As I come to the end of week 1 of my Intro to Nosework class, I find myself telling folks to keep their training sessions shorter and do fewer repetitions… I say this so frequently that I decided to write a post because it really does have valuable impact to training in general.

Keep in mind that when we are TEACHING, we are NOT PRACTICING. Repetition is about Practice. Teaching is about correct criteria…. My students in NW101 are Teaching their dogs to hold their noses in a switch box with odor this week. This is step one of understanding source and building appropriate behaviors at source. This week, the dogs start to learn “Nose Not the Feet”, and for some dogs who have very high drives, this might be a good point to lay the foundation for a Trained Final Response.

When we TEACH a dog, they are learning what to do and also what not to do. We can shape their behaviors and reward what is correct. When we break those behaviors small enough (called “splitting”) the criteria can be very easy to achieve. That is where my students currently are and the dogs are doing great!

The trouble happens when we get SO excited that our dog is doing “the thing” that we ask the dog to do it over and over… Our criteria was initially carefully split in a way that the dog can easily be successful in just a couple of repetitions…. but as humans it can be hard to stop and we ask the dog to do it over, and over, and over, and… well you get the idea!

Since the dog is in Teaching mode…. this is where repetition becomes the enemy. Dogs are smart…. and they want to earn their reinforcement! So when we repeat the same thing with the same criteria over and over, they will start to throw extra behaviors. The thought process might be “I have done this behavior over and over so I must be doing something wrong… how about this instead?”

Extra behaviors in THIS particular case, might include pawing, perching on things, mouthing, etc…. and these are all things we DON’T want! Depending on what you are training, extra behaviors might vary…. but they DEFINITELY happen! In the case of a low drive dog, instead of extra behaviors, you might just get quitting…. ugh, that is no fun because now your motivation is damaged!

Instead…. I encourage you all to think about when you are in TEACHING mode, to keep your reps small… did you get your criteria? Yes? Great! Take a break and do something else!

Too much Repetition when teaching ADDS undesirable behaviors to your behavior chain and will muck up your criteria if you are not careful!

If you are interested in how I teach Introduction to Nosework, I now teach this class three time a year! I now teach this class in sessions starting February 1, June 1, and October 1. Keep an eye on the website for registration information!