’s best to reward your dog while her hind-end is on the floor. If you take too long to deliver the reward, she may sit, then stand. At that point, you’re likely rewarding a sit-stand combination.
• Practice Often. DIY dog training is most successful when we practice a little and often. A few short, five-minute sessions per day is great. It’s also helpful to sneak in a little training during daily interactions that happen outside of set practice sessions. Mealtime is a great opportunity to practice a short sit-stay. A game of fetch is a great opportunity to practice “sit,” “down,” or any other known, easy behavior to teach your dog that performing successfully is what winds you up for the next toss.
• Be Patient. Nothing kills the joy of a great training session like frustration. If you feel yourself getting frustrated, STOP. When we get frustrated, our tone of voice and body language changes. Dogs are masters at reading body language, and these expressions of frustration can damage trust and cause the dog to associate training with stress rather than success.

There’s nothing wrong with ending a session early. Ask for and reward an easy behavior your dog knows or simply declare that you’re done for the moment and excitedly remind your dog that he’s the best boy and you’ll try again later.

When cooler heads prevail, give some thought to what happened earlier. Was your dog distracted? Were either of you not feeling your best? Did you ask for more than your dog was ready for? This troubleshooting will help you set realistic expectations for your next training session.

Core Skills to Teach Your Dog at Home

The following skills are particularly well suited to DIY training, and they each offer benefits that extend beyond the basic commands:

• Name Recognition. Teaching your dog to orient to you when she hears her name is a key skill because having your dog’s attention greatly increases the odds of success when asking for subsequent behaviors. Plus, it’s a great way to redirect your dog from potential poor life choices or hazardous situations.
• A “sit” is simple to teach, useful in a variety of everyday situations, and serves as a foundation for more complex behaviors like greeting people calmly.
• A reliable “down” is the first step toward teaching your dog to settle. It helps build impulse control, is a useful position for waiting—like when you’re on a walk and want to stop and chat with a neighbor—and when built into a reliable down-stay on a bed or mat, it can help prevent unwanted behaviors like bothering guests or counter surfing when you’re cooking.
• Tug Games. Tug is a great way to build engagement with your dog. You can use the game to practice skills like “take it” and “drop it” while building impulse control by asking for a “sit,” “down” or any known behavior to turn the game back on. This structured approach helps keep the game safe while giving your dog an appropriate outlet for natural tugging instincts.

Avoid the “But He Does It at Home!” Trap

When embarking on a DIY training plan, be sure to slowly build up to practicing skills in new environments and around new distractions. With each new location or set of distractions, adjust your expectations and make it easier for your dog to get it right. A well-run group class can be a great place to practice around distractions!

Final Thoughts on DIY Dog Training

DIY dog training is an accessible and rewarding way to strengthen your relationship with your dog while building confidence and good habits. Start with the basics, celebrate small successes, practice in new areas as your dog is ready and turn to a professional trainer for troubleshooting or to explore more advanced skills. Together, these steps can help you raise a well-mannered canine companion you’ll be excited to spend time with.

Ask most people what to teach a new dog first and they’ll say sit, stay, and loose-leash walking. Certified dog trainer and Whole Dog Journal contributor Jae Thomas has a different answer. In this interview with Kate O’Connor, she makes the case for three foundations that come before any of the basic cues.

Start with settling

Before sit or stay, Jae teaches a dog how to settle and calm down on their own. High-energy dogs often don’t come with a built-in off switch, and teaching one early – with a crate, pen, tether, or place bed – is what lets you travel with your dog or take them into public without a fight. Depending on the dog, it can take a few days to a few months, and settling loose in a busy house can be an ongoing project into adulthood.

Build engagement

Engagement is your dog choosing to pay attention to you because they want to, not because they feel forced. Jae calls it the foundation of both the relationship and every other skill: a dog who finds you rewarding is far easier to teach and far more willing to work through distractions. The key is noticing and rewarding the moments your dog offers engagement, rather than demanding it.

Teach your dog how to learn

The third foundation is teaching a dog how to learn at all: present a clear criterion, mark the moment they get it with a clicker or a word like “yes,” then reinforce with something they value. Jae leans on choice-based, shaping-style training, where the dog offers behaviors and gets rewarded for good choices – because, as she puts it, dogs do what works.

Where owners go wrong

The most common mistake, Jae says, is pouring energy into socialization and basic cues while skipping the one-on-one relationship that makes any of it stick. The other is forcing things – getting in a dog’s face to demand attention, or shoving a dog into a crate and calling it crate training. Settling, engagement, and learning all have to be the dog’s choice.

Precision when it counts

None of this means letting safety behaviors slide. A recall, a sit-stay, and polite leash walking still need to be proofed until they’re reliable. The experimentation and fun come on top of those, not instead of them – and the handler’s job is to stay clear about which is which.

Jae Thomas is a certified dog trainer and a Whole Dog Journal author.

Dog training between basic and advanced is sometimes referred to as “intermediate dog training.” Intermediate dog training means you are starting to add distractions to basic cues and expanding on basic cues. Note: We use the term cue, not command. The term command creates a different mindset than rewards-based training we focus on.

Basic cues usually include sit, down, and touch as well as the beginnings of a recall. Adding cues or even behaviors that don’t need a cue can include an automatic leave it, adding distance to a recall, walking in partnership, and starting on a go to place cue.  These are all considered intermediate dog training exercises that can help your dog focus better with distractions around such as happening when out and about in this thing that we call life.

Before I go further, I want to add the caveat that this article is solely discussing what is known traditionally as obedience, but what we now call manners training. If you have a dog who is reactive and/or fearful when out in public, this is not the article for you. Instead, you should consider desensitization.

Intermediate Dog Training Means Proofing

We want to first make sure that the behaviors that you want to proof for distractions are solidly known and performed. Proofing is adding the ability to perform/hold a cued behavior with excitement around the dog. I generally go from house to yard, if your yard is not wide open with a bunch of distractions of course.

You may have to increase the value of the food rewards that you use outside until your dog is more focused on the cues that you are working with. My general go-to with adding in the first intermediate dog training step is practicing the cues that your dog likes best.

For example, both my dogs know touch well, and they understand here here means come to me. My Chow Chow Meri loves to perform tent, which means that she should station herself between my legs. She also loves say hi, which is her permission to jump up on me. Both dogs love spin. These are good yard cue practices.

Once you get these basic cues solidly performed in the second to boring locale, then you can start taking it on the road. I often use a touch or tent on a walk with Meri. With Keric, my Caucasian Shepherd, he does well with touch and with me, which is basically a heeling exercise.

Intermediate Dog Training Reality

The best intermediate dog training tip that I can give you is to not go too fast and to take stock of what is happening in the environment. Be realistic about what you are asking for. Each dog is an individual and their interest levels in what they see or smell will vary. Know your dog.  Intermediate dog training is a wonderful next step beyond the basics as well as a necessary component on your path to advanced dog training.