My dog, Bailey, has a sensei—a dog-obedience trainer. Actually, my wife and I have a sensei to teach us how to train our dog. In fact, my wife and I have used the same dog-obedience trainer for the last three dogs, all German shepherds. No one would mistake us for Mr. and Mrs. Dog Whisperer.

Recently, while I was traveling for business, my wife and Bailey had a lesson with the trainer. Bailey was unfocused and not very successful at executing the new commands from the prior lesson. In short, the trainer was not impressed.

The trainer astutely noted that the dog was suffering from the effect of inconsistent training. Yes, I was the master at the previous lesson (while my wife was out of town with kid No. 2) and maybe, just maybe, I did not train rigorously enough to help Bailey master the latest technique. And maybe I did not effectively transfer the knowledge to my wife so she could learn the new technique herself and practice it with Bailey.

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