How to train your dog to wear clothes
You either love seeing dogs in clothes or you don’t. Dressing dogs is fairly polarizing. You may think it’s ridiculous, funny, or practical, or like me, all of those things.
I love a dog in clothes, just like I love a kid in an animal costume. It cracks me up every time.
One of my favorite things about owning my dog daycare was hosting our annual Howl-o-ween costume competition. My clients were super creative types and over the years we received some fantastic entries like this one below.
Margaret, dressed up as Dogald Trump. Credit @ckmoconnor
Some dogs do need clothes. Greyhounds for example, usually have a fairly extensive wardrobe featuring pajamas, winter coats, summer coats, booties, hats, scarves and usually a few colorful martingale collars which are necessary because their heads are smaller than their necks and normal collars slip right off (martingales are loose unless the dog lunges, at which point they tighten up and therefore don’t slip off - very important when you’re walking a dog who was trained to chase moving targets!)
Some dogs don’t necessarily ‘need’ clothes but just love dressing up and posing for the camera.
If you want to dress your dog up for Halloween, or teach them to wear a raincoat or booties, follow these steps to make training fun for your dog. They will love the attention and treats they get as part of the training process and with enough repetition they will start associating the clothes with treats and will therefore start loving the clothes!
Steps for training your dog to enjoy wearing a jacket
As with all reward based training, load yourself up with your dog’s favorite treats and keep the training sessions up-beat and short.
Repeat each step many times so your dog is comfortable at each stage before moving to the next one.
In this example, we’ll teach your dog to enjoy wearing a jacket that has a strap around the neck and belly. It’s a basic design.
If you’re teaching your dog to wear something more complex, use my steps as a guide only and before you start, break down each part of the dressing process into your own steps, so your dog is successful at each step and enjoys the process. This is much kinder than maneuvering them into something and expecting them to enjoy it.
Show the jacket to your dog and when she sniffs it, give her a treat.
Lay the jacket over her back, then remove it and treat.
Increase the amount of time the jacket is laid on her back before removing it and treating.
Lay the jacket on her back and do up the neck strap. Undo, remove jacket and treat.
Increase the amount of time the jacket and neck strap are on, before removing and treating.
Lay the jacket on her back, do up the neck and belly straps. Undo, remove and treat.
Increase the amount of time the jacket, neck strap & belly strap are on, before removing and treating.
When your dog can comfortably wear the jacket for five minutes, take her out on a walk. That way she’ll get used to wearing the jacket in different settings. You can treat her throughout the walk and don’t forget that the walk itself is a treat.
If you’re not convinced that you should use treats when training your dog, check out this video where you’ll see the difference between using and not using treats.
For more puppy raising tactics, save your seat in my free masterclass
“3 Simple Tactics for Raising a Well-Behaved Dog”
