Modern Dog Blog

Someone asked me this on the phone today while “interviewing” me. I had to reach for an answer because, yes, I can lead you the whole way through with nothing but treats and praise, but since I had only a couple hours earlier sent home a pup that I had spent two weeks introducing the remote collar to, it didn’t seem totally accurate to respond with the canned “I’m a positive trainer!” Yippee for me!!

I’ve always hated being pigeonholed, and the latest dog training craze is “I only use positive motivation and cookies, because we surely wouldn’t want Fluffy to be unhappy.” The reality is, I’ve been training for 19 years now, and when I started, it was the old fashioned, yank and crank on a choke chain and leather leash until the dog stumbled across the right answer. While I will never again put a choke chain on a dog, due to the damage I unknowingly did to my own girls, I have absolutely no problem working a dog on a pinch collar, remote collar, head collar, super special harness, or any of the other magical doggie devices that are out there. I learned as much doing the “old fashioned” stuff as I have using treats and toys to get dogs to work with me.

Important things to consider when training dogs are: What are the owner’s goals with the dog? What is the dog’s capability and motivation? How dedicated and consistent will the owner be? Does the dog need to be 100% all the time, or are they just looking for slightly less obnoxious? How realistic are the owner’s expectations? I’m sorry, but no, I cannot teach your labrador that she can only go in the pool in the morning and when you tell her to, but not in the afternoon or when guests are over. I can’t keep track of that, so I certainly can’t expect your puppy to!

I think to be a well rounded trainer you need to be just as comfortable with a clicker and a treat as you are with a remote collar. To understand the pros and cons of both, you need to be fluent with each. And *gasp*, I think you need to know what to do when left with no tools or crutches. No cookies, no toys, no pinch collar. Can you get the dog to work with you with just a leash and a flat collar? And still have a good time and get your point across? That’s what I thought. The sad thing I see is that too many trainer’s get their heads stuck in “my way is the only way” and that some dogs just don’t get what is best for them. There is no one way to train a dog, there are no secrets, no magic formula. What works with one may not work for another. After all these years, and all the training I’ve had with learning theory, reinforcement schedules, dog psychology, and all that jazz, it still comes down to feeling it out with each dog. Getting to know them, who they are and what they need. It’s meshing the dog’s needs with the human needs that gets tricky.

Posted on November 29th, 2007 by michelle
Filed under: The Naked Part, Training