The following stage of learning is when the dog learns Fluency
The other day I wrote about the first stage of learning for your pup. Today I will go to the next stage of learning.
This stage is when they become fluent.
Let’s say in stage one, the acquiring stage, you decided to train them that when someone comes over they need to go to a certain spot in the house, sit and wait until they are told they may go say “hi.”
In stage one you planned out the training they need to learn to sit (if they do not know this yet) and they need to learn stay. You must provide a spot for them to go to while they wait to be released by a word you have picked.
For the sake of this blog, we are going to assume the dog is trained in all the above areas. When you first start training them how to complete the task, you need to do a lot of communication until they understand.
In the second stage they are now able to understand when there is a knock on the door or the door opens, they need to go to that spot you assigned them and sit there. This would be without any help from you.
The knock or the door opening is now the que to the dog and muscle memory kicks in. They do the task without really thinking about it. Their minds make the body go to the spot. When you are at this point, they can improve the behavior -- stay longer, sit longer, or even lay down to really increase calmness.
When you reach this point of the training you will move on to stage 3 which is called Generalization.
I will post about stage 3 in the next few days. I hope you found this a little helpful.