New owners either train nothing and hope, or buy a course and stop after three weeks. What actually works in a working household is a short daily habit with a clear order, and twelve weeks is enough to build a dog that is easy to live with in a flat.
Ten minutes a day, split into two sessions, plus the ordinary walks. Everything below is reward-based: food the dog does not otherwise get, delivered fast, with no corrections.
Weeks 1 and 2: name, food and being alone
Name. Say it once, pay when the dog looks. Twenty repetitions a day in a quiet room. This is the foundation of everything else and most people skip it.
Hand feeding and marker. Use a word such as "yes" the instant the dog does the right thing, then food. The marker is what lets you be precise later.
Absence. Start on day two: close a door for three seconds, come back before any complaint, build irregularly. By the end of week two many dogs manage a few minutes calmly.
Toilet routine. Fixed schedule, out after waking, eating and play, reward within two seconds outside.
Weeks 3 and 4: recall and settle
Recall, indoors first. A new word, used once, always paid with something excellent, never used to end anything good.
Settle on a mat. Put it down, pay the dog for lying on it, then pay relaxation rather than position: a hip rolled over, a chin down. Build to five minutes while you read.
Handling, five minutes a day: paws held, toes separated, ears lifted, lip raised, body stroked all over, each paired with food.
Weeks 5 and 6: the lead and the building
Loose lead, indoors and then in a quiet street. Tension stops the walk, slack continues it, and the position next to your leg is paid often.
The building routine: harness on inside the flat, sit at the door, short lead to the lift, sit again before the street door. Two minutes a day for a fortnight and it becomes automatic.
Absence continues: build towards the length of a real working morning, in irregular steps.
The rule for the whole twelve weeks: if the dog fails twice in a row, the exercise was too hard. Go back a stage rather than repeating it louder.
Weeks 7 and 8: the long line and distractions
Recall outdoors on a five to ten metre line attached to a harness. Let the dog explore, call once, pay generously, release again. Different places: a quiet park, a forest track, somewhere with dogs at a distance.
Leave it, trained in the kitchen and then on the pavement. The dog never gets the thing on the floor; the reward always comes from you and is always better.
Settle in a new place: the balcony, a bench, a quiet café terrace for ten minutes with a chew.
Weeks 9 and 10: the real world
Traffic, bicycles, buses and the tram, at a distance the dog can handle, paired with food. Never closer than the dog can manage while still eating.
Visitors and the door: mat, chew, and guests who ignore the dog until it settles.
Trade and drop, practised with boring objects so it is ready when the dog picks up a chicken bone.
The vet rehearsal: standing still, a hand under the chin, a paw lifted, an ear looked at. Then a visit to the practice for a weighing and a biscuit, with nothing else happening.
Weeks 11 and 12: proofing and the honest test
Take each behaviour and make it slightly harder in one dimension at a time: more distance, more distraction, more duration. Never all three at once.
Then test honestly. Recall three times in conditions you have not trained in, including with another dog at twenty metres and at dusk. A settle in a café at a quiet hour. A loose lead past a bus stop. Being alone for the length of your actual working morning, filmed so you can see what happens rather than assuming.
Where a test fails, that is next month's work, not a verdict on the dog.
The five-minute session, in practice
Sessions fail for predictable reasons: they run too long, they happen when the dog is bursting with energy, and they end on a failure. Keep them to five minutes, do them after a walk rather than before, use food the dog does not otherwise get, and stop while the dog still wants to continue.
Work in one room at first, with nothing else happening. Phones away, television off, other family members told not to interrupt. That sounds excessive for five minutes; it is what makes five minutes enough.
Keep a one-line note of what you did each day. Over twelve weeks that note is what shows you the dog is progressing on the days it does not feel like it, and it stops the habit from quietly disappearing in week four.
What to expect afterwards
Adolescence, roughly eight to eighteen months, will appear to undo some of it. It does not: the dog is developing, and the answer is to lower the difficulty, go back to the long line and keep the rules identical rather than to start correcting.
Keep five minutes a day permanently. A dog that trains briefly every day for a decade is a different animal from one that did a course once.
Keeping everyone consistent
Write the cue list on one page: the words, who uses which, the release word, the recall, what the dog is not allowed. Everyone in the household follows it, including whoever walks or sits for the dog.
That single sheet is why professional handling either supports your training or quietly undoes it. Twelve weeks of careful work in the evenings can be dismantled by forty-five minutes a day of somebody using different words and allowing different things.
General information for dog owners in Luxembourg, not veterinary or legal advice. For your own dog, ask your vet, a qualified behaviourist or your commune. How this journal is written and checked.
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