For those of you who don’t already know, in my other life I am a Karate instructor. I spend evenings teaching martial arts to a dedicated class of students who achieve amazing things both mentally and physically. Learning martial arts is partly a mechanical skill; you have to ‘do it to learn it’, rather like dog training.
Often, my private dog training clients inform me that they have tried dog training classes without success. The measure of this ‘success’ is highly personal to them, of course. They tell me their dog found the whole experience overwhelming. Some clients were asked to leave as a result of their beloved pet’s disruptive behaviour. Some struggled with a class taught using food-oriented motivation, which their dog did not find especially enticing given the other distractions on offer.
Was this entirely the class instructor’s responsibility, however?
If an instructor is not capable of teaching, there is no point staying to hear useless information over and over. Likewise a stressed dog and owner will not learn anything. Choose your classes wisely and check credentials. Nonetheless, even in the best classes, some owners attend a dog or puppy training course of around six weeks, then stop. They report disappointment that the training has not ‘cured’ their dog, nor has it turned the dog into a publicity-worthy leash-free good citizen.
In the style of Karate I study, students wear a coloured belt to designate the level at which they train. Some read this as an indication of skill, but it is not entirely this. What is important is that this grading system gives a clear view of who has stuck at it THE LONGEST.
With television feeding us a doggy diet of instant cures, it is not surprising that dog owners feel dissatisfied. I admit to similar frustrations! The social pressure to have a ‘good dog’ is immense. This makes instant results extremely attractive. It can make forced compliance the next option. That certainly makes for a fast-action TV show.
Returning to the Karate club for a moment. If a student attended for 6 weeks and then left, complaining that they were not transformed into the next Bruce Lee, Mr T, Jet Li, not even a Ninja Turtle, how would you view their efforts? Even for adults, the first and most basic coloured belt takes 4 months of solid training to achieve.
In a dog training class, you need to learn to become the trainer. Then, your dog needs time to learn from you. This makes two instructors and two students. This means a further convolution in this painstaking process.
Most owners can gain reasonable results with a dog far more quickly than it will take to get a black belt in Karate (lucky you). The key in both cases is to GIVE IT TIME.
I guarantee that if an ‘instant results’ TV guru walked into my Karate Dojo, they would need just as much time as the other students to gain proficiency. If that isn’t fast enough for the TV guru, maybe we could use one of their own speedy TV methods to ‘help’ them learn? Forced compliance in Karate is possible, but usually deemed bullying and is unacceptable. What a pity it is still an option for our dogs.
Copyright 2009 Karen Wild www.karenwild.co.uk
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slow and steady wins the race
You post is eerily similar to my thoughts last night as I drove home from obedience class with my dog.After three years of work my rescue dog with multiple issues has mastered basic obedience.One of the other students commented to me that we had been the stars of the class.I thanked her but then pointed out the time and determination it had taken.Driving home I was thinking how strange it is that people assume that their dog will be "trained"after a 5 or 6 week session.Most of us realize that after a course in introductory pilates or yoga that we are not ready for the advanced level.We have to regard our dog training the same way.
Excellent post, I'd like to add...
That it's not just time, but the effort you put into it that makes a difference. Training is a form of communication and communication takes two. Living with a dog is a partnership and learning to effectively communicate with a different species is a skill that takes practice to perfect.
Kelly Gorman Dunbar Editor, Dog Star Daily
great analogy
fantastic analogy between karate and dog training. I also train at karate and have just completed a Good Companion Certificate this morning, repsonding with 'oos' after every direction given by the judge! Old habits are hard to break.
Similarly, my dog was the star of the class, but only because he is 5 and we have done heaps of obedience already. He was there to help desensitise him to other dogs (quite successful). Most of the other dogs were quite young with owners who were expecting great results over a 10week course.
Owner expectation
Whaaaaaaaaaat! You mean I can't learn to be a ninja in a week *sob* ?!
Owner expectation is at the heart of so many relationship issues with dogs. People who buy a Boxer puppy, for example, go out to work leaving it a home for 5- 8 hours and then they wonder why the dog has eaten through their kitchen door and pooped everywhere!! It must be a "bad" dog, let's go to class and "fix" it............
Like you say, so many people buy a training product - or go to a class - and expect to achieve instant results. They go from one method to the next and proclaim that the dog cannot be trained. Somewhere along the line, somebody needs to demonstrate that their expectations are unrealistic (easier said than done, I know....). We need to apply some of the dog training principles to the owners. Find a way to shape owner expectations (before they come to the class) and find a way to motivate & reward them; so they will continue with the learning process. After that, encouraging them to shape the behaviour of their dog should be easy!
I've attended a couple of classes where the trainers are very good with the dogs, but have totally baffled their human clients with lots of operant conditioning terminology. So perhaps there are occasions when the trainer is also expecting too much of the client? Incidentally, neither of those trainers followed-up on their 'drop-outs' to find out why they didn't continue. A business coach once told me "you will learn some of the most valuable information about your business, from the customers you lose". To understand and change the owner's perception, you have to address it :)
If celebrity TV trainers are always marketing a 'quick fix' then there is always going to be an uphill struggle. Sometimes though, the 'underdog' can win through against the odds; just look at Apple vs. Windows! Perhaps effective communication between trainer and owner can drive the expectations between owners and dogs?