Recovery

How it works

It is often a better measure of progress than whether a reaction happened at all. Two dogs can bark at the same trigger, and the one who is sniffing again within seconds is in a different place from the one still scanning ten minutes later. Recovery tends to improve before frequency does, which is why training can appear to be failing while it is actually working: the barking is still happening, and what has changed is everything after it. It also shortens as a dog's overall stress load drops.

What it looks like

A dog barks at a passing van. Six weeks earlier they would have stayed lit up for the rest of the walk. Now they bark twice, take a treat, and are sniffing a hedge fifteen seconds later.

Commonly confused with

Threshold

Threshold is the point at which a dog stops coping. Recovery is what happens afterwards, and how long the return takes. A dog can have a low threshold and fast recovery, or the reverse.

Related terms

Where this comes up