# Dog Training Log/Journal



## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

How many of you log your dog training efforts? I'm starting to think I should, and I'm not sure of what will work best for me.

My reasons for wanting to track things is that Watson is young and has so much to learn that I lose focus on the one or two things he needs to work on *right now* and end up jumping around. I get to obedience class and they ask for the stay at heel+recall and I realize I forgot to work on that and spent too much time teaching him to go around chairs in the kitchen 

I put together a spreadsheet yesterday (hey, I'm engineer, it's what we do) with trick, cue word, hand signal, current status, things to work on, and whether we should focus on it this week. I don't plan to update after every training session (though I know some do, and I'd love to hear different methods) because I don't think I would keep up, but I can update every week or so as he progresses.

What has worked for you? A notebook? Logging on your phone? A spreadsheet? Keeping track mentally?


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

I keep track of other things, but would love to have a training journal, too. I'm interested to read what others have done.


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

I have always kept dog training journals because at end of month you will forget (let me rephrase) I will forget what the dog was 30 days previous and what exactly it was that I did to the dog each training session. 50 years ago it was all notebooks or legal pads. Much easier now with PC's, IPads whatever a person chooses to keep track.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Part of me has always wanted to, but I'm bad enough at keeping a journal for myself (read: I don't) so this would be doubly hard for me.
I see the benefits for sure though. Sometimes there will just be a week where I slack off on training entirely. Because day by day, it's easy for me to think, "ohh, I worked on this just the other day so I'll hold off till tomorrow." And "the other day" was like... last week. 

Here's one cutesy method a trainer-friend of mine thought up that I like because it suits my spontaneous mind more:
-On little slips of paper, write down behaviors you are working on. If there is a behavior that needs more work than others, write it on multiple slips.
-Jumble it all up and put it in a bowl in a high traffic area (near dog food bin, kitchen counter, on dog's crate, etc)
-Every day, take one or a few slips of paper out and work on those behaviors for a few minutes per slip of paper.

Though admittedly, I've never done that either. I pretty much train 'whenever I feel like it'  
There are tricks I haven't revisited till years later.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Canyx, while I can see the value of a daily journal and logging every session, I agree with you that I don't think I could keep up with it. I'm not that organized (I've also never kept up with a journal for myself). I like the idea of seeing progress over time, but on the other hand, progress is pretty obvious (ie he used to not know something, and now he does). I'm not keeping track of which days I train or what things I worked on each day, but eventually I might if there would be a benefit to keep me working on things.

On my spreadsheet attempt, I didn't leave any room for ongoing updates. Instead, I plan to just re-type the progress section to list his current skill level. So right now for rollover it says "started training, can rollover with lure". Next steps might say "fade lure, add hand signal". Eventually I can update the status when I have faded the lure, or he has learned the cue. That way if I drop a trick for a while, I can go back and see where he was. 

The far right column is labelled "Current Homework" and I have an X with the behaviors I want to focus on this week. My only problem is that I do spontaneous sessions and I don't have my laptop open, but at least looking at the list helps to keep them in mind. I might list them out on an index card every week that I can keep out on the counter. I like the idea of the slips of paper, though like you I think I prefer being more spontaneous and if I don't want to work on a homework item, I'll work on something else.

So that's a more detailed explanation of what I've set up. We'll see how it works! I tried to keep it fairly simple so I'll actually update it. I'm working on so many foundation things with him that aren't super exciting (like straight sits at heel, adding duration and distraction to stays) that I hope this keeps me on track with them.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

To use system engineering concepts, you might include the number of training sessions and repetitions, to be able to to plot the progress in terms of rate of learning, and accelerating rate of learning, and correlation of learning rates and certain behaviors. For example, with age, my dog learned new cues for the same behavior, at one rate for new spoken words, faster with hand gestures, and much faster with written symbols (reading)... not b/c of the method, but b/c of his increasing capacity to learn. I think the folks who are diligent clicker trainers would see the greatest rate of improvement. Thirty seconds of entry per session for concrete metrics that demonstrate: "Gosh, my dog's getting smarter"


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

hanksimon said:


> To use system engineering concepts, you might include the number of training sessions and repetitions, to be able to to plot the progress in terms of rate of learning, and accelerating rate of learning, and correlation of learning rates and certain behaviors. For example, with age, my dog learned new cues for the same behavior, at one rate for new spoken words, faster with hand gestures, and much faster with written symbols (reading)... not b/c of the method, but b/c of his increasing capacity to learn. I think the folks who are diligent clicker trainers would see the greatest rate of improvement. Thirty seconds of entry per session for concrete metrics that demonstrate: "Gosh, my dog's getting smarter"


The engineer in me thinks it would be awesome to keep statistics like this, but I'm not sure I'd have the discipline to do it! I bet you could write a dissertation on this type of thing if you kept really really good records.

I do see Watson's rate of learning improving as he matures and learns how to learn and it would be fun to have the data.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

Would you like a ready-made dissertation on "The Rate of Learning in a Dog Training Activity" ?


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

hanksimon said:


> Would you like a ready-made dissertation on "The Rate of Learning in a Dog Training Activity" ?


Yes please! I'll go get my PhD with it :-D


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I've already got the words, just change "Sophmore Programmer" to "Dog" ... but we'll need the data and statistical analysis, and to scan in the 30+ year old hardcopy


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## Dolly87 (Feb 13, 2014)

I absolutely log my trick training with my Lab - I find it keeps me motivated to train every day, and I also like looking back over the log to see how much we've accomplished.  There is an awesome downloadable training log on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/527173187/printable-dog-training-planner-dog


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## Lillith (Feb 16, 2016)

I just made a little "Ralphie's Progress" thread on here, because I know I won't keep track of it in a notebook. I'm on here quite a bit anyway, so why not just put stuff on it? I don't keep track, of specific training, more like goals of "Ralphie went over the teeter!" or "Ralphie passed a dog, a jogger, and a motorized scooter with no reaction today!" type of milestones so I can remember where we've been and how far we've come!


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

So before I got my puppy I made a training log. I've used it zero times. D'oh!!


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## crysania (Oct 1, 2010)

I document all of my training classes (and some of my at home training) with my dogs. I have for years (on Livejournal and Dreamwidth). I actually write out all the course maps for agility and talk my way through how things went with the dog, etc. I like to have it to look back on, if nothing else!


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## Effisia (Jun 20, 2013)

I really should do this. And not just to record what we have trained, but to remind me to train more often. I finally got a new day planner, so I'm going to be building in some training time there, too. But I'd love to have a record of what we've been working on. My brain is too scattered to keep up to date.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Funny that my old thread came up again, because this year I started a bullet journal for dog training (though I don't really follow the traditional format other than having a future log and monthly calendars). Every month I draw out a calendar so I can write in classes, shows, trials, etc. I log agility classes (mostly courses and any tips I picked up), and sometimes other training as well. I tried a monthly tracker to keep track of how many times we trained specific behaviors but I was bad about keeping up with that. Overall I really like having all dog stuff in one place (I'm keeping seminar notes there as well, instead of in a separate journal), and having courses from agility so I can figure out what to work on more easily.


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## Max&Jack (May 9, 2017)

A journal is a great idea! I just used my kitchen wall calendar. Sunday's is for walking polite/heel, Monday down/stays, Tuesday Tricks etc etc
Once Jack got, for example, down/stay figured out correctly in different environments, I started mixing it up with playtime to make it more fun and shortened the training part of it while starting something else, (like longer down/stays)


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## Bentwings (Mar 30, 2015)

I too am an engineer. I kept a daily log back in the Schutzhund days. We trained every day. I added the people and dogs and performance notes. Lots of individual notes. Dogs were easier to remember as I got to work all of them. Handlers were much harder...like hey you get " dog's name". It was a very intensive time.

Today I maintain a list of commands and events that we do. I start daily walks with planning training things to do and where to do them. So it a mental thing. I found that trying to follow a list on paper was too distracting. No phones permitted. 100 % concentration on the task at hand.

Additionally I constantly search the area for problems to avoid or confront. 

For example, I do Streetrods big time. So yesterday was the first time I brought Sam to an event. It was a very large grand opening for an A&W. There was a rock band and well over two hundred cars. I knew there would be several dogs, none of which have any training. So the goal was to walk calmly through all the cars and people and not get excited about strange dogs regardless of their responses. Sam is very good outside of our apt grounds so I felt it was time to meet the car crowd. Lots of noise, people eating, talking and walking about. I had planned on stopping and chatting with friends as well as new faces and introduce Sam to them. She did very well. She did sits, downs and stands with our very subtle hand commands. So all of our training is working. Street smarts, I call it. She was able to heel on the left or right as well as follow and lead.
The afternoon was a very big mental exercise for her as she ate dinner at home and curled up on my feet for a long nap. One neat comment was that Sam was better behaved than my car.LOL. We finished with a trip to Tractor Supply for dog food. It's her favorite place to go as she gets treats from the employees.

Sam requires a huge amount of exercise each day both mental and physical, so we do walks with purpose and mental things as above.


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