We are hoping that you [the reader of this post] are doing great and that the content we are putting out from Animal Training Academy is assisting you with your personal Animal Training & Behaviour skills.
This post is about the value of practising your mechanics before you are in front of your animal.
Mechanics = all the physical movements you require during a training session [see the examples below].
I feel like watching someone do something [i.e. the mechanical behaviours involved in training an animal] &/or having it explained to you with words – is very different from actually doing it yourself. So consequently, practising mechanics by oneself [or with a human peer] is something I do a lot!
To help demonstrate how you might practice mechanics, I have included some video examples below:
In these videos, we had been training Finn-dog to have his face groomed. We had been practising with two people. But it came time to fade me out and have Helen [Finn’s owner] do the training on her own [Video 1]…