A Dog Training Success Story: How Lauren Langman Trained Her Puppy Nifty

Many puppy owners have countless questions about the “best” training approaches. On one episode of the Sexier Than a Squirrel Podcast, Sam Askew interviewed expert dog trainer Lauren Langman about how she trained her Border Collie Nifty —  “the dog she always dreamed of” — allowing listeners to try her tips out.

As a Devon Dogs trainer and Absolute Dogs superfan, Sam had plenty of questions for Lauren, who is the founder of the first business and the co-founder of the second.

At the time of the interview, Nifty was 19 weeks old and as nifty by nature as she is by name. Here are the highlights.

How Do You Adjust Your Training for Different Puppies?

When training another of her Borders, Tokyo, Lauren found it helpful to give him less thinking time and more moving time. But when she tried this approach with Nifty, she soon realised that Nifty needed a different training approach.

Nifty’s “wicked and wild” personality meant she needed less movement in her training. She was the kind of puppy who would travel in a vehicle and “hit the window” as if to say, “I want to chase the cars!”

Instead, Lauren implemented boundary games and more shaping into Nifty’s training. She also plays the Whippets game, which is a staple in Absolute Dogs’ Games Club (formerly the Training Academy).

Lauren’s advice behind this story is to be flexible in your dog training. It’s essential to be ready to switch up your routine. What works for one puppy might not work for another. 

Lauren also encourages owners not to worry about making mistakes when planning training approaches. “The big thing with getting it wrong is that you learn from it, and you do something different next time,” she says.

What Areas Are Most Important to Focus on When Training a Puppy?

While different puppies have different training needs, for Nifty, confidence was the most important focus. “A dog can’t have too much confidence,” Lauren says.

Another important training area is showing your puppy to love rewards, from kibble and other food to toys and catching an item. When a puppy learns to love rewards, they’re “set up for the future.”

Proximity is another important training focus. When out and about, it’s important for a puppy to want to stay close to you as their owner. Lauren describes this as an “ongoing” training focus for puppies, whereas independence would typically be less important at this stage in their lives.

Lauren adds that up-and-down arousal is a key training focus for puppies. When a puppy like Nifty is stimulated easily — “going from 0 to 90 pretty quick” — creating a “dimmer switch” is also essential. Learning to calm down allowed Nifty to decompress and avoid overtiredness.

Nifty is an agility dog, and Lauren was keen to help her develop skills that support her both in competitive and domestic spaces. As such, Nifty is confident on a lead, with people, and with other dogs. She has great recall skills, doesn’t get distracted by environmental changes that don’t need to affect her, and settles well on a boundary when life is busy.

As Lauren concludes, Nifty’s goal is to “live life cool.”

How Soon Should You Walk a Puppy?

Contrary to common misconception, Lauren explains that you don’t need to walk a puppy right away. When Nifty reached 19 weeks of age, Lauren still hadn’t taken her on a traditional walk. Instead, she prioritised training sessions at home and in her outdoor spaces at the Devon Dogs site in Okehampton.

This way, she prepared Nifty to make good choices before taking her on walks — where other dogs and people were likely to be present. They played games like “Catch,” “Settle On a Boundary,” “Magic Hand,” “Middle,” and “Leg Weave.”

These games — all taught in Absolute Dogs’ Games Club — promote fun and relationship building, making training enjoyable for both puppies and their owners.

How Much Do Puppies Need to Rest?

Whenever working with a puppy who has lots to learn, Lauren “Ditches the Bowl.” This technique involves using a dog’s daily food rations as rewards throughout training instead of feeding them at a set mealtime. When training Nifty, Lauren found that by the time she’d used all of Nifty’s daily food rations in training, Nifty was ready to stop for the day and sleep.

According to Vets4Pets, eight-week-old puppies need 18-20 hours of sleep per day (some overnight and some during the daytime). At 19 weeks old, Nifty still needed at least 18-19 hours of sleep. This left around five hours each day to train. These five hours included loose time and time spent chewing a bone.

As Lauren emphasises, this means there isn’t as much time to spend doing high-level training as some might think. Allowing for plenty of rest periods is essential.

When Is It Okay for Your Dog to Greet Another Dog?

Lauren explains that when a dog’s interest in another dog lessens, this is a good time for them to interact. In other words, if your dog acts as though another dog is “none of their business,” a greeting between them should be drama-free.

Playing disengagement games — as taught in Absolute Dogs’ Games Club — can be a great way to prepare your dog for greeting others. This is particularly important for a dog who loves engaging, like Nifty.

How Can You Manage Multiple Dogs in One Household?

Just as dogs may want to interact when out and about, if you have a multi-dog household, they may want to interact at home too. Depending on how well your dogs cope around each other at any given point, this may or may not be a good idea.

If you’re worried about your dogs interacting at home, Lauren advises setting a boundary where “presence doesn’t mean access.” If you’re at home, this doesn’t mean your dog immediately has access to you. Similarly, if other dogs are at home, this doesn’t mean your new puppy has access to them.

Making use of different rooms, crates, gates, and puppy pens can help you separate dogs and people when necessary.

Speaking of crates, Lauren emphasises that these don’t have to be for car journeys and vet visits only. Crates can be a safe environment for dogs, preventing injuries and accidents. For example, a crate can stop a dog from accessing and chewing a cable, which could prove fatal. Many dogs don’t have the skill level to be left unsupervised — using a crate responsibly can be a great way to protect them.

How Do You Respond When Puppy Training Doesn’t Go as Expected?

It’s crucial to be flexible when training doesn’t go to plan. “You can still make it a really cool journey,” even if it isn’t the journey you expected, Lauren explains. “Adapt as many times as you need to reshape yourself, your dog, your model, and your future… The faster you can adapt, the better you are at what you do.”

What’s Nifty Doing Now?

Now that Nifty is all grown up, she’s an Ambassador Dog for Devon Dogs and Absolute Dogs. She showcases Lauren’s pioneering training games — both online and in person. At the same time, Nifty is a family pet, and Lauren enjoys spending long walks and other adventures with her.

Listen to Lauren Langman’s interview on training Nifty on this episode of the Sexier Than a Squirrel podcast.

About Lauren Langman

Lauren Langman has dedicated her career to helping dog owners and trainers all over the world achieve dog training success. She has developed, honed, and curated collection upon collection of games that make training fun for all dogs and owners, no matter how much or little progress they’ve made so far.

Langman has been training dogs since she was a university student. She went from training dogs in her back garden to securing a neglected site in Okehampton on the popular television show Relocation Relocation. Today, that site is the state-of-the-art training ground belonging to her acclaimed dog training businesses: Devon Dogs (along with the luxury Bowerland Cottages) and Absolute Dogs.