How to keep a training log

Logging incidents, not just sessions

Some of the most useful entries are not training sessions at all. When your dog barks at a visitor, pulls hard at a jogger or steals from the counter, jot down what happened just before, what your dog did and what happened right after. Trainers call this antecedent, behavior, consequence, or ABC.

Over a few weeks, ABC notes often reveal the reward that is keeping a behavior alive. If every counter theft follows you leaving the kitchen with food out, the fix is partly training and partly a habit of yours. Our page on management vs training is useful reading here.

• Before: what was happening just before the behavior
• Behavior: what your dog actually did, described plainly
• After: what your dog got or avoided as a result

The two-week review

Every other weekend, spend ten minutes reading back. For each cue, write one word: improving, steady or stuck. Then look across the notes column for repeated triggers, times or places. Pick one stuck skill and one trigger to focus on for the next two weeks.

Look for success rates too. If a cue is below about eight in ten in a given place, it is too hard there for now; practice somewhere easier. If it is above nine in ten, it is ready for a harder version.

Mistakes that make logs useless

Writing judgments instead of facts is the most common. ‘Terrible walk, ignored me’ tells you nothing next month; ‘pulled toward two dogs on Washington St, took food after we crossed the road’ tells you the trigger, the distance problem and the fix that worked. Describe what your dog did, not how it made you feel.

The second is logging only bad days. If you write only when things go wrong, the log will look worse than reality and hide your progress. Short entries for good sessions are what make a stuck skill stand out. And if several people walk the dog, keep one shared log so nobody’s sessions vanish.

Sharing the log with your trainer

Send a short summary rather than the full log: the three skills you care most about, how each has trended, and the two or three situations that cause the most trouble. Attach a couple of short videos if you can. Bring the full log to any lesson in case the trainer wants detail.

If you completed the two-week Advanced program, the second coaching lesson is a natural moment to share it. Foundation families can bring it to a private session or any follow-up they arrange.