At first glance, perfect training sessions seem to be impossible to accomplish. The word “perfect” means flawless or free of errors. How could we possibly teach our dogs without encountering any kind of mistakes? This Learning Lab, taught by Emma Parsons, is going to convince you otherwise.

Proper planning is crucial for a successful training session. Choosing the right criteria and delivering the right reinforcement at the right time and in the right way is essential for completing clean training loops. The cleaner the training loop, the faster that behavior becomes reliable.

As much as it seems like a far reach, we, as trainers, do have a lot of input into how certain skills can be taught. Our dogs will be successful if we can mark the correct behavior. How are we marking it? Does the dog recognize that marker signal? And what about reinforcement? Is it the right kind? How is it delivered? What is our hand communicating when we deliver it? Between session, what is our body communicating to our canine comrades?

Incorporating key elements in our training sessions can take our training skills to the next level. The more defined the details, the more advanced trainers we will become.