Find dog advice
Start typing to search.
Show all resultsLife with dogs, made clearer
Core everyday skills for a dog of any age starting structured training for the first time.
Beginner lessons build the behaviours that make daily life workable: coming back when called, walking without pulling, settling when asked and accepting handling.
These lessons suit an adult dog new to training as much as an adolescent who has outgrown the puppy stage. They assume nothing beyond a dog who will take food from your hand.
16 free lessons
Work through these in sequence. Each lesson states what your dog should already be able to do before you start it.
Teach the dog to look at your face on request, the foundation skill every other beginner lesson builds on.
Open the lesson
Build a reliable return from a distance using a long line, so the dog never rehearses ignoring you.
Open the lesson
Teach the dog where to walk beside you, starting indoors and building to a quiet street without pulling.
Open the lesson
Teach a cue that turns the dog and moves them away with you, used proactively before a distraction becomes a problem.
Open the lesson
Build the foundation of a cue that stops the dog in their tracks, starting close and stationary before adding movement and distance.
Open the lesson
Teach the dog to lie down on a mat and stay relaxed there, first at home and later in busier places.
Open the lesson
The framework behind every lesson in this pathway, for raising difficulty one variable at a time without the behaviour falling apart.
Open the lesson
Two everyday impulse control cues, taught separately, for pausing at doors and ignoring things on the ground.
Open the lesson
Turn an occasional food trade into a genuine drop cue that holds up even with a dog's favourite toy or something picked up on a walk.
Open the lesson
Extend a dog's doorway wait past a quiet internal door to the real distraction of the doorbell, a visitor's voice and open air.
Open the lesson
Teach the dog to keep four feet on the floor when visitors arrive, building from a quiet hallway to a real doorstep.
Open the lesson
Teach a dog to wait calmly for their bowl and stay out from under the table, without encouraging begging in the first place.
Open the lesson
Set clear rules for tug and fetch so play stays fun for both of you and never tips into overexcitement or snatching.
Open the lesson
Teach the dog to opt in to grooming touches using a start button, building from a brief shoulder touch to real brush strokes.
Open the lesson
Extend cooperative-care handling to the specific touches, surfaces and waiting-room situations a veterinary visit involves.
Open the lesson
Proof indoor name response and attention against a structured ladder of real outdoor distraction, closing out the beginner pathway.
Open the lesson