In multi dog households, do you guys think that all training should be done individually or with other dogs?

To my understanding it can be distracting to have more than one together while training because they can tend to distract each other. But have you guys been ever done training with more than one in the same room?

Ive tried to do it with both in the room, but now I always seporate Neka and Patchs before any training for that very reason!!!

You have to train them separately if you want to get the reward timed just right for a desired behavior.
Once you have the basics down to a science, though, it can be fun to work with a group. I have seen dogs that will mimic another dog that seems to receive more praise from their human, which is interesting, and I've also seen seasoned dogs correct a newer dog that's not getting it right.

Ann wrote:

You have to train them separately if you want to get the reward timed just right for a desired behavior.
Once you have the basics down to a science, though, it can be fun to work with a group. I have seen dogs that will mimic another dog that seems to receive more praise from their human, which is interesting, and I've also seen seasoned dogs correct a newer dog that's not getting it right.

Wow I never really thought about mimicking and the bette trained dogs correcting those who are doing something wrong. Thats really interesting. I know that having two dogs in the same room for training might not be such a good idea because they distract each other, but I'm guessing that later on in training it might be beneficial to do so? I was thinking that advanced training need some kind of distractions so having a more than one dog in a room for training might be a good way to 'mix things up' and better condition responses.

Glad that you brought that up!

Absolutely...at some point in training you need to start throwing in distractions to proof them.
There is a huge difference, however, in training multiple dogs that live in the same household together
and training a group of dogs who are mere acquaintances together. In the first scenario they are all vieing for
their humans approval, where in a group training session, each dog is focused on it's individual owner.
Group training sessions are priceless for many reasons, in my opinion. The dog(s) are exposed to other dogs that
will look different, smell different, etc. They will experience different voices, different sounds, and learn to focus better.
Training the basics at home and then taking them to group sessions is ideal.

Sounds like an excellent idea to help better the responses when it comes to training! I definitely can see who the two scenerios have there differences... very interesting!

I think individual and combined sessions would be beneficial when training multiple pets. Individual so you can teach them something, then together with others so they can learn frmo example.

i think it is healthy and good fun for the dogs to be in competition with each other. Lucy and Faith will often copy each other...if Tania tells faith to sit Lucy will sit also having worked out there is a treat on offer! and vice versa! Faith will do what Lucy is doing too...clever dogs the pair of em...twice as many treats!!! haha...

lucysnewmum wrote:

i think it is healthy and good fun for the dogs to be in competition with each other. Lucy and Faith will often copy each other...if Tania tells faith to sit Lucy will sit also having worked out there is a treat on offer! and vice versa! Faith will do what Lucy is doing too...clever dogs the pair of em...twice as many treats!!! haha...

Haha good point! Lucy and Faith are definitely a good example of two dogs that benefit from training together. But now that I was thinking about it, do you guys think that its ever a good idea to train two dogs together if one is a resource gaurder?...Think about it...

I think it would all depend on the ability of the trainer and the dogs in question.

Tania and i are lucky that our two girls absolutely adore each other and there is no guarding of any sort going on...they share everything - much to our amazement and hilarity the other day for example, Tania and i were having coffee after a shopping trip and the two girls were having a cow hoof each! Half way through demolishing their treats they got up, moved around a bit and then swapped!!!!! we laughed so hard we nearly needed diapers!!!!!! so in our case we do not have an issue with training them together. the girls seem to enjoy the companionship on the field or wherever and we are getting some great results as each dog has a mentor.

ps... i used to train all my springer spaniels together ready for shows! i used to set up a low table in the living room and examine them like a judge would, one by one. they all used to queue up waiting for their turn!!!