Disorganized Organization

I am the queen of plan making. But when it comes to accomplishing those plans I seem to be somewhere in the league of wicked step-sister.

But really, I can make a beautiful, detailed, well thought out plan. And I do, make many many plans. This is true of the four legged lessons too. But, alas, the plans so often fall by the wayside in the face of so many interruptions. So I thought I would try to put together a few tips for organizing regular dog training.

TIP #1:DON'T MAKE IT SO COMPLICATED!

Recently on the Training Levels Yahoo Group (a wealth of info everyone should tap into) there has been some discussion of journaling about Levels Training. There is a great on-line tracker specifically designed for this by someone is not only skilled at making plans, but very skilled at accomplishing them. (Unlike certain other two legged people(me) who shall remain nameless.) I fall into the category of making my journaling way too detailed so that it always gets left undone. So application of tip #1: I am going to pull up their journals and see where we are at.

TIP #2: EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS

I tend to be the all or nothing thinker, and try not to let that apply to working the pups. But, ahhh. . . .the fallacy of beautiful, complicated detailed plans: if I can't do the whole plan perfect its not to encouraging to even try. Here enters another thought from the wisdom of the Training Levels group members: even 30 seconds of work with their dinner is "daily work". Which is something both girls do nearly every day, so two wags for us! Another not-original-from-me (unfortunately) thought was to train a different behavior on each commercial break. Not sure that works for us as if its not on the DVR I don't watch it. But the principle is sound. 2-3 minutes of work on a particular behavior w/ a longer break in between and each session is a new behavior. Application of tip #2:start the laundry. . .do a short session. etc. . . etc. . .etc. . .

Real life work and lessons get done every day, all day in our house, but it is the regular, more structured sessions that I have been neglecting the past bit so hopefully this will help us get back on track. And now in the spirit of applying these useful organization tips I'm going to go start the laundry and work a go to mat session and then I am going to track it, so if you're interested in how we did hop over to Maizey's journal and check it out!