4 stages of Dog Learning
Acquisition:
The goal in moving the treat over the dog’s head is that, as he is looking up at the treat, he’ll will then place his back-end on the ground, and sit to look at it. At that precise moment, we would reward the dog (tasty treat, petting, play, etc…) for doing so.
Automatic:
During this stage, he is becoming more and more alert to what he’s been seeing and/or hearing, and proficient in knowing what he needs to do about those things, when he sees or hears them.
Generalization:
This is generally accomplished by training the dog within the contexts of those new locations and making it easy for him to learn by taking a few steps back in the training process and teaching him the basics once again. If you want your dog to perform in a certain way in a certain environment or situation, you’ll need to train him specifically in those places.
Maintenance:
At this stage, intermittent training is still required to maintain that level of generalization and reliability. Training is a lifelong commitment. Depending on the dog, only a small amount of occasional training is all that may be needed. Other dogs may need some “refresher” exercises from previous stages to help maintain a high degree of learned knowledge.
Please ask any questions!
