Ever see a dog walking beautifully on a loose lead at obedience class, but as soon as class is over it is dragging its owner across the park as if it doesn’t know the skill at all?
Dogs don’t automatically transfer skills to each new environment, especially if you always train in the same place. Whatever skill you are working on, once your dog understands the basics, you need to start practising it in different environments.
A quick and easy way to do that is to just get in the car, drive somewhere and train that skill for 3-5 minutes max.
Keep it simple. New environment means go back a few steps and teach as if your dog is new to the skill.
Don’t make it too difficult. Start by picking a quiet place like an empty car park after hours rather than on a grassed area full of distracting smells.
Use the lead to keep your dog safe and to ensure he can’t check out.
Use your dog's favourite rewards (eg food, toy) to build value in both you and the activity.
Gradually build up the level of difficulty. It takes hundreds of repetitions in different environments with varying levels of distraction to generalise a skill.
Doing it this way gets the reps in and builds a bigger picture for your dog.
Once a day, a few minutes, somewhere new.
It’s very powerful.
(And fun too).
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