You single biggest training mistake

[JoeLacy]

Post what to did and why you think it was a mistake, so we all can learn.

Mine was when I bought Peyton those stuffed toys and encouraged her to tear into them. NOW, anything that hits the floor that is cloth MUST be a tear up toy. If it's stuffed like your best bed comforter or your good throw pillows it's just a great BIG stuffed toy.

[Lizmo]

Not knowing enough.

[smkie]

I have been a trainer for a long time but fact is you make mistakes No matter where you are in the scheme of things. I yelled at Pepper once in pure frustration then i grabbed her up and told her how very horribly sorry I was. IT didn't set us back, but it still shoudlnt have happened.

[CaliTerp07]

I think I often ask too much of Lucy before she's ready. In agility, on her recall, on her focus...it's all about baby steps. She's so smart, so I think she "gets it", but she really doesn't.

We have a good rule in agility. If your dog messes up a task twice in a row, you make it easier. I have to be really conscious to do that on a daily basis with her regular training too.

[Doberluv]

It's hard to come up with a single mistake. I make and have made so many. LOL. I've ruined Jose`'s recall, then fixed it, then ruined it, then fixed it. He takes special care to keep his recall decent and I get lazy sometimes and do things that I know better not to do.

[Fran101]

with kenya? it was encouraging her to jump on my bed

and with romeo, I haven't really had him long enough to really screw anything up lol

[corgipower]

The single biggest mistake was not reinforcing contact zones sufficiently with Ares. That had disastrous results for him that ultimately ended a brilliant competition career prematurely.

Beyond that, there have been and still are and will be mistakes. That's a part of life and a part of learning. I've made mistakes with Ares, and every day I thank him for being so resilient and forgiving and for his amazing ability to trust me undeservedly. I've made mistakes with Morgan and am lucky that she is mild mannered enough for it to not be a big deal. I've made mistakes with Tyr, although not so noticeable as he's pretty fool proof. I've made mistakes with Nyx and am just now starting to get things on the right track with her. It's a learning curve.

[eddieq]

If I had to pick one, it would be consistency. It does no good if I train train train on Tuesday and then just toss it all out the window on Wednesday.

[ACooper]

Pick only ONE?

Probably not starting out treating Orson as an individual and expecting him to learn, react, and behave the same as Phoebe. They are totally opposite personalities, breeds, and sexes........now why wouldn't that dawn on me from day one? LOL

It caused stress and frustration for me which in turn caused stress and frustration for him.

[elegy]

physically punishing luce's dog aggression/reactivity. fortunately i made the mistake with her, not one of my boys, because she's so confident and her reactivity is not fear-born. i don't feel i ever really damaged her, i just fed her overstimulation and worked against myself. but if i hadn't been faced with that issue, if i hadn't made the mistakes i made, i never would have learned how to deal with that issue correctly, and i wouldn't have the experience to look back on and say "punishing this didn't work".

i've made plenty of other mistakes of varying degrees of importance, but that's, imo, the biggest.