With mistraining I mean training that counteract what I actually want to teach the dog. Something that happens when I forget to maintain my criteria or when I think that I am training something else and forget that the dog learns all the time.
Today’s exercise
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- Think about your own heelwork strategies. When and how do you train it and when does mistraining just happen? How can you eliminate the mistraining?
- Train heelwork at least once. (Note how many sessions and minutes of heelwork you do. Train what you and your dog need – it doesn’t have to be the training in the blog post of the day.)
- Feel free to tell us and others about your training by commenting on the posts on our website and/or Facebook page.
- If you haven’t participated in the challenge from the start, read here to find out how it works: Day 1: Heelwork challenge.
6 thoughts on “Day 5: Beware of mistraining!”
My dog is a golden and in our garden she comes spontanesly but when we go outdoors she can only follow her impulses after we leave the door and she forget everthing. It’s a young dog. At the moment i have found nothing that will keep her attention, not even fresh meat. What can i do?
I’d analyse that behaviour from a “mistraining” perspective as well and try to prevent as much mistraining as possible. Then I’d work on finding rewards that she likes and start with small behaviours that she can manage. I could talk about this for a long time because it’s a very common problem. If you want more indepth coaching for your dog, I’d recommend either a private online session or our online foundations course, https://www.retrievingforalloccasions.com/product/online-course-foundations-excellence-gun-dog-training/ . Part 1 covers reward development and delivery to hand.
What is A treat magnet?
It’s one way to “transport” the dog. You have a treat in your hand and let the dog nibble at it while you move (the dog should be in contact with your hand and the treat the whole time). Transports are meant to cover gaps in space and/or time – so for example, whenever you need to move your dog to a new starting point, a transport will keep him occupied and ensure that he stays “in the training bubble” with you. You can see a video of it here: https://www.agilityrightfromthestart.com/exercises.html
My heel mistraining happens when I have another dog walking to heel and Emmy thinks she can slink off unnoticed (sometimes she manages) or if I’m chatting to my son or a friend or if she goes onto point and doesn’t want to leave it. She walks better off lead but I think from your advice that unless I can give her my full attention or until she is more obedient around distractions I should have her on the lead? #heelworkchallenge
Great analysis! Yes, to prevent mistraining I’d definitely keep her on leash when you know you won’t be able to keep an eye on her.