Does Your Dog Lack Focus?
Does your dog lack focus when you are out and about. They will do a training exercise at home but seem to forget when out? Do you think that your dog is being stubborn?
Well that’s not exactly the case. Most likely that your dog is distracted and the training exercise is incomplete.
With all my clients I tell them to practice the training techniques in at least 20 different locations or as many as possible reminding them to go back to basics in each new location.
Why? This is because dogs do not learn the same as us. With dogs it is mostly contextual but we are good at generalising. Asking a dog to sit and stay at home compared to asking your dog to do a sit and stay in the park is like learning to drive a small car and then being asked to drive a double decker bus full of people without the necessary training. How many people can do that?
The key to success is to start the training exercise in a safe location with minimal distraction, then change the location, say a different room in the house then progress to the back garden, driveway, quiet road/field and gradually increase the distractions starting from basics each time. The speed your dog understands the exercise will increase as you practice.
As they say practice makes perfect.
Happy Training
