Dogs are Situational learners
If you met someone only ONCE at a party, do you think you'd remember them if you saw them again in a different place?
OR imagine you had a road rage incident with someone, a very brief and unpleasant encounter, and then a couple days later you happen to see that same person in the grocery store… you don't remember them right away. It's out of context and you can't remember for certain where you know them from, until maybe they speak and you recognize their voice. Suddenly you have a lightbulb moment but its unfortunately a delayed reaction. Dogs are even more prone to have these types of out of context moments.
Animals are very situational learners and don't generalize well. Because of this we believe dogs need their initial R.A.T. twice the first year in two different locations! Dogs are like naïve toddlers, they do not know snakes exist anywhere other than where they first received training! We want to be sure your dog doesn't have an out of context moment when they are ‘nose to nose’ with a rattlesnake in the wild! We try to prevent this by having the dogs next encounter with rattlesnakes be in a safe setting by attending our training at an alternate location from the first.
When they return for their annual refreshers try to alternate locations as well. By doing this we are increasing the chances of them generalizing the training so that no matter where your dog sees, hears or smells a rattlesnake they will immediately recognize it and stay away.
The Generalizing session (2nd training) is priced lower than your dogs 1st initial training!
