Essential dog training gear — and what you’ll never need
Whether you shop for your new dog online, in a store, or get items from friends, start them off right with the necessary gear.
Equip your canine companion for training success! Most items can be found at pet-supply stores or online. You can also check local neighborhood forums, yard sales, friends with dogs, and online groups for gently used dog gear.
Start with
A flat buckle or clip collar for ID tags
A harness to avoid pressure on your dog’s neck. I recommend these:
Ruffwear harnesses.
A padded Deluxe Easy Walk Harness.
Puppia for puppies and littles.
A 6-foot leash (not retractable) for training.
A 10’, 15’ or longer Biothane leash for sniff walks.
Biothane is a synthetic leather that is easy to keep clean. I get mine made at CSJ Creations.
For durability, a Biothane leash should have riveted fittings.
What’s a sniff walk/sniffari? Check out Daisy and Petey on a sniff walk with Petey dragging his long Biothane leash.
Other necessary gear
A treat pouch makes training fast and efficient. There are hundreds of different styles. Your pouch should be easy to get your hand into, hold a large amount of treats, and be washable. A fanny pack also works, and I use that when we work together. I’m a fan of pouches from Ruffwear, PetSafe, and Doggone Good’s Rapid Rewards pouch.
A non-slip mat or bed (washable rubber backed bath mats work well) to teach your dog to relax on her “place.”
Plenty of training treats! Here are my recommendations.
Enrichment items including food toys such as puzzle toys and Kongs give your dog something to do if we need to take a break during our session to chat.
Optional but very helpful
House-training containment for puppies: baby gates, a crate, and/or an X-pen.
Newly adopted adult dogs usually need a house-training refresher.
A crate to be your dog’s Zen Den. I’m a fan of Elite Field soft crates which are multipurpose. We’ve had our for a decade and you can see Petey relaxing in it below.
My free resource, How to Choose a Dog Trainer, to ensure you find someone with credentials and skills to teach you and your pup.
Our dog Petey had had negative experiences with a crate, due to both being a rescue dog stuffed into crates for transportation (out of necessity only!) and because as a dog with separation anxiety, he also had confinement anxiety.
Now that he is over his separation anxiety, we taught him that a crate is a safe place, and he often chooses to relax in his zen den without being asked.
Other times, we send the dogs to their crates when, for instance, a delivery arrives.
What you’ll never need, and why
A trip to most pet supply stores can be like falling through the looking glass. Not only are there countless adorable toys, super-special healthy treats, and colorful leashes, sweaters, and collars, you will likely find choke collars, prong collars, and shock collars passed off as training devices. These devices are known by behavior professionals as (but not marketed as) “aversive tools” because they deliver something the dog finds inherently aversive, or unpleasant — pain — in order to stop an unwanted behavior such as barking or pulling on leash.
The American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior states:
“Punishment-based training methods may be advocated by those without an appreciation of the current status of science in dog training. Although such methods can be effective in the short term, science tells us they are likely to exacerbate an animal’s fear and actually increase aggression in the long run.”
Choke, prong, shock, or chain collars cause unwanted behavior to stop by hurting your dog. You never need one.
These are sometimes given euphemisms such as “stim,” “correction,” “training,” or “communication” collars — and regardless of their name, cause behavior to stop by hurting your dog.
Store employees undoubtedly love animals but are most likely not credentialed behavior experts, so may not understand that these devices hurt dogs.
Rewards-based training is more effective at teaching behaviors we want our dogs to do. Read what vet behaviorists have to say about aversive tools and rewards-based training here.
Shake cans, squirt bottles, bean bags, and bark collars can stop unwanted behavior by frightening your dog.
That kind of fear is incredibly easy to teach a dog and can have unwanted side effects that can be incredibly hard to undo.
Retractable leashes give your dog distance but can easily pull out of your hand if your dog takes off. If you grab at the leash part or it gets wrapped around you (or your dog) you can get badly cut. Opt for a long leash in Biothane (see my favorite here), nylon, or cotton.
Need more help?
Check out my “Welcome Home Toolkit,” printable resources and videos to help you set up your new best friend for success, at the link below.