Over the years I have found it very useful to record my training with my dog for a numbers of reasons.  Like anything you wish to get better at, knowing your strengths and weaknesses in the beginning is a genuine asset and an important part of establishing your training goals.

I find having a dedicated Log Book just for Herding, ensures I stay on track and it’s also a great reference whenever I want to look back on how my dog progressed.  As an instructor, I require my students to log their training sessions and I see  a much greater responsibility on the handler to reflect on just how many training sessions they have actually done with the dog on a certain skill.

Professional athletes, successful business people, and virtually any successful individual has established a plan for goals they wish to accomplish. You certainly don’t have to log your training but it will improve your game.

“Never mistake activity for achievement.” –John Wooden

Logging your sessions and making plans for your next training session is the key to progressing at a rate realistic to your goals.

• 50 pages for log entries – so 50 training sessions!
• Trial recording sheets in back
• Herding Title acronyms for most Herding Programs

Being prepared for your training session is great for you and your dog because you are able to look at the last session and see where you left off.  It also makes a difference to your trainer if you do take herding lessons, if you come prepared with a lesson plan. A good lesson plan should be based on your past training efforts and some evaluation of your training success last session.

“Anticipate from past experience and be prepared.”

There is a great section in the Log Book (50 pages for 50 lessons) to help you assess your training sessions that you should fill in after each training. This helps you evaluate what worked and what didn’t work, what you should focus on in your next session, and more great keys to creating better goal success.

“It is easy to see why failing to prepare is preparing to fail and never mistake activity for achievement get along so well.” Craig Impelman