You might wonder why you need to structure your training session, what is the point when you just want to go out and have fun with your dog? Well there are several reasons why you might think about structuring a session before you go out with your dog…
Does your dog really understand the job you are asking them to do?
This might seem like a really silly idea, your dog runs out in front of you of course they know what they are doing! But do they? Do they always turn left or right when you ask, always stop when ask, do they listen 100% of the time? Do they pass cleanly? There are lots of little parts of what we ask our dogs to do and though it might seem that your dog understands, it doesn’t mean they always do. For example after competing for a couple of years we realised that our dog wasn’t listening to commands and was reliant on where the runner or bike was behind them to work out what corner they were taking. There hadn’t been any issues, we just thought we would test it out at a crossroads and realised that actually our dog was paying more attention to our body language and the pull of the line then what we were saying. Sometimes it is worth testing the little things, you might find something you need to work on!
