06/24/2024
I feel bad for folks who think that training a dog is something you do *to* a dog as opposed to something you do *with* a dog.
A puppy shouldn't be handled the same way as an adult, yet many puppies have already developed some behavioral variances due to environment, genetics, etc. We still need to consider that animal's age and experiences. Too much too fast, and we compound matters. Not enough, and the behavior gets worse, quickly.
Adult dogs coming for training have learning deficits that need to be considered carefully when approaching training. They have already established a lifetime of learning.
Convincing them to change their minds takes a little more provocation than a youngster.
Although I have declared many times that good dog training looks the same, the dog itself is the divining factor in determining at what speed one goes about it.
My training is fairly formulaic. We move through a series of exercises that temper the dog’s ability to control its emotions and actions in a very specific way, building one skill at a time.
The biggest issue, however, is helping the owners master emotional neutrality, which would allow them to achieve the same results. Humans believe that dogs deliberately try our patience.
It requires that they actually *know* what we want in order to defy us. The majority of the time, the dog simply doesn’t understand.
By the time I see an adult dog, there’s always a behavioral history. The frustration the owner feels about the dog’s behavior influences their handling of the dog, so we spend a lot more time ‘undoing’ old handling problems before actually creating new skills.
Dogs are bright. Dogs are also not going to lead with violence unless they have been conditioned to believe that defense is necessary. Humans create that. They start their work with a mindset of resistance, and their bodies read like it. They become stiff and wooden in their movements.
Unnatural.
To a dog, those are warning signals.
Defense is the act of self-preservation. Folks are surprised once they realize they are the catalyst for almost 100% of their dogs' behavior.
Once the human learns to turn off their frustration, anger, fear, etc., their hands get calmer, and their actions become much more deliberate. We become much more ‘readable’ to the dog.
The dog prefers that. Now we can make more sense to it.
You can not punish fear. You can only redirect it. You can not really punish aggression. Not in the context that people imagine when they see the word ‘punishment’, anyway.
I resolve it by not addressing it.
I resolve it by not creating it.
What the dog learns is that certain behaviors, fear, aggressive acts, etc., are not good strategies. Over time, the dog learns not to choose those as options.
Those behaviors will always remain options, but if the dog learns better coping strategies, their previous responses become far less desirable. The juice ceases to be worth the squeeze.
It does require that one non-renewable resource of time. There is no magic bullet that will get you there any faster except time and mindful practice.
That ecollar may help you with communication, but it’s not changing the dog’s mind about its emotional state. The opportunity to practice the new behavior isn’t something one can compel. Learning must be given the room and the opportunity for the dog to discover it on its own. Nothing we to to compel that learning will make it happen any faster.
Time, quiet handling, emotional neutrality, and gentle persistence are what gets you there. It may not be quickly, but the results will be permanent.
The two components folks overlook when it comes to dog training, which remain the two most critical factors, will always be time and practice.
Unfortunately, in the era of instant gratification, somehow dog training got shoved into the same fantasy as getting rich quick, or losing weight fast.
The absolute nonsense people are fed about dog training makes it difficult to navigate the landscape of idiocy, and it’s easy to see why folks get a little lost or frustrated and just give up.
The mysticism that surrounds dog training is yet another hurdle folks can't seem to overcome, especially since multiple philosophical armies carpet an imaginary battlefield about which 'way' is the moral high ground, while the shadow of plain old common sense is always struggling to make an appearance.
Training is the gift we give our dogs. We owe it to them to provide it in a way that makes the most sense to the dog itself.
