Theres a lot of discussion around when to end a training session. We desperately try to end on a good note and put the dog away feeling strong, motivated, and wanting more. Most trainers have been so engrained with this thinking they will continue a bad session way past the dogs limits trying to make it a good session. Often times lowering their criteria to find some success to end on. Why do we go easy on a dog at the beginning a session and then ramp up to a point of failure just to make it easy again so we can end with a warm fuzzy feeling of success? I have become much more concerned with how my sessions start because in trial or in deployment whatever the end goal is for your dog, there is no warm up. The dog is expected to perform at the required time and perform immediately. You dont get to repeat exercises like in training. The issues that come at the start of a session are usually focus and drive state issues.
The dog may be too aroused, not concentrated enough, too flat, too suspicious, too focused in toward the handler, too excited to run and focused external. So what are you doing at the beginning of a session to ensure the dog is giving its all and performing its best to start the session? So many handlers start their sessions working on behaviors. They begin straight away with heeling or maybe a stay and immediately they are correcting and rewarding the obedience. When we begin with behaviors and the dog isnt in the right mindset or drive state then we will most certainly be having to help a lot and give lots of feedback to the dog. This is an issue when it comes to trial, the dog gets to the starting line and doesn't have the feedback from the handler and from the training tools and the outcome is different from training. But it shouldnt be surprising because thats how the training was set up, the dog gets warmed up and in the right drives through working on the behaviors and then gets put up when the handler is happy with the performance. Don't think for one second my training is perfect from start to finish, no not even close. But if the behaviors are not happening to my liking I ask myself why? And its usually the drive is too high or too low or the focus is in the wrong place.
I put a lot of time and effort on directing my dogs focus and drive through starting cues and rituals. I only go into working on the behaviors i want when i have the drive and focus desired. If i want to work heeling with food and the dog is distracted and showing his motivation outward toward things in the environment then i will not go into correcting and forcing food into the dogs face to lure them. The bigger goal here is capturing the dogs focus in toward me and bringing up drive for the food. If the dogs drive is up for the food and has an understanding of how to get the food by focusing on me, then i will easily be able to lure whatever behaviors i want.
An oposite example would be if the dog is coming out for protection and starting with a carjacking and the dog is too flat and checking in with the handler too often and the decoy has to give lots and lots of feedback to make aggression. This will not work either because a trial decoy will not give training feedback and if the handler cant put the dog in a driven external focused state of aggression the dog will be confused and likely not bite. If i'm coming out for this type of work i want my dog active and going forward with aggression to activate the decoy, so i want to hold the collar or harness and encourage external activity. If i cant cue up aggression yet then this should be more of a focus in my bitework training than worrying about a scenario like the carjacking.
I work a lot on rituals that cue drive and direct focus. Consistency in starting sessions with creating the drive and focus you need before working on the behaviors is paramount to the dog learning the cues and dialing in their focus. I want to be able to bring a dogs focus to my eyes and then shift it to a reward i have and then shift it outward to an external reward. I want to be able to control the dogs drive in capped state (quiet, still, and focused but not suppressed) and i want to be able to open up their drive into an expressive crazy state (pulling, barking, nothing can stop me state of mind) . If i develop rituals and cues that allow me to do all of those things then i can put the dogs drive and focus in the direction i want it before starting the session. When we have the appropriate amount of drive and the focus in the right direction when we begin with the first behavior our session can start off strong and with actual progress from the beginning. I watch many handlers begin a session correcting and rewarding pieces of obedience only really getting the dogs focus and drive right at the end and then putting them away just to repeat again the next time. The dog relies on corrections and rewards to fall into a rhythm the handler desires, and when you step out to trial the dog has to have their drive and focus in the right place right at the start line. Otherwise when you begin and they receive no corrections or reward the behaviors fall apart. When you go out to train next don't think so hard about when to end a session, but think about what are you doing before you begin.
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