I Saw It On TV… What Methods Do You Use?

What methods do you use…relatively few prospective clients ask this, and when they do you can’t be certain exactly what they are hoping for. When an owner asks me, “what methods do you use?” – I ask back, “how much experience do you have with dog training, and what are your goals with your dog?” Some think they want harsh methods to ensure an “obedient” dog; some want reassurance that a gentle method will be used while others want to do the training “just like I did with my first dog twenty-five years ago”. However, the training of dogs has changed dramatically in the last twenty years, along with the perception of a dog’s place in the home, and the standards of training itself.

Clickers, steel slip chains, prong collars, no-pull harnesses….dog whisperers, communicators, leaders, companions. What’s an owner to do?

When I started training those many, many years ago, there was only one accepted tool of choice: the metal choke chain, or “training collar”. We did not use food to teach a dog the basic commands. We expected a dog to be fairly reliable off-leash after ten weeks of training. We modeled our standards after the AKC Novice Obedience Test.
Believe it or not, it was possible then to be an ethical, humane trainer. Many these days prefer not to believe that could be true.

But I will say that most of the changes in training are a good thing. A wonderful thing, in many ways. The awareness of canine psychology and the many tools to choose from should only expand the abilities of a talented trainer. But that isn’t necessarily true, either.

Many trainers ensconce themselves into one narrow range of tools and perspective – they will *only* do this, and *never* do that. Is this the best thing for all the dogs and their owners? As you might have guessed, in my opinion, no, it’s not. There just can’t be only one way for all the many myriad dogs and their owners. Each is a unique pairing – and I believe that, although a trainer’s ethical stance should never change - each available tool may become useful at some time or another in a lifetime career in training.

Some trainers decide that there’s no use in training to high levels of ability, and have left a declining standard in general amongst the pet dog population. A dog can still be trained to off-leash reliability (or close to it) with positive methods!

Owners these days watch television, and nearly every household I go into shows some influence of what they have seen – and usually inappropriately. Whether it’s an owner who will never tell their dog “No”, an owner who rewards the good and ignores the bad, or an owner who insists on walking with a tight leash so that their dog never gets in front of them – they’re all applying techniques that appeal to their unique sense of right and wrong.

Living with a dog is a very personal thing, and I believe it is the trainer’s “duty”, shall we say, to educate himself or herself to see beyond their own prejudices into the scene that is playing out on the other end of that telephone. How can we educate this owner to understand the needs of their dog, and at the same time meet the needs of the owner in a reasonable manner?

The trainer’s job has certainly changed – and grown as well. We now have the responsibility to gain knowledge regarding many, many tools, the language of behavior, as well as the good old-fashioned training of simple commands. We must stand beside veterinary behaviorists as an allied profession. We must “know” all about the various television programs and what sort of fallout may occur from the trickle-down use of what an owner has seen there.

We must know how we will answer when that question comes, “What methods do you use, you know, I saw this on TV...”