Finished Session - Page 1

Did it go well? If it went bad, we go behind the woodshed. If it went well in Obedience, we'll do some play with lots of praise and to the car. In Protection, being a sportster, he carries the sleeve to the car. Same thing if I'm working a pup at home.

Vixen, that was a joke about the woodshed. You always want to end on a high note. As to you ending in a normal manner, what type of training do you do? I am speaking from a sport percspective and when we are done, we are done. I don't heel the dog back to the car. Usually, we'll play for a bit and the dog will carry it's toy/reward off the field to the car. I want the dog to be eager to take the field every time. No matter if we had some problems, we work through them and in the end, we play and the dog leaves the field feeling good about the session.

 Vixen we end training on a similar note with a similar outlook. We end with play and in a casual manner. Generally my dogs are pushing me to keep going for training and that is how I want to keep things. I too want to avoid the dog thinking the end of training is the best part. I want the entire training session to be the most fun for the dog so they push me to keep training, not to get to the end. 

Some good posts and good thoughts. Vixen and SchaferSchH, maybe how we end our sessions are either the way we were taught? What works best for the dog? Or what we as the handler believes is appropriate?

My thoughts are somewhat if not totally the way Don, (Good to have you back Donny boy!) thinks/explained. I hear what you two are saying but for me or my dogs they KNOW the difference between training, work/reality, start and finish. Now I'm not saying your dogs do or don't, so don't take it the wrong way, just talking about me. For explosives as soon as the dog goes into the vehicle crate he knows something is up! Training or work. I was always taught training is play/play is training. When I first started out I was taught that the dog whatever venue was kenneled. Never came out except by the handler. Only came out to train/work. So in essence all energy stored up/all drive was used on/for training/work. You learn. The dogs are such as that isn't necessary now days. So for the explosives, very Little obedience. I want the dog to think/say "I can't wait to get out, as soon as I hit the ground I'm going to FIND that "hide" or explosive! 

For bite work, ( I was saying this on another thread) as soon as Reiker "hears" the prong collar clink with itself it's on! As soon as he sees the agitation collar or the harness it's on. He is bouncy/jumping around so excited and will race to my side or front so those things can be put on. And then it's "The other world,  he's in"  We haven't even done anything, even started or even ended. He knows what is going to happen and he is waiting at the truck to get in the crates. So for me or for/with my dogs Reiker will take the reward off the field to the truck. Then we have to hear him for the rest of the training because he wants back out on the field! For the explosives after training/work they will end on a good note, they'll either be tired and rest or go directly into another type of training; conditioning, running, sprints or just playing with each other or rough housing. The majority of the time all of them just don't want to stop and would run, train non-stop if allowed to.