Training When You Don't Feel Well

Thoughtful Thursdays

This past week I attended a great cadaver dog training with a major head cold. It would have been really easy for me to stay home, take major amounts of antihistamines (which I did anyway), or just all around curl up in a ball and sleep.

Instead, I got up and trained. I was lucky because someone else was putting out and picking up aids and basically telling me where to go.

I did choose what I was looking for out of my dog.

I knew these things:

My observation skills were good, my timing was good.

My ability to articulate what I wanted was not.

I walked into every session with a distinct plan on what I was going to mark and what lesson I wanted my dog to learn. It was even more important for me to have a clear idea of that before I started each of these sessions.

And, I opted for the fundamentals in most of my problems. I am not going to 'hurt' my training by reinforcing a fast trained final response. I am not going to hurt my training by reinforcing nose to odor for a complex scent/odor picture. When it was conducive, it was one problem and done. I could barely keep my criteria in mind for a second problem.

Being disciplined takes practice. It takes grit on behalf of us as trainers. Sometimes it is just a small thing like working on that perfect sit or an out. Those repetitions matter. You don't have to set up a grand scenario every time you train. Choose your battles.

When is a time you trained when you didn't feel good? How did you overcome?

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The Detection Dog Essential Skills webinar is coming up on Tuesday! Make sure you have registered here: https://www.k9sensus.org/.../detection-dog-essential...

The rest of our webinars are posted and the in person class registration swill go live in December. Make sure you have signed up for the K9Sensus emails or joined the K9Sensus Trainer's Group on FB!