June/July 08

One on One
Oops!
What to do after you mess up.
by James Keldsen

e all make mistakes. We make them at work, at home, and in the field while training and hunting our retrievers. Mistakes are unavoidable, so we must learn to deal with them, and that means knowing what types of mistakes are most likely to occur, recognizing them, deducing how they may affect the dog, and knowing how to fix them.

The severity of the goof, the dog’s experience level, the trainer’s experience level, the training level at the time, and other factors determine the lasting effects of the mess-up. Some mistakes are small with insignificant results; others are major with serious repercussions. Fortunately for us, retrievers are intelligent dogs and will recover from most all of our mistakes if we take the right steps.

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