Many times we think we have rewarded the dog, on too many occasions this has not reinforced the behaviour we were looking for, it just made us feel good. This is neither efficient or effective teaching or fair on our dogs who struggle so hard to learn from us.

We all develop different patterns of reinforcement. We fall into lazy training habits that suit our skills and beliefs instead of learning to measure exactly what is happening to the behaviours we are teaching. The location of delivery, the style of the delivery, the type of reinforcer and value of the reinforcer all influence the behaviour and without careful thought and planning we can diminish the very behaviours we are trying to strengthen.

Stepping away from the traditional forms of training, even traditional clicker training, can be uncomfortable. Examination of your techniques will either prompt a change, or reinforce that you were on the right track all along and doing a pretty good job. With either outcome, making that step aside should be done regularly and diligently to keep our teaching at the very best we can offer.