How Your Biz Can Celebrate Train Your Dog Month

As a brand -- whether in the pet space or outside of the pet space, you may wonder how can you incorporate pet holidays into your marketing strategy. It's simple: You want to speak to your customer, aka a pet parent, about his or her love of the pets with whom they share their lives. 

Share information with your customers about a specific holiday and offer tips or hints on how they can get involved.

How Your Biz Can Celebrate Train Your Dog Month

How can you have more fun, bond more deeply and train your dog? Here are some of our favorite ways. 

1. Take your dog for a walk. Put his collar or harness on him, snap on a leash then take him for a walk. If your dog is new to walking on a leash, or is a puppy you're training, start out with short walks around your yard. Carry small treats and when your dog walks at "heel" give him a treat as you say the word. If your dog walks calmly at your side your on the right track! 

2. Train your dog in short bursts of time. Dogs, especially young or energetic ones, get bored quickly. Keep training sessions short and fun for both of you. If you're starting to lose your patience or if your dog is starting to get bored and not pay attention, it's time to stop the training session. Keep training fun so your dog looks forward to it. 

3. Teach your dog good manners. If your dog barks uncontrollably, try to determine what is causing the barking and work with him on finding ways to not be so "barky." If your dog jumps on guests, teach her not to do that by ignoring her when she jumps. If you say her name or pay attention to her, she will continue to jump. When she jumps on you, turn your back and ignore her. When she sits nicely and isn't jumping, give her some attention and maybe even a small treat. 

Reward good behavior (positive reinforcement training). When your dog is doing something you don't want him to do: barking or chewing your shoes -- direct his behavior to something different. Redirect his energy from barking into a game with you. If your dog is chewing inappropriate items, redirect that chewing by giving her an appropriate toy. 

When you sell or give away dog toys, leashes, harnesses or other unique branded products you can also offer the pet parent a few training tips or jump on a holiday trend and promote your branded dog toys to your pet-loving community.