Training Philosophy
Balanced Training
We believe that training must be balanced using both motivational
and
corrective techniques.
Amateur and hobbyist dog trainers are nice people
who love dogs and train them by acting submissive around
them. This
may work on the fearful or submissive dogs but only empowers the
dominant dog.
Professional Dog
Trainers/Behaviourists who use both positive
motivation and corrective methods, in balance according to your
dogs
personality type, will have the most success with training not only the
dominant dog but the fearful and submissive ones as well.
A balanced trainer will have you commanding your dog to do
something
and it will be doing it because you said so, not
because the dog is going
to get food or fear of being punished.
In all of our classes, each individual dog is assessed and put on
our
scale of 1 to 10….1 meaning a very fearful and/or submissive
dog….a 10
being the dominant pushy dog.
Each dog will be trained differently
depending where it is on our scale.
By putting all dogs on our scale it
helps to clarify to the owners what the dog truly is rather than where
they
think it is.
Training Methods
There is no one training method that works on all dogs.
A professional
can quickly and accurately assess your dog to determine
its personality
type and how it relates to the real world.
From this assessment, the
trainer will choose the appropriate training method that fits
your individual
dog. In
our experience, many dogs and owners are mismatched in
their
personality types. It’s
up to us, the professionals, to advise the owners
which training techniques are necessary for their particular dog and instil
a confidence and trust that our methods will get them to where they want
to be. At times we will need to make the disciplinarian of the family more
motivational and the softie in the family more of a disciplinarian.
It’s a
balance of both ends of the leash.
Training Tools
There are many different training tools available to trainers.
Common
tools used by professional trainers include clicker,
flat collars, martingale
collars, choke chains, prong collars and electronic
collars. Some trainers
are more comfortable using certain tools over others,
depending if they
fit their training philosophies and methods.
Trainers will often disagree
with training tools that they claim are “cruel” or
“inhumane”. At the other
end of the spectrum are the trainers who refuse to use
any motivational
tools such as food, toys or praise in their training.
There is a dog out
there in society that requires each and every one of the recognized
professional training tools.
Whether trainers agree with the tools or not, they all have
been
proven successful with one dog or another.
For a trainer to limit
themselves to only the tools in which they are comfortable is doing
an
injustice to those dogs that require these methods and who are now
being
labelled “behaviour issues” rather than “training issues”.
The
Use of Punishment
Dogs should never be punished.
If you are feeling frustrated or angry
with your dog a time-out is required...for YOU…not the
dog. Time-outs
are for humans only.
A harder correction is not a better correction…it
just makes you feel better.
In the end it deteriorates the trust you’ve
built with your dog and diminishes the confidence your dog has in
you
as a leader. Leaders don’t punish…respect is earned.
The Use of Food Rewards
Food rewards are used to teach the dog what it is we want him to
do
in the beginning stages of training.
All dogs require 10-15 repetitions a
day using food rewards to teach what is expected and are
continued
until the dog fully understands the command.
It is not fair to eliminate
the food rewards and move to correction if your dog does not understand
what is expected.
A strong foundation using food rewards is the most
important component of the training. The use of food builds a positive
experience for
your dog in the initial training stage.
Once the behaviour is learned we will eliminate the food rewards
and
replace it with praise and affection.
A dog properly transitioned from food
rewards to praise from the handler will work more
effectively and reliably,
in the real world, rather than using constant lure rewards to
keep its
attention.
Food rewards used inappropriately can reinforce negative
behaviours.
Food rewards should never be used with dominant
dogs displaying any
type of aggression.
The aggression must be fully under control and
respect and focus given to the pack leader (handler)
before food is to be
initiated in the training.
There are dogs that will not accept food rewards due to stress in
dealing with the real world.
A balanced trainer works to find a method
that will motivate your dog to work for you without food if
need be. In
our experience we have come across true life stories
of owners ready to
euthanize their dog because they were told by
trainers that “because
their dog would not accept food their dog could never
be trained”. A
dog who does not accept food is never considered untrainable.
The Use of
Correction
Once the dog has a solid foundation using motivational methods to
teach the commands, we now move to correction and
praise. If the
dog now understands the command but chooses not to do it we
must
present a consequence to ensure reliability in the real world
under
distraction.
For example, if your dog runs away from you after spotting
a
squirrel, your waving around a food reward is not going to make him
come back to you immediately on command.
If, however, he has been
shown that there is a consequence to ignoring your
command his
reliability in responding will be where you need
it...100%.
