Repetition and Maintaining Consistency
"Dog training is all about consistency. The more consistent you can make your requests, feedback, and consequences, the quicker your dog will learn," (Sundance, 50). As with many things, consistency is one of the key things in training and teaching your dog. Having a uniformity with your commands results in a better understanding from your dog, (Sundance, 51). Within the theme of consistency, the book recommends that a dog have 100 repetitions to fully learn the trick. I decided to put this advice to the test with a new trick.
Over the course of two days I practiced a new trick, (shaking with a paw), 50 times each day. This totaled for 100 repetitions total with the trick. As I look back, I see the improvement from the 50th repetition to the 100th. During the two days, I kept everything I did consistent, keeping the treat size and amount, motions, and phrases I said, consistent and the same throughout. I felt as though this aspect of the training helped familiarize my dog with the trick faster. As I repeated the same phrases or rewards for completion, it was more clear to my dog that she would get the treat only after completing the specific action. In addition, each repetition became slightly better as we went along, and there was an obvious improvement from the first to the last.
In conclusion, I would say that reading about implementing consistency and repetition within my training with my dog helped tremendously. This is not to say that I did not know that these two aspects were important. However, reading about them in this book helped identify the specifics of how to channel these ideas into training. Repetition and consistency definitely helped my dog training skills.
Doing 100 repetitions of a trick at one time can be boring and frustrating, how would you divide up the repetitions? (doing it in one day vs doing it over the course of four days)
Over the course of two days I practiced a new trick, (shaking with a paw), 50 times each day. This totaled for 100 repetitions total with the trick. As I look back, I see the improvement from the 50th repetition to the 100th. During the two days, I kept everything I did consistent, keeping the treat size and amount, motions, and phrases I said, consistent and the same throughout. I felt as though this aspect of the training helped familiarize my dog with the trick faster. As I repeated the same phrases or rewards for completion, it was more clear to my dog that she would get the treat only after completing the specific action. In addition, each repetition became slightly better as we went along, and there was an obvious improvement from the first to the last.
In conclusion, I would say that reading about implementing consistency and repetition within my training with my dog helped tremendously. This is not to say that I did not know that these two aspects were important. However, reading about them in this book helped identify the specifics of how to channel these ideas into training. Repetition and consistency definitely helped my dog training skills.
Doing 100 repetitions of a trick at one time can be boring and frustrating, how would you divide up the repetitions? (doing it in one day vs doing it over the course of four days)
Sundance, Kyra. The
Dog Tricks and Training Workbook: a Step-by-Step Interactive Curriculum to
Engage, Challenge, and Bond with Your Dog. Quayside Pub. Group, 2009.
Emi, usually I like to do everything in one day because both my dog and I are pretty impatient. But I do agree with your method of splitting the repetitions into 2 days. I think it's easier for the dog to learn something new if they can do it on separate time periods, rather than all at once then possibly forgetting it. What do you think the best division of time would be the most effective?
ReplyDeleteMia, I see how you could prefer doing all the training in one day. However, I think personally my dog benefits from doing smaller amounts of repetitions along multiple days. This way is similar to studying; cramming can be problematic and the information will only stay short-term. However, studying a little bit every day until the test will ensure that the information will remain in your head for a longer time. I believe the best division of time really depends on how committed you are and how much time you have. 20 repetitions at the same time for 5 consecutive days is what I would use to teach a new trick. However, I also imagine you have a busy schedule, so you can divide it however, but remember to maintain consistency when dividing up repetitions. Thank you for reading!
DeleteDo you think it would still be as effective to teach a dog in the time frame of one week compared to two days?
ReplyDeleteHi, I do think that both ways will still teach your dog the trick. However, spreading the repetitions out in a week can help better your dog's understanding of the trick.
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