Irish Terriers are very intelligent little dogs and they have a real desire to please which in short means in the right hands and environment, they are easy to train. The bonus being they thoroughly enjoy the one-to-one attention they are given during a training session. They excel at all sorts of canine sports which includes activities like flyball, agility and obedience.
The key to successfully training an Irish Terrier is to keep each session as interesting as possible and to avoid too much repetition. Lots of shorter training sessions are better than a few long ones because it keeps these smart little terriers more focussed on what they are being asked to do. Having a dog’s full attention is half the battle when training them.
Their training has to start early and it has to be consistent throughout a dog’s life. It also has to fair in order to bring the best out of these little terriers. They respond extremely well to positive reinforcement, but being sensitive by nature, they do not answer well to any short of harsh correction or heavier handed training methods which could result in dogs becoming shy, withdrawn and timid.
