What to Bring to Your First Training Session

First sessions go better when nobody is improvising. Here is everything worth having with you.

The essentials

Bring your dog’s favorite treats, a toy, a water bowl, and a leash. That is genuinely the whole required list. For outdoor sessions, also bring weather-appropriate gear for yourself as well as your dog, because we train in the conditions you actually walk in.

On treats specifically

Bring something better than kibble. Training pays your dog for effort, and the rate needs to match the difficulty of what you are asking. Small, soft, quick to eat is the ideal, so your dog can take a reward and keep working rather than spending thirty seconds chewing.

It also helps to arrive with a slightly hungry dog. A puppy who has just finished a full meal is not motivated to work for food, and that is not a training problem, it is a timing one.

What to leave at home

You do not need to bring equipment you are unsure about. If you have been recommended a particular collar or harness and are not confident using it, bring it by all means, but do not buy anything new before the first session. Part of that session is working out what actually suits your dog.

Bring the people, too

If more than one person walks or feeds the dog, have them there if you can. Dogs read consistency quickly, and a behavior that works for one household member and not another usually comes down to handling rather than the dog.