If you and your dog don’t seem to be making progress on a given behavior, consider these troubleshooting suggestions. Spoiler alert: it's usually us, not the dog 😁
Help! My dog...
seems uninterested in training
There could be a few things going on here. Try...
More exciting treats
Set your dog up for success
Shorten your sessions
More enthusiasm
is interested for a while but then loses interest
Shorten your sessions
More enthusiasm
Set your dog up for success
is too excited by the treats to focus
All dogs are different. Some dogs need their trainers to bring more excitement and enthusiasm, some need more calm and focus.
Less exciting treats
Reward for calm
keeps rapidly offering different behaviors instead of listening
In this case, you dog may be overly-excited and/or confused about what you’re asking. Check out these tips:
Reward for calm
Go slow; take baby steps
yawns a lot / turns their head / scratches themselves / sniffs the ground during training
These are all signs that your dog may be stressed or frustrated. This is likely caused by feeling discouraged and confused. To help with this, try...
Go slow; take baby steps
Shorten your sessions
Set your dog up for success
seems to have forgotten the behavior I taught them
Go slow; take baby steps
Add some variety
just can’t seem to figure out what I want them to do