Session observation notebook: what happened first?

Keep a record you can return to: the source, the moment and the sequence you observed. This notebook helps you prepare a question for your trainer. It does not score the dog, diagnose a problem or choose a training adjustment.

Choose one exchange.

Begin with the handler-timing guide, Kodak’s cue-and-reward passage, or an existing recording from your own lesson. Watch before and after the moment you want to describe. A source timestamp is more useful than a film timestamp alone.

Write visible actions and audible words. Mark anything unclear as unknown. If you record an explanation, attach it to the person who gave it.

Your observation record.

Your entries stay in this page. This tool does not send or automatically save them. Download or print before leaving to keep a copy. Use ordinary descriptions without private contacts or addresses.

Recording title or source link Moment or timestamp 1. What words did you hear? 2. What did the handler visibly do? 3. What did the dog do next? 4. What happened afterward? 5. What is unclear or outside the frame? 6. What would you ask your trainer?

Use the record to ask a better question.

Keep the trainer’s agreed practice instructions in your practice note. This observation notebook records what you saw; it does not replace those instructions. If you compare two exchanges, use the two-moment workbench to keep the conditions and responses separate, then print or download your comparison. Finn’s training-in-context guide gives you a worked starting point.

Explore Field Notes owner-practice resources or follow a family film into its source sessions.