Many dog owners wonder how to train multiple dogs at once perhaps in hopes of saving time and effort; however, when it comes to dog training, cutting corners may yield only unsatisfactory results. It is important that, in the initial stages of training, each dog is provided with attention until he or she grasps the concept, and then, only then, other dogs can be brought into the picture. The more dogs in a household, the more crucial it is that all dogs are well-trained and well-behaved. The effort and time invested in providing initial individual training will quickly pay off that day you’ll be announcing a cue to the “chore” and all your dogs will readily respond together.
Why Train a Dog at a Time?
Training a dog requires giving the dog lots of individual attention, especially initially. You will need to pay attention to what the dog does, concentrate on his progress and have a strategy in mind if things don’t go as planned. On top of this, you need to focus on the dog’s body language for signs of motivation, eagerness or tiring or stress.
While there are many training methods nowadays, a popular one that yields fast results is luring, where a treat is used as a guide to get the dog perform a desired behavior and then the treat is given as reinforcement. It would be close to impossible using two hands to lure two untrained dogs side-by-side without creating confusion.
Additionally, you would not be able to accurately use a clicker or verbal marker since both dogs will likely perform the desired behavior at different times.
Another consideration is that, in the initial stages of training, it is important to start training in an area free of distractions. To one dog, the presence of another dog or more dogs, is a strong distraction.
Especially considering the fact that, when dogs are together, they often feed on each other’s emotions. If one dog is reactive to a noise, you will likely have the dog you are training ditch you to go check out things out with his buddy. You are then left with no dogs to train as distractions have won over you.
Not to mention dogs who tend to compete for attention. In a dog training scenario, competition may involve a dog owner’s attention with the added bonus of the presence of a odoriferous treat bag clipped to belt. Intrusions are almost a certainty with these dogs, with them getting in between repeatedly if no measures are taken to keep these dogs under control and out of the way.
Creating a Training Area
When starting to train your dogs, create a training area. When you first start training, you will need to work in an area that is rather dull or boring so that you become the most salient stimulus in the room with no competing distractions. Start indoors in a quiet room away from windows or noisy areas.
Select one dog to work with. In the meanwhile, you will have to find a way to keep the other dogs out of the way. You can keep your other dogs in another room, behind a baby gate, in their crates, tethered or in the yard. If you choose to crate them, you can provide the non-working dogs with a safe chew toy or food-dispensing toy to keep busy. They’ll soon look forward to the training routine without getting frustrated waiting their turn to be trained.
If you choose to use a see-through baby gate, from where your dogs can watch you train, consider that they may get frustrated and impatient and this may lead to barking which can be a major distraction. If your dogs though are able to stay calm, reap the benefit of having them observe your training. Studies have shown that dogs learn faster if they watch other dogs being trained. On top of this, by watching, the motivation for the non-working dogs will increase by the time it’s their turn.
If your dogs have had some basic training and know how to hold a solid down stay on a mat, you can teach them to patiently wait their turns, laying on the mat, as you train each dog individually. You can occasionally pause training and drop a treat on the non-working dogs’ mats every now and then to reward them for being chill.
The order in which you train is important. While it’s good to vary, watch how your dogs are behaving and choose accordingly. If you have one dog who shows signs of frustration or impatience more than others (whining, pacing, barking, scratching himself often) make sure you ignore him (tune him out completely) and go get him as soon as he is calmer. He should soon grasp the concept that patience pays off.
Please note: if you have multiple dogs, you can enlist the help of other family members to help train each dog individually and even in the same room mimicking the group classes trainers hold. In such a case, make sure that all members are on the same page as to training methods and verbal cues used.
Adding One Dog at a Time
So now you have trained each dog individually and they all have shown signs of grasping the concept of what is being asked. You have faded the food lures, stopped using the clicker and your dog rapidly responds to your cue. Each dog has demonstrated the proficiency of being able to respond in the training area, but also in the yard and on walks (which by the way should be done individually too, more on this soon).
What time is it now? Time to add another dog. Which dog should you add though? You may be far better off picking your most proficient dog, and then adding in your next proficient one and so forth. Once you are done mixing up the dogs in combos of two, further raise criteria, and add a further dog until you have your dogs in a group.
At that point, you can use an attention grabbing cue such as “dogs” (a cue that will come to signify that all dogs must collectively respond) followed by your verbal cue such as “sit” or “down.” You can then reward the fastest dogs to comply working down to the slowest ones.
Group training works wonderfully for important cues such as waiting before you open a door, responding to a smacking sound when the postal carrier approaches, asking your dogs to do a group sit/stay or down/stay and then releasing them and calling your dogs (watch them competing rushing towards you!) and for great holiday group pictures.
A Word About Walks
Many owners of multiple-dog households dream about walking all their dogs calmly with all dogs walking on a loose leash. This is easier said than done though. The truth is, a group walk with all dogs behaving nicely takes time, and it can’t be accomplished until each dog has mastered the art of polite leash walking on an individual basis.
To better understand why this is quite a difficult task consider that training a dog to walk nicely on leash requires careful monitoring of what the dog is doing. If the dog is pulling ahead, you will have to stop in your tracks to prevent rewarding the pulling, then get your dog back into heel position and start walking again as long as the leash is nice and loose. I like to call this training method as the brake/accelerator system. A tense leash is your break and a loose leash is your accelerator.
It is close to impossible to provide this feedback with clarity if you have one dog who is pulling while the other is walking nicely by your side. On top of this, if both dogs are pulling ahead, having both dogs return to you in heel position could lead to annoying tangling of the leashes.
And then you have the emotional side of things. On walks, untrained dogs are likely to react to certain stimuli. Perhaps a squirrel or perhaps another dog or just sniffing areas where other dogs have marked. Each dog is very quick feeding off the emotions of the other dog. All it takes is for one dog to prick his ears and watch attentively, and the other dog is on high alert in a split second and then you’re left with dogs pulling you full force.
Again, train each dog individually (or have a family member/family members walk one dog per person) so that you can work on polite loose leash walking giving one-on-one attention first. It may take time to proof against salient distractions and you may find a need to invest in special walking tools such as front-attachment harness or head halters.
Exceptions to the Rules
As with almost everything in life, there are exceptions to any general rules. In some cases, dogs can be trained as a group from the get-go, but usually this is the case in dogs whose cues have already been partially trained or the cues in question are extra easy to train with little effort (like say a “watch” cue in a low distraction area) or the person training is experienced or is just one of those one-of-a-kind folks who just gets a kick from challenges.
Of course, there may be countless owners reading this who were capable of training their dogs to walk nicely on a leash as a group from the get-go, and don’t see much of it as being a problem, but these are for the most part exceptions, as the process is most cases isn’t smooth and dogs will be pulling left and right eventually at some point coming the right trigger.