16/06/2026
When people hear “loopy training” they often think about dog sports or advanced clicker skills.
But I think it’s just as valuable in behaviour work.
A training loop is the entire cycle that occurs around a behaviour:
Cue → Behaviour → Reinforcement
In this clip, the hand touch isn’t the whole exercise.
Bo collects a thrown cookie, turns back towards me, touches my hand, earns reinforcement, and then is cued to collect the next cookie before the cycle begins again.
The goal is to create a loop that is smooth, predictable, and easy for the dog to understand.
Why?
Because once the dog understands the pattern, changes in behavior become meaningful information beyond whether he understands the cue to touch my hand.
If the dog suddenly struggles, disengages, hesitates, or finds the exercise more difficult, we can be more confident we’re seeing something about the environment, the level of challenge, or the dog’s current state—not just confusion created by our training.
Clean loops don’t just help dogs learn.
They help us become better observers.
Have you ever used loopy training in your own training sessions?
