Monday, May 10, 2010

Plateau periods in training

I've run into this often with my own dogs and we see it regularly in classes, and it is something to keep in mind when working with your own dogs. When learning new skills dogs seem to hit a plateau period that often happens around week 5 of training. This is a period where their progress seemingly comes to a dead halt or sometimes even back-slides a bit. This can be a frustrating time for owners that are working hard with their dogs and seeing regular progress. If your dog hits a plateau period, back up in your training for a couple of weeks by going back to easier exercises, or at least not continuing forward with more difficult skills. Within a few weeks your dog will be back to normal and will be able to pick up right where they left off originally. You can expect this to happen whenever you teach several new skills to your dog and the good news is, it's normal! :-)

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