Learning to use silence as part of a training session
Episode description
You enter ring at a venue, the routine starts, you look over at your dog and a sinking feeling starts. As you start to go through the exercises, your dog looks as if he has NO idea of what you cue.
You become frustrated, think you need to train harder, think your dog needs more practice and you begin to list off any number of possible reasons. All of them likely are quite valid or not.
Have you ever taught your dog to get used to you being silent? Using silence as part of a teaching program can provide clarity during the teaching process. It sounds like an oxymoron, but it is not.
In this episode of Learning About Dogs, Kay Laurence discusses how using silence is vital to the teaching process because cheerleading can "prop up behaviors" that have not really been learned.
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