I’ve experimented with various systems/plans for tracking training sessions and making rough (or detailed) plans towards our goals. I’ve also had various ways to roughly track student progress to be sure group classes and private lesson clients are making appropriate progress – and to see if changes to the lessons will result in better progress.
After the Bob Bailey seminar last spring I started looking at other ways to make plans and track progress. And now with four dogs in my house… I really have to do something better than my past plans.
Where we’re at/where we’re going:
- Blaze is now ‘retired’ from sports and activities – but I need to be diligent about doing his rehab exercises and fun training to help provide appropriate enrichment.
- Griffin is a ‘mostly trained’ dog, we need to work on details and whatever will help us succeed at trials. I’ve been too busy/not prioritizing well enough and sometimes we’re going trial to trial without any real training in between. We’re working on obedience and agility though we also participate in rally.
- Viktor is only 11 months but there are some life skills he is lacking and there’s no good reason that we are unprepared for some of the low-activity things he could be doing, such as rally or tracking.
- Tonks is just a very young puppy – but there are training things and experiences she should have – calm behaviors, rhythmic behaviors, as well as continuing to develop various types of toy play.
Big Picture Training Plans: I need to have a better idea of our big goals and the sub-goals/pieces needed to accomplish those goals – and I need to make sure we’re working on those skills. It’s often more fun to work on other things than the skills that actually need training.
What I Need to Track: This is what I’m having trouble with. I like to track everything (when, where, number of reps, when errors happened, distractions, etc) but ultimately that’s so much work that I end up doing nothing. I need to have an idea of the sessions occur and where we end the session. This lets me start the next session a little easier than where we left off. I also need to better track our skills that need work. Griffin used to have a long list. I need to be aware of how much we’re working on skills so that we can change plans if we aren’t making progress.
Making it Easy – Record Keeping: Simple things that are check boxes/marking things out are easier than writing. I did find a way to make check boxes online in a document, however it’s a lot of work to create and more effort than it’s worth. At the suggestion of another trainer I have looked into using a program called EverNote and it has options for check boxes though I didn’t find a way to organize information that I appreciated. I may need to go back to the paper versions – but that doesn’t let me quickly find information online.
I like being able to view everything at once, at least for each dog, though it’s even better if I can see everyone.
Making it Easy – For Training to Happen I need to be realistic about how much I can likely do on a daily/weekly basis as well as finding ways to set up training so that I’m likely to actually work on what I would like to work on. Animal trainer Ken Ramirez talks about why people may not follow through with training even when they say it’s very important. But in the end, the desired change isn’t always actually important enough to inspire the person to make the necessary changes. I’m not always motivated to drive out for additional practice opportunities or get up early to do more training (or do training after classes when I’m tired). I know I’m more likely to do training if I’m in a group than alone, if a plan is written out vs in my head, or if we’re in a class rather than not.
Now What? I’m not sure. I’ve started writing out some of our big picture training plans and pieces. I’m looking at more paper and online options for making weekly (or longer term) training plans as well as record keeping for sessions.
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