Canine Nation

Sometimes the most important thing we can do when we are training our dog is...nothing. How else will we find out what our dog knows if we don't stop every once and a while and see what they know? It's a lesson my own dog taught me many years ago. It has led to a delightful give and take that allows me to learn from her as she learns from me. Sometimes you just have to wait for the dog!

In the dog training world, "correction" has a special meaning.  What the term means depends very much on who you ask.  As I learned it, a "correction" doesn't really "correct" anything at all.  It just stops my dog from doing something I didn't want.  How does a yank on a leash or a poke in the side tell my dog anything about what I want them to do other than stop what they are currently doing?  Perhaps that lack of information can be detrimental to my dog!

Perhaps the most difficult part of changing the way we work with our dogs was changing how we think about them.  Moving to reward based training with Mark and Reward training was remarkably simple but it also gave us more than we expected.  The simple concepts behind Mark and Reward are based on science and cooperation.  And that led us to some very profound discoveries about ourselves and our dogs!

Our dogs have expectations. They may even have expectations of us that we don't know about. What if we took the time to set their expectations to help them fit in better with our lives? It's not as hard as you might think!

Markers - Those little words or noises that say "Yes! That's right!" They are a great way to help our dogs learn what behaviours are we want from them. Markers provide a consistent "language" that helps us communicate with our dogs on their level. And there are some other benefits too!

Modern dog trainers like to talk about the science of behaviour and training. But sometimes concepts and how we apply them can get jumbled up when talking about them with dog owners or even other trainers. Getting the science right is important. It's important that we don't confuse ourselves as well. Do we sometimes misunderstand or misinterpret science?

Some people take their dogs with them everywhere they go. Some people really shouldn't take their dogs with them. Some people take their dogs with them to places and they get afraid and bite people. And then they wonder why.

Wouldn't it be great if you could get a dog with all the outgoing affection of a Golden Retriever, the intensity of a Border Collie, the protection skills of a Doberman, and the lapdog size and weight of a Pomeranian? Well, yes. And no. And lots of stuff in between. The genetics of it all say that we get what we get when we breed for specific traits, physical or behavioural, and we can't change one side without affecting the other.

We used to call it a "command" when we wanted our dog to offer us a behaviour. I find the parallel with issuing commands to computers very interesting. Do we have unreasonable expectations about our dogs and our training with them? Do we expect unquestioning obedience and compliance from our dogs just the same way we expect our computers and other appliances are supposed to just work? Dogs are not something we can program. They are beings that we need to TEACH!

Modern dog training has brought us some new views and new approaches to training. Some of what we do these days is just a refined version of things we have been doing for a long time. That’s why I think it’s important to understand “shaping” versus “prompting” in dog training. Both have their merits and their pitfalls and we should be well prepared no matter how we decide to train!

Dogs can end up in shelters for lots of reasons, some bad, some awful, and some that couldn't be avoided. Shelter workers have incredibly difficult jobs. They take in and care for these dogs, not knowing what is in their past or what their future may hold. And they care. That may be the hardest part of all. Caring for these dogs is no easy task but I am grateful that dog training professionals are starting to help out shelter workers with new tools and techniques. Anything we can do to make their jobs easier, I say. I'm so thankful they are out there.

Is my dog "over threshold?" Is she "under threshold?" Is that good? Is that bad? Do I even know what I'm looking for? Knowing how your dog is responding to their surroundings can play a key role in whether they are learning, whether they are enjoying themselves, or want to get the heck out of there! If we aren't paying attention to our dog's thresholds, are we asking them to put up with more than we should? I think that's a question we should all be thinking about.

Sometimes all of the hashing and rehashing of this theory or approach or concept just starts to irritate me. What happened to working with the dogs to see if it works or not? We can speculate and pontificate all day long but if our dog's behaviour says it isn't true, then that's what it is. Shouldn't we be sharing what we KNOW about our dogs rather than what we THINK we know?

Coming to a new understanding of dogs and dog training was a conversion of sorts for me. It has been an interesting journey. I went from skeptic to student to evangelist before finding a way to put it all in perspective. It can be too easy to try to right the big wrongs and fight the good fight; especially with all of the online forums out there. Now I focus on being a better trainer by finding what is right instead of what is wrong in the dog world.

People are people and dogs are dogs. Sometimes people can "clever" themselves right past their dogs while training and then get frustrated when the dog doesn't "get it." Maybe if we learn to keep it simple, we can learn to build amazing things with our dogs - like behaviours and relationships.  We might even learn a thing or two about ourselves.

While I have learned a great deal from books by Karen Pryor, Jean Donaldson, John Bradshaw, and many others, my greatest education in dogs and dog training came from teachers much lower to the ground. My dogs have taught me the most important things about training and dog behaviour. I wasn't always the best student, but their patience has helped me learn some of the most important lessons of all!

Training our dogs is like a game of charades. We're just trying to get them to do the thing we're trying to teach them. But who wins and who loses? Well, since we're the ones running the game, I guess we get to decide. How often does your dog win? How often do they lose? Do they know the difference? You bet they do! Dogs who feel like "winners" are more likely to want to work with you. No one likes losing, after all.

It was Autumn and there were dogs flying up and down the hill in our back yard. It's a tradition here at our home to let the dogs get their exercise by scrambling up and down the hill in some spirited play. Their recent romp out back reminded me just how important play is for dogs and how much we can learn by just watching them play with each other. Every graceful movement and spit-filled bark is filled with life affirming joy!

This is something I have wanted to say for a long time but couldn't figure out how. All of this debate of The Dog Whisperer has always struck me as something of a futile exercise. It isn't even a show about dog training. It is Reality TV at its finest. The producers at National Geographic have managed to keep the show at the top of their ratings and on the air for 9 seasons. They didn't do it by teaching people how to be good dog trainers. They did it by keeping people entertained.

Dogs can be pretty persistent creatures. This is especially true if they know they can get what they want. Sometimes our reactions can encourage their annoying behaviour even though we are trying to stop it. Maybe we need to think ahead and know what to do before we just react. How we respond when our dogs nag us matters. And sometimes we shouldn't respond at all!