I have a huge advantage over most dog trainers. I don’t train in order to make a living, or even as a supplemental income source. I have a nice police pension and no longer have to work for a living. But I am a type A personality and the idea of becoming a couch potato after retiring had no appeal. I train dogs to have something to do
This allows me to stand back from the industry and make my decisions without being influenced by the need to make money. As long as I pay the overhead, finances are not my motivation.
When I met Pat Muller, the inventor of Manners in Minutes training, it was an “aha” moment. I realized that she had come up with a training system that made sense to both the dog and the dog owner. And since it made sense to both of them, it was the fastest way to train a dog.
The dog training profession is almost entirely made up of two schools. The first school is the all positive reinforcement methodology; the second is a dominance/alpha school.
Positive reinforcement is by far the largest school. The vast majority of trainers are in this school. The idea is simple. Reward positive behavior and through repetition the dog will perform reliably.
I find some major flaws in this technique. Too many trainers use food as the reward. Food reward has some major drawbacks. Some dogs are not food oriented. But more often, as I have written before, the trainer fails to get the owner to see the difference between motivation and bribery. Many times I see dogs that have turned the tables of the owner. The will only perform for food. Or they will deliberately misbehave so that the owner gives them food to change their behavior. Far too often someone ends up with a fat dog that only behaves when food is immediately available.
And while some of them claim to be all positive, frustration can lead to harsh corrections.
And there is a lot of smugness and self righteousness by many of these type trainers. They have a built in excuse for their training failing you. It is your fault, you aren’t kind enough.
I think, in theory, the dominance/alpha school is closer to the right track. But in practice, most of them get it wrong.
It seems far too many of them are just plain bullies. They end up punishing the dog to the point that the dog obeys out of fear. And fear is not the relationship you should have with a dog. They misinterpret the alpha/pack concept to cover their own shortcomings.
Because of these people, dominance training has become a dirty word within the dog training industry, especially with the all positive people.
There is a third school. I call it the balance school. It isn’t all positive reinforcement, but instead of punishment it uses gentle correction techniques. But what sets it apart is the use of praise.
Unfortunately there are not a lot of balance trainers. You really have to work to find one. And a lot of people who claim to be balance trainers aren’t.
I tell my clients even if they mess up on everything else, if they get the praise right, the will get the dog right. It will just take longer.
There are some simple rules for the effective use of praise.
1. Try not to gush. Gushing is using the same phrase multiple times for one performance. So when a dog sits when told to sit, tell them “good sit” one time. Dogs often mistake gushing as barking and one of the reasons dogs bark is to invite play. Gushing can sabotage training.
2. When the dog obeys a command, make sure you praise it immediately. Since one decision gets only one reward (good sit) praise the dog as it obeys, not after the fact. “Good sit” should be said as the dog is in the act of sitting, not when the dog has been sitting for a while.
3. Praise everything the dog does even if you did not give it a command. If you walk by and the dog stands up, tell it “good stand.” If it does not get up tell it “good down.” Praise makes the dog believe you are in charge.
4. If you make a correction, praise the dog when it obeys. Corrections without praise are revenge; it is the praise and not the correction that makes it training.
5. Praise the action. “Good dog” means you like the dog. “Good sit” means you are reinforcing the command.
The effective use of praise can often overcome other poor training techniques and incompetent trainers.
Doug
