What is a good dog anyway? Good is too generic. What is good to you might be not good enough to me. When training your dog, simply wanting a “good” dog is setting yourself up for failure. How will you know if you have achieved the goal if you don’t know what good is?
Decide what is important.
The goals you have for your dog are personal. Don’t let anyone decide what your goals should be for your dog. If it’s not a problem for YOU that your dog pulls on leash, it’s ok! It’s only a problem if it’s a problem for YOU. By setting goals that are personal, you value them more and therefore will be motivated to work towards the goal. Nobody climbed Everest because they just sort of wanted to do it. Set your goal and be all in!
Make a specific goal.
Once you decide what is important to you, make sure your goal is specific. Will you know if you have reached your goal? Is it measurable? If you asked someone to determine if you reached your goal by watching you, would they be able to say with certainty you completed the task? For example:
Generic goal: A good dog
Specific goal: My dog will sit by the front door automatically, stay seated when the door opens, and remain seated while the door is fully open. My dog will remain seated while I step outside first. My dog will wait for me to say the “release” command to be excused through the open door.
Here is an example of my own goal sheet for Spy, my deaf boxer.
Goal Log
I printed out the “Goal Log” and used a pencil. I wrote something, then erased, then added more and modified it numerous times. It’s ok if you are using this as a working document. Write down your goals and then let the document sit. Come back to it as you think of more details and then add to it. This document is not in stone. It is intended to be useful for you so scribble as you wish. I did! Here is a look at mine.
You can use my GOAL LOG if you would like. Click the link, download and print! Remember to save it as this is a working document and you may need to print more if you come up with more goals or for when you want to revise. Click the link below.
Remember, the goals are in black and white. There are no shades of gray. Words like sort of, maybe, almost or kind of should not find their way into your training plan. Write your goals so the answer is either YES my dog can do it or NO my dog can not. Once I have set my measurable goals, now it’s time to break each big goal into tiny, achievable pieces. A good analogy are the steps that make up an entire staircase. You must take each step, one at a time all the while making progress toward the top.
Set mini goals.
Do not wait until your dog has achieved the whole goal before rewarding. Your dog will fail, by fault of the dog’s teacher and both teacher and student will become unmotivated. Instead, celebrate the small wins along the journey as you make progress towards the end goal. Besides, it’s the journey we are supposed to enjoy right? Take a look using the same example as we did earlier, the sit stay at the door.
END GOAL: My dog will sit by the front door automatically, stay seated when opening the door and remain seated while the door is fully open. My dog will remain seated while I step outside first. My dog will wait for me to say the “release” command to be excused through the open door.
MINI GOAL #1: My dog will sit by the closed front door when giving a verbal and hand signal “sit” 5 out of 5 times.
*****CELEBRATE*****
MINI GOAL #2: My dog will sit by the closed front door with only a verbal command 5 out of 5 times.
*****CELEBRATE*****
MINI GOAL #3: My dog will sit by the closed front door with no command aka automatically 5 out of 5 times.
*****CELEBRATE*****
I took one of my MEGA GOALS and added it to my TRAINING LOG. One skill goes on each training log page. I chose “place” for boy, Spy. I will color in a circle for each repetition I have done, each day I do it. There are seven days listed on the training log. Here is my mini goal for Spy for the single skill “place”.
Make sure to print many copies of the Training Log.
You will use one training log for each goal.
Yes, you may have to make 25 mini goals to reach the one large goal, but that is just good training. You will definitely know if you are making progress when you achieve one mini goal after another. You will probably forget there was a time when your dog could not even sit by the door, but now you are on mini goal 18 and your dog is sitting automatically at the front door and stays seated while your door is wide open. You can absolutely see how far you have come by setting these mini goals. Make as many mini goals as you need to achieve your end goal. You can not break the skill down too small. It is best to have your dog doing the mini goal after mini goal correctly than one large mini goal incorrectly.
I never let my dog fail more then 2 TIMES IN A ROW. If my pup fails 2 times in a row, what I am asking is too hard. It is NOT my dog being obstinate, rather it is a reflection of my training. Keep in mind, this is YOUR goal, not your dog’s goal. Your dog would rather be sniffing here and sniffing there and eating something that smells awful. Make mini goals your dog can achieve. It is ok if it’s not perfect each and every time. You are working up to 5 great repetitions out of 5 repetitions. You need to do 1 before you can do 2 and so on. How long you work on a mini goal is different for every dog and person.
This is just Part 1 of this blog. This blog is a mini goal for you. If you are interested in reaching your training goals, download both the GOAL LOG and TRAINING LOG. Fill out both forms. In Part 2, I will be discussing two more steps to complete your training journal. Once we are done, we will have a beautiful working training journal!
To listen to the podcast on this topic, please click the link here.
If you have questions about socializing or training your dog let me know. I'm happy to help!
Please email at Stephanie@pawsitiveconnectiondogtraining.com
Happy Training!
~ Stephanie
