Training at home

If the problem starts at the doorbell, the best place to see it is right by your front door, because home is where many of the difficulties turn up. The instructor can watch guests arriving and what the dog does when the bell goes. They also see how it copes on the stairs or out in the yard, how it gets on with each family member, who controls access to resources and how the daily routine runs. None of that exists on neutral ground, so what you learn at home is much closer to real life.

This format often suits puppies who are just starting out and dogs that were adopted recently. It also helps dogs that get overwhelmed in new places, homes with several dogs, and people who find it hard to travel. A session can cover how the home is organised and where the dog rests. You can work on teaching the dog to like its crate and on stopping it chewing things it shouldn't. Self-control exercises and planning outings fit in here too.

Still, home isn't the only place that matters. A dog can nail an exercise in the living room and lose it completely out on the street. Once the basics are in place, you take them to other spots with more going on. The instructor can gradually move sessions round the block, then into car parks or a park, or wherever fits what you're working towards.

The whole family takes part. A lot of people expect the instructor to “work the dog” for them, but the point of the visit is to show you how to repeat things properly. The instructor leaves when the session ends; the dog stays with you. If one person says “off”, another says “down” and a third lets the dog on the sofa anyway, the dog is getting rules that clash and can't work out which one counts. A good session finishes with a simple plan. You leave with short exercises and know which signs tell you you're making progress.

It's worth considering for puppies at the start of their education and for dogs that shut down in new places. The same goes for problems around the door, visitors, resting or life in the house in general.

The instructor seeing your home doesn't mean every problem gets fixed in one visit. The setting shows them the context. Change comes from the practice you put in over the following days.

You start by talking through the dog's history and what you want to achieve. Then the instructor watches the dog, without needlessly setting off the problem behaviour.

Next come a few simple exercises, shown on the spot. You finish with a work plan and a clear way to check progress.

Watch the dog: it'll show you how it's finding the visit. If it avoids the instructor, gets wound up when someone goes near the door or can't settle, it's under pressure. Another sign is when it stops responding even to light cues it normally does without thinking.

So you're not making it up on the day, get a list ready of the situations that give you trouble, along with the dog's daily schedule. Put out its usual rewards and the gear you normally take on walks. If there's anything going on health-wise, or the dog is on treatment, write down the relevant medical information.

A serious instructor looks at the context first and only then makes recommendations. They involve the family and give you exercises you will manage to repeat on a normal day. The goals are realistic and you can see them, so you know when you've reached one. They'll tell you what criterion they're asking of the dog and when they'll raise it. They'll also explain how and when to reward.

The big win is that the exercises get tied to your real routine. What the dog learns at home still has to be generalised to other places later, or it only works indoors.

Home training doesn't replace a veterinary assessment. It also can't recreate every outdoor situation inside the house. A few risks need talking about from the start. One is winding the dog up just so the problem shows for the demonstration. Another is family members expecting different things. And there's the risk of overlooking a possible medical cause.