Many puppies experience inconsistencies in their training. One day, everything seems great, and your puppy appears to be responding perfectly. Then, the next day comes, and it seems as though they have “forgotten” everything they have learned.
These ups and downs can cause great frustration for pet owners because they are often confused about why their puppy seems to be behaving randomly and feeling discouraged since they may not be aware that the puppy is actually learning throughout these periods of inconsistency.
Inconsistencies do not always mean there is a problem with training or that the puppy has failed to learn. A puppy is developing its ability to control its attention, recall memories, manage emotions, and exert control over impulses. Therefore, their rate of performance will fluctuate.
If, however, the puppy frequently displays inconsistency, then there is likely a problem with either the training process, lack of clear communication, or environmental factors causing these fluctuations. Fortunately, most problems of inconsistency can be fixed with a few targeted adjustments.
Understand That Learning Is Not Linear
Before making adjustments, it is important to understand how puppies learn. A puppy’s training will not necessarily progress in a constant, linear fashion. A puppy’s training will go through various waves of progress rather than simply moving straight up.
One session may demonstrate strong performance, but during the next session, the student may show significant difficulty. The cause of difficulty can range from fatigue to distractions, and/or changes in the puppy’s environment.
Therefore, the puppy has not forgotten how to execute the command and is not displaying inconsistent training progress. The puppy simply has not yet established stability with that behavior in multiple environments.
By accepting that your puppy’s learning process will not be perfectly linear, and acting accordingly in the training process, you can avoid overcorrections and maintain appropriate expectations.
Check If the Command Is Fully Learned
One of the primary reasons for inconsistency in training would be that owners are assuming that their puppy has mastered a behaviour before the puppy has truly mastered that behaviour.
For instance, if a puppy is performing correctly in a very quiet situation, but not at all in a more stimulating or distracting situation, it could be concluded that the puppy has not completely learned that behaviour; thus, a behaviour will only exist in certain settings or under certain conditions.
If the instructions provided do not assist the puppy to perform that behaviour in the desired manner, the owner should consider revisiting the training or performing the training with an easier task to advance or progress.
True learning will consist of a puppy being able to replicate that behaviour across many settings or in many situations, not simply within a single environment or situation.
Reduce Environmental Difficulty
The majority of the time, successful puppy training fails due to an exceedingly difficult environment for the puppy’s skill level. Excessive noise, movement, and/or stimulation can overwhelm a young puppy and lead to variation in response from day-to-day.
To increase the likelihood of success when training your puppy, train in a quiet, controlled environment during the initial stages. When the puppy consistently performs correctly in a quiet setting, you can begin to introduce distractions, such as movement, noise, or different locations, to simulate real-world training situations. This allows your puppy to stabilize learning and reduces the chances of frequent failure.
Improve Timing of Rewards and Feedback
The timing of rewards and feedback during training has a significant effect on the consistency of results. For example, if there is a significant delay when rewarding or giving feedback for a behavior, your puppy may not realize that the behavior resulted in the reward or feedback.
In addition, if the timing of the rewards and feedback is inconsistent, your puppy receives different signals. At times, the correct behavior receives reinforcement, and at other times, the correct behavior does not receive reinforcement, which confuses the puppy.
The best solution is to give praise or rewards immediately after the desired behavior occurs. Even a few seconds of delay can cause the connection to weaken significantly.
Provide clear timing to create a better understanding of what is expected and thus improve the consistency of your puppy’s behavior.
Avoid Changing Commands or Expectations
The majority of the inconsistency in training results from humans, not from puppies. For example, when different family members use different wording, tones, and rules, your puppy receives conflicting information. An example might be that one person says “down” and another person says “lie down”, or that one person will allow the jumping and another will discourage it.
When your puppy receives inconsistent expectations from humans, it creates difficulty for your puppy to learn.
To eliminate this type of inconsistency, all human family members must use the same commands and enforce the same rules. The more consistent each person is in their behavior as it relates to your puppy, the more consistent your puppy will be.
Stop Repeating Commands
Repetitive commands provide puppies with the opportunity to practice ignoring the initial command. This creates a tendency in puppies to think the command is optional and delays their response to the command.
When this occurs, it creates erratic response patterns with puppies where they respond to the command on some days but delay their response on other days.
To improve response time, the owner should give the command only once and then wait. If the puppy does not respond, rather than repeat the command, reset the dog. Doing this reinforces the importance of responding the first time.
Shorten Training Sessions
Long training sessions will leave a puppy mentally fatigued, which can cause their performance to vary from high to low. A puppy that is tired or overly stimulated may perform exceptionally well at the beginning of a training session, but poorly at the end. Using a shorter duration of time increases focus and improves reliability.
A series of short training sessions throughout the day is more effective than one long training session. Ending a session with a puppy still being successful increases his confidence and provides consistency.
Strengthen Reinforcement Value
The other reason inconsistent behaviors may occur is due to the low value of what has been used as a reward. If your puppy does not find value in the praise, toys, or attention at that exact time, he is less likely to follow through with your request.
Therefore, it is important to understand the different values your puppy has for different things in different situations. For example, some puppies require much more exciting rewards in distracting or high-stress environments compared to those who respond well to calm praise in the comfort of home. Changing the strength of the reinforcement will have a considerable effect on improving consistency in training.
Avoid Accidental Reinforcement of Bad Behavior
Inconsistent behaviors also occur when a puppy is occasionally rewarded for unwanted behaviors by accident. For instance, if your puppy jumps up and receives attention one time, and does not receive attention the next time, he is receiving mixed signals about how to behave.
These mixed signals will result in unpredictable behavior from your puppy. To eliminate inconsistency, it is important to ensure that unwanted behaviors are never rewarded or reinforced. Only reinforce the behaviors that you want to be repeated. By establishing clear boundaries, you can eliminate confusion for your puppy and stabilize your dog’s learning.
Practice in Multiple Environments Gradually
Many dogs exhibit inconsistent behaviour since they learn commands in one context only and cannot generalise what they have learned. To fully understand how to respond to commands, a puppy must be trained to respond to the same command no matter where the command is given.
Therefore, you need to teach the command to your puppy at one location and then begin to use the same command in other locations with increasing amounts of distraction. Eventually, your puppy will learn that regardless of where he/she may be located, the command has the same meaning, so the level of consistency will continue to improve as your puppy learns to generalise.
Manage Energy Levels Properly
If a puppy is too excited or too tired, it will have a difficult time performing consistently. When a puppy is too energetic, the puppy tends to act impulsively and become distracted; whereas, when a puppy is too low in energy, the puppy often loses interest and is slow to respond to commands.
To ensure that your puppy performs consistently, always offer your puppy exercise and rest before training sessions. A balanced state of energy levels allows the puppy to maintain focus, resulting in more stable learning.
Reinforce Calm Behavior
Most dog owners concentrate solely on rewarding active behaviours, while many dog owners forget to reward calm behaviours. Teaching your puppy how to remain calm in different situations helps to establish a more consistent approach to training.
To help your puppy become a better all-around dog, many owners should reward their puppies for moments of relaxation, waiting patiently, or simply observing in a calm manner. Teaching self-control during these moments, as well as in other areas of the dog’s life, will help improve the reliability of the command the pup is receiving.
Conclusion
Inconsistent puppy training should not lead owners to believe that their puppies’ training progress is failing, in most cases. Inconsistent puppy training is usually indicative of a normal progression through different developmental stages, various environmental situations, difficulty communicating with the puppy, and/or lack of consistency in the behaviours of their owners.
If you wish to eliminate the inconsistencies in your puppy’s training, there are many ways to simplify the training process by improving the timing of the commands, minimising distractions while training, and ensuring that all rules and expectations remain consistent in every situation. Additionally, puppies need time to generalise their learning and, therefore, develop impulse control.