'I'm a dog trainer – there's four things you should do with your pet every day'

A dog training expert says there are four things you should be doing with your dog "every single day".

Canine behaviourist Will Atherton has more than 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, where he shares dog training tips as well as advice regarding which breeds are suitable for which people.

In one of his recent videos, Will appeared in the countryside for a driven game shoot with his pooch Uncle Sully. During a lull in proceedings, he took a few minutes to explain and showcase four things he believes every dog owner ought to be doing every day.

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Walking to heel

"It is very nice to know that I can come out here and just know that, wherever I am, he'll stay by my side without a lead," Will said. "But for you guys at home that might never come out on a shoot day like this, I still think you should be teaching your dog how to walk to heel."

Will said that 98% of "problem behaviours" outside of the house "can be solved if you teach your dog to walk to heel". And you can use a "loose lead", meaning you don't have to do it off-lead. He added: "It means that your dog is following you and they're looking to you for guidance and direction."

Crate training

While walking to heel solves most problems outside of the home, Will believes good crate training does the same inside the home. "You put those two things together, and there's no reason you should have to deal with the vast majority of problem behaviours," he said.

This doesn't mean dogs need to live in a crate most of the time. Will added: "But being able to control and manage the environment removes their ability to make bad decisions while we work on their training, and slowly then reintroduce a little bit of freedom one successful moment at a time."

Threshold manners

Will explained a threshold can be anything including a gate, stile or bridge. He said: "I want to make sure my dog will display lovely manners as I go through those thresholds first, while they then wait until I invite them over." Demonstrating on a "sketchy stile", he explained how it would be dangerous for him if Uncle Sully tried to jump over at the same time.

Impulse control

Will described impulse control as the "most important" and "most underrated" skill that not enough people work on with their dogs.

He went on: "It does not matter how much training you do in your home if you can't bring it out and use it in the real world, whether that's at something extreme like this [the shoot] or whether it's simply trying to take your dog to the pub and asking them to sit and chill."