Preparing for a training sessions is more important than the actual training session itself. That's because if you don't prepare THE RIGHT WAY your training session will not workout the way you wanted it too and most likely the dog will be the one that gets blamed for being stubborn, hardheaded, or even stupid. 90% of the time, the reason our sessions don't work out is from human error!
Below is my checklist for preparing to train any dog.
1. Prepare the treats and have them ready in your treat pouch. If you get the treats out of the plastic bag and go right into training you will get better resposes and faster too but, they are false responses. The dog is only acting that way because you just opened a bag of treats and asked for a behavior. You want to get them out of the plastic bag and into your treat pouch and then finish all the other prep items on this list so it isn't fresh in your dog's mind.
2. Take your dog out for a bathroom break. *Don't forget a special, high-valued treat to reinforce the potty break*
3. Exercise your dog with a flirt pole, playing fetch, or someway to get your dog to run vigorously non-stop for 15-20 minutes.
4. Prepare a list while your dog gets some water for a few minutes
5. Grab all of your positive-only equipment that you are using. I.e., Treat pouch, clicker, timer/phone, Mat, Crate, flirtpole, tug toy/favorite toy, helper if needed. *Prep work is the key to succeeding8
6. Go to a quiet area if you are just starting out and clear all distracting items from the ground, tell everyone in the house to leave you to your training, and cut off all t.v.'s/radios so you and your dog can concentrate. You are trying to teach your dog a different language so be respectful and allow your dog to have a distraction-free area to learn.
7. Have a positive attitude, speak normal, no yelling and if you get frustrated take a break and play with your dog in between sessions.
HAPPY DOGS THROUGH PAWSITIVE TRAINING