Planning is the big part of the game

Think – Plan – Do, Bob Bailey

I have forced myself to write training diary again. My plan has been to make my training more focused and efficient. Too many times I have done just some training and realized that I haven’t been training the right things. Training diary has given me a change to be more analytic of my training and make every training count more. I have kept diary for three weeks now and it shows. Both of my dogs have advanced much quicker and our training time has been reduced a lot. I actually have got much more energy to train because I have proven record of our improvement.

One thing I have also taken under training is me. I have planned different training session just improve my mechanical skills as a trainer. Target stick training has been one the task I have done. This is a simple task for dogs but it gives me a change to improve my rewarding speed and also my accuracy with clicker. I have had a bad habit of keeping treats in my hand to speed up my rewarding. I have been determent to learn to be as fast as that when I take the treats out of my pocket.  Dog like this training and I usually use their evening meal so super treats are left for competition task training. I also use a timer in this training to keep the training session short to improve my concentration and also my dogs.

I have also started to analyze my training more during the session. I stop and write notes or even watch my training session from video. This is still a habit in training but I hope to make as every time thing. Training analyzing between different little session has help my reduce frustration in my work and also from dogs. The little time that it takes to THINK what has happened and what is the next goal (PLAN) gives me more effect to my training (DO) and better result with dog. This is something I have read many times over from training manuals and guide books to animal training. It’s just hard to change your habits. I hope that I will have strange to do this change to training and really become even better dog trainer.

As I have learned from many books and courses – training is really a mechanical skill that you need to practice. Planning of training is also a big part of the deal when you want results. I have known these things for a long time but change need time and effort to be part of life. It’s the same thing with mental training but life has really become more interesting when I have found goals that I want to work for. My goal is to improve my training and mental work. One of my treats for myself is the Clicker Expo Europe. When you have something look for you have strength to do your best! 

MLPF