Posted on by Janet Eriksson

National Dog Training (and Naptime) Month

A blog post by Josiah, the training, napping Yorkie puppy

Did you know January is National Train Your Dog Month?

In my world, every day is Train Your Dog day.

Miss Janet always has me working on a training project. Right now, I’m learning stair descent, indoor free roam, and “Hush.” That last one is a little annoying: I have a lot to say! But I’m doing great on the other projects.

I’m doing great with my indoor free roam training. I’m not allowed to jump on or off the furniture yet because I’m still growing. But I’m sizing it all up!

I bet you didn’t know that naptime is a very important part of puppy training. Naptime is very valuable to me, and I do it well. Let me fill you in on why naptime is so important for puppy training:

  • When I nap, my brain sorts, analyzes, and files away everything I learned in my training session.
  • Naptime teaches me that being calm is the most important result of training.
Naptime helps me stay calmer, so I can focus on training well.
  • Naptime is a great boundary for my training sessions: start and finish. When I start rested and end on a good note, I grow in confidence.
  • My naps help me learn how to self-regulate. Sometimes I get too wound up. If I keep training while I’m wound up, I’ll have a meltdown. Napping helps me regulate my behavior.
  • Naptime helps prevent bad decisions while training. If I decided to turn free roam training into chewing on furniture, that would be a big setback. Naps help me stay focused on doing the next right thing.
I make better, more careful decisions after a good nap.
  • Consistent naps make training sessions work well. It’s better for me to have five minutes of successful “sits,” followed by a nap, then 20 minutes of cranky, restless attempts at sitting.
  • Naps protect my growing body, so I can do those training moves safely and effectively. While I am still learning the upper staircase steps, my descent on the bottom nine is flawless. I owe that to lots of healthy naps.
  • Naptime builds trust. When Miss Janet keeps my training sessions short and transitions me to a nap afterward, I know she truly understands me. So I trust her more.
I’m growing into a more responsible puppy because Miss Janet always redirects me to naptime. Naptime is my reset button, my place to safely unwind.

Consistent naptime is why I’m doing so well with my training. I’m a very smart puppy. But even a smart dog can get brain-fried when overly tired. All the signals get crossed, and the “sit” command sounds like, “Run as many zoomies as possible.”

So, here’s my idea: instead of National Train Your Dog Month, let’s call it National Dog Training and Naptime Month. Has a much better ring to it.

Speaking of which, it’s time for my nap. Maybe you could take a nap too. Naps make everything better.

Zzzzz,

Josiah

Naps make everything better.