Bad Training Session ....

[Guest rhapsodical78]

Depends on what stage of training my dog was at and how old s/he was. At my dog's current high level of training I would not accept that behaviour, but in a young dog or one who is new to training I'd finish on a good note and walk away.

[Quickasyoucan]

Like others said, I would scale back to something that I knew we coudl achieve and reward for that so we could finish on a good note.

I was wondering myself how much our own mood affects a dog rather than the other way round, I would tend to think it is us that are not the constant.

[speedy2]

So what do you do?

Hi

Years ago I read a wonderful article in an American magazine from a top obedience handler in the US.

She noted that she always had 2 goals in any training session, a long term goal and a short term goal.

The short term goal might be tightening a finish, or a turn, or a general brush up.

The long term goal never varied - it was that the dog enjoyed itself. Her rationale was that she did a lot of trialling ... and if the dog didn't enjoy it then it wouldn't enjoy a lot of the time with her.

So, if in a training session working on the short term goal, she looked likely to lose the long term goal ... she stopped, did something really easy that the dog did well and enjoyed to finish on a good note, and ended the session to try again another time.

I liked that so much it's now my motto too.

Remember that dogs have off-days, dumb days, windy days - just like you. Do something positive and walk away to try again another day. Don't sour or frighten your dog by persisting in your demands when the dog just can't do it today.