A wide range of training methods and styles exist, and how well they are implemented depends on the person doing the training. When owners attend a group class, the assumption is that the trainer is an expert, or at least a professional with plenty of experience, who will help them to train their dogs in a positive manner. Lately, though, I’ve been hearing story after story that has reignited my desire to spread the word about being an advocate for your dog.
A trainer friend recently bought a new German Shepherd pup. By all accounts the puppy is just wonderful, and my friend couldn’t be more pleased. She decided to take the pup to the breeder/trainer’s group class. Of course, being a trainer herself, she’s done an excellent job of training and socialization, but a group would provide her pup with other dogs with whom to socialize. An unhappy surprise awaited her. The breeder/trainer was using pinch collars positioned high up on the dog’s neck for corrections. Whether you are for or against pinch collars, there is a very sensitive bundle of nerves high up on a dog’s neck, and this is NOT the place for a pinch collar! Fortunately, she knew enough to refuse to do that to her puppy.
Then there’s the trainer who has been known for many, many years for his technique of using a rubber hose. How, you might wonder, could a rubber hose possibly be used in training? Well, a piece of it is used to whack the dog over the nose while the owner yells, “NO!” Yes, really. And while this is a obviously a Neanderthal excuse for what is meant to be training, even worse is that the technique is used to condition the dog to the word “no” from the start, even if he didn’t do anything to elicit a correction.
Sometimes it’s not the training method that’s at fault, but the trainer’s lack of understanding of canine body language and behavior. When I stopped teaching group classes years ago, I scouted around for one to which I could refer clients. I watched one (which turned out to be a traditional choke chain style class) where a dog was yawning over and over—obvious stress behavior. The owner thought her dog was bored, and the trainer told her to just get the dog’s attention by using the choke chain. When the dog finally got so stressed that he jumped on the owner—you could just about see the thought bubble over the poor German Shepherd’s head saying Mom, please stop!—the trainer told her to give him a hard correction, which no doubt caused further stress. I know it stressed me out, and I was just watching.
It can be very difficult to stand up to someone who is considered a professional, especially in a public forum. It flies in the face of everything we've been taught about being polite. But we must be advocates for our dogs, even if the cost is feeling socially uncomfortable. I had one client who told me she’d attended a group class with the aforementioned “rubber hose trainer” and told him that she would never do that to her dog. She then walked out. I applaud her heartily for that, and I’ll bet her dog was grateful. At our local dog park, I will stop my dog Sierra from playing too roughly with others, even when the other owner says it’s fine. I know people think I’m overly cautious, and frankly, I don’t care.
If there is ever a situation where you’re not comfortable with the way someone is treating your dog or advising you to treat him—whether it’s a veterinarian, a groomer, a trainer, or any other canine professional, speak up. Even if you just have “a bad feeling,” remember that your intuition is there for a reason. For example, if you were planning to leave your dog at a boarding kennel, but get a weird vibe from the people running it, there’s probably a good reason; keep looking. If you attend a training class where you are uncomfortable with the training methods or the way the trainer handles the dogs, even if you’ve paid in advance and can’t get a refund, just leave. There are many good, positive trainers out there who would love the privilege of working with your dog and his good, caring advocate of an owner.
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How Ironic
I just posted a reply to Valerie Pollard's blog on I Wish We Could All Get Along that would have been perfect for this subject. Not going to repeat it here, but you can read it under that blog. I feel like printing this and taking it to class on Thursday.
How timely
Reading this almost makes me feel like you've read my recent blog about standing up to a local trainer. I'm glad to see someone address this as my class left me feeling horrible and I'm not a person with a backbone. But this was for Dahlia and I had to stand up for her since she couldn't stand up for herself. If you're interested in yet another "standing up to the trainer" story, I had posted about it here: http://www.dogtransports.com/2010/04/lessons-learned.html
Amen, Nicole! I hope many
Amen, Nicole! I hope many people will read this and not let someone intimidate them from speaking up. When it comes to my pets, I won't keep my mouth shut. I always try to be polite, respectful and diplomatic but I will voice my opinion.
Standing Up to the Trainer
Nicole, you make a great case for standing up for your dog. I have had clients dogs be subjected to awful things at the hands of other trainers because the owners didn't follow their gut feelings. One woman told me that a local trainer actually made her cry at the way he manhandled her puppy. She had her husband go to get their money back, but, sadly, the dog didn't get in to training for quite some time. Not that it's ever too late, but it would have been nice for this poor lady not to have to work so hard to eliminate habits that had become ingrained over several months. She enjoyed class, and has become a convert to positive training, which will help any future dogs that she has from now on.
re Standing Up
Thanks for a great post! As a former volunteer puppy raiser for a service dog organization, I have faced this in a very challenging context. Often, I knew in my gut that the training "strategies" we were required to use were not in the dogs' best interest and many times I cried over the "corrections" I was instructed to deliver: kicking a dog in the nose repeatedly to teach food avoidance; a two-handed correction on a Gentle Leader while turning away from a forging puppy to walk in the opposite direction; holding a puppy up in the air by its scruff, then dropping it, to teach it not to jump. Other practices that I did not engage in personally, but saw or heard about, bothered me as well...smacking dogs over and over in the face for whining or spraying them with Binaca or water + vinegar...during advanced training, the use of the ear pinch in teaching the dogs to retrieve...broader concerns about the dogs' well-being. I stood up and spoke up and was fired as a volunteer because they said that I had violated my commitment not to criticize the organization (a commitment I did not make). Some of these organizations operate under a very big umbrella of public goodwill (deserved or not) and a very glaring lack of transparency. Volunteers and graduates are indoctrinated into the organization's training philosophy and many accept it like a religion. For those that do question, it is a huge risk because they are legally not our dogs and it is made clear to us that if we cause trouble, they can take our dogs away.
This info needs to be in every vet practice!
Nicola's article should be given out at a vet practice as soon as the puppy gets his jabs!
I wish some handlers would stand up to the trainers but unfortunately many are at the end of their tether and are desperate, close to tears so will accept anything that they are told will work.I see some of my fellow trainers giving out advice such as allowing the dog to jump up and the (half)check collar will correct the behaviour, that's what they see as the consequence to the behaviour. Or spraying a nervous GSD with water spray. Whereas I look as the cause and what is reinforcing the behaviour (usually attention). But I have to bite my lip as I work there.
As a trainer, I am learning not only to read the dog but to be sensitive to the handlers needs. And the best lesson is often to watch how it shouldn't be done!
YAYABA
I recently learned this acronym in a Delta Society training seminar:
YAYABA - You are your animal's best advocate. I think Nicole's blog exactly mirrors this statement.
Standing Up
Nicole, I wish I had read this about 4 years ago. Now I know better, then I did not.
My first dog as an adult was/is a rescued Chi-mix, and he is a very, very soft dog. He was scared of everything, and I wanted to do things "right" in training and socializing him, so via my vet (who I liked very much) and some online searching I found a local trainer. I paid a wad for a few private lessons and a package of group lessons. Thankfully this guy wasnt abusive--no pinch collars or hoses--but he was still very old school. I flubbed through the classes, teaching my poor little guy to down by stepping on the leash and physically pulling him into submission. He did it, but it didnt seem "right" to me. He was terrified in the group classes, and I was never offered much of a solution by the trainer. Fast forward a year to our second pound puppy--who was the total opposite of the Chi. I tried the leash technique on him once, and after his flopping about on the leash like a Marlin on the line (and me fearing he would break his neck), I realized it wasnt going to work. I started looking harder and found--thankfully--the ways of R+ and the clicker. It honestly has changed my life in so many ways. I now compete in agility and have trained my dogs to do things I never though imagineable just a few years ago.
I hope your article can be distributed widely. I know so many poeple who come from truly animal loving backgrounds like myself, but that were always surrounded by "traditional" training methods. I know most people would change their ways if they only knew what else was out there.
And I know now to be my dogs' advocate. Luckily for us not much damage was incurred before I knew what I know now... I am sure not everyone is as lucky.