The few times I’ve had a perfect training session, where the dog did just what I wanted it to do, put a big smile on my face. However, many savvy trainers believe that dogs learn much more by making a mistake and receiving a timely correction than they do when they do everything perfectly.

Using Mistakes to Teach Your Dog

As an example, when I was handling a dog in my first Irish setter national championship, she and her bracemate had a divided find in a small, thick brush pile. The other handler and I tried to flush the bird (a released quail), but it always managed to run to a different part of the brush. Having seen the bird evading us, the judge instructed us to fire our blank guns and move on.

We collared the dogs for about 15 yards, watered them, and turned them loose. Both immediately circled back and pointed the bird in the brush pile again—a “delayed chase” that quickly disqualified both dogs from contention.

With limited opportunity for correction because of the judge and gallery, I decided to set the dog up with the same scenario the next day. When she repeated the crime, I planned to give her enough stimulation via her e-collar that she would remember not to not make the same mistake the next time she was in a similar situation.

At my training area the next day, I planted three quail in similar type areas. I turned the dog loose, and when she pointed the first bird I pretended to flush for a minute or two. Acting like I was flushing but not putting the bird to flight, I collared the dog, took her on, and released her. Of course, she never even looked back, and didn’t double back on the other two birds, either. If only training was easy!

Using Training Corrections Productively

NBHA Hall-of-Famer Tom Woods of Woods Kennel near Adair, Oklahoma, has been training pointing dogs for 40 years. Because of his training philosophy, Woods is a big believer in productive corrections.

“The way I train, or the mindset I try to use, is when I go out there I don't expect perfection,” Woods said in an exclusive interview with Gun Dog magazine. “I go out there with the mindset that I know they're going to screw up, or could possibly screw up, and then anytime they make a mistake it’s a training opportunity. Dog training to me is not black and white—it’s gray. So, if you’ve got your mind wrapped around that, everything is a training opportunity, a correction opportunity. If I go out there and he does perfect, well, it’s a happy day, but I don’t go out there with the expectations of a perfect day and then get rankled because it wasn’t.”

Woods said a lot of his training is based on the dog making a mistake, then him making a timely correction. In their early stages of training, he doesn’t really try to keep dogs from making mistakes. But once they are to a point that he knows they understand what they are supposed to do but do something else instead, they’re ready to have the lesson reinforced.

“You're basically proofing once you've got him to that point,” Woods said. “You know he's pretty consistent, but you're going to try to set him up to fail somewhat or give him an excuse to make a mistake. In whoa training, we do a tap and then a little whistle release or verbal command before he can move. Now, you're going to put your hand around his head, walk, take a step away from him, try to get him to move. You’ll have the collar on the flank or neck or whatever correction you use, and reinforce the command in a timely manner.”

The Importance of Timing on Corrections

Of course, “timely” is the key word here. If corrections are not done  aalmost immediately, they are often not as effective as they could have been. In fact, if done too late, they might even teach the dog something you weren’t intending to teach it.

“There again, it's all about timing on the correction,” Woods said. “If you use a stimulation-based correction (e-collar), then you’ve got to anticipate what you set up and what you are looking for when you do that. The transmitter has got to be in your hand, basically with your finger on the button. If he is supposed to stand, and instead takes that forward step, you’ve got to make that correction in a timely manner. A lot of people don't anticipate and are being more reactive to what the dog does. Having the transmitter in your pocket or in your vest to make a correction is way too late.”

A great example of a productive correction is using birds from your bird bag to set up a stop-to-flush situation that gives the dog a choice of doing what it knows is right or doing something else.

“When a dog is running by me, I’m going to throw a bird in front of him trying to get him to either chase, so I can make a correction, or stop and do it the way he is supposed to,” Woods said. “You can also set up a remote launcher with a pigeon and do it that way. But that’s somewhat harder to set up.”

Woods warns, however, that trying to make such corrections too early in a dog’s training can lead to big problems down the road. And those problems might not be easily fixed.

“There's no shortcut: You’ve got to do your proper puppy development,” he said. “I think a lot of people try to take a shortcut on their puppy development and try to break them too soon. He's got to like his birds. He's got to have a good whoa. He's got to have a good foundation. You can’t ask too much of him too soon.”