The importance of ending a training session well is commonly overlooked. How many times have you thought about how you would finish up the days training with your pooch? Or how many times have you just done the final command and then went ‘All done!’. Well ending a training session well can be more important than you think!
In this training note we’ll discuss 2 important things for ending your sessions!
The first is the commands you end with! Say that in the session you introduced your dog to a new trick. Well new tricks can sometimes get frustrating or confusing for a dog unless they know it really well. If they don’t get it right and you have to ask them to do it again they might feel like they’re doing the wrong thing and that they are not pleasing you. This is not the note you want to end a training session on!
Instead, focus on that new command throughout the training session but then finish off with some of the commands your dog knows really well. It may even just be some simple obedience practice like sit, drop, stay come etc. Anything your dog knows well will make them happy and show them that they’ve accomplished something in that session making them excited for the next!
Now the second thing is rewarding your dog with a big treat after every session, this is not often considered but for some dogs it may be important to consider. Have you ever been so proud of your pooch after a training session that you just want to give them a nice carrot or treat to enjoy? Well yeh, we have too and this is totally fine but make sure you don’t do it every time!
For some dogs if you give them something so amazing after a training session this may make them want the training session to be over because they are looking forward to the treat. You don’t want this as this may make them less engaged in training or just wanting the session to be over. Instead don’t give them a big treat after training ever time so that they are not always expecting this.
Of course, we’re not saying ‘Don’t give your dog treats apart from in training sessions’. It’s completely ok and even great to reward your dog out of training sessions when they do something good like come when called. Instead, we mean don’t reward them straight after the training session has ended!
Well we hope this training note has helped you make your training sessions even more fun for your pooch! As a little bonus tip: At the end of every training session start saying something like ‘Finished’ or ‘All Done’ so that they know when the session is over!
Stay tuned for more!