Jan 16 2010

Are We Training Our Dog or Training for a Fight?

While watching the TV show The Dog Whisperer the other night, I decided to close my eyes and listen very carefully to the words and phrases being used on the show. Following is a partial list:

claim your space
confront him
don’t be a passive human
striking stance
primal behavior
master of the house
be dominant
chaos
be top dog
aggressive
aggression
attack
don’t be weak

If I didn’t know better, I'd think I was listening to the instructor of a self defense class. Why does training a dog have to sound like a life and death struggle straight out of the Coliseum?

One possible answer has nothing to do with training dogs and everything to do with selling ads on TV. Drama and confrontation sell. A catchphrase like “Calm Assertive Pack Leader” is great for branding a TV show, but the meaning behind it is truly misapplied when it comes to training and interacting with domestic dogs. If you think that living with a dog means a constant battle for household supremacy, why have a dog in the first place?

The truth of the matter is that training your dog doesn’t have to be constant battle of wills and can in fact be fun and exciting for both you and your dog. By using Positive Reinforcement and Classical Conditioning, we can train our dogs without having to resort to the tactics of the schoolyard bully.

Following are just a few of the many great resources out there that deal with the science of training, proving once again that science can be fun:

As always this list is not complete and I know that there are many other great sites out there with good information on positive training. If you know of a good resource that should be listed here, just leave us a comment and we will update this post.

As an addendum to this post I would like to add a link to the site BEYOND CESAR MILLAN. For those of you who think that Cesar's methods are effective or harmless, please visit this site. It has a ton of information from qualified professionals that have studied that actual science of animal behavior and learning.

Kevin, Jackie, Gavin, Annie, Tosha

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Comments

Edie wrote on 01/16/10 7:49 PM

I've read (and even written) a lot of Cesar Millan critiques but this one really gets to the crux of the matter very succinctly. Why *would* one want to conduct a constant life and death struggle in your household? How exhausting is that?

Ci wrote on 01/17/10 2:12 AM

This is how I, as a dog, would like to be trained
http://www.pawprintpals.co.uk/

Human beans, please take note.

Jennifer Mauger wrote on 01/17/10 9:00 AM

Very nicely put! Life with your dog never needs to be a battle. With a scientifically based positive training program living with your dog can be a whole lot of fun!

Angela (fun4fido) wrote on 01/17/10 9:53 AM

Excellent post Kevin! Why build confrontation when it's safe, and fun to build cooperation :)

And thank you for the mention, always very much appreciated.

Angela

Diane Garrod wrote on 01/17/10 1:49 PM

Creatively done, well said and Suzanne Clothier said it best, I think "It's not so much that you have to be over your dog, but that you have to be worth listening to." Worth listening to is much more than confrontation and domination and control, it is about respect, teamwork and equalizing.

Anne wrote on 01/17/10 4:01 PM

Excellent excellent post - have passed it on to lots and lots of dogie people. I would find relationships like this exceptionally stressful and definitley not enjoyable and as such avoid them - same for poor doggies.

Thanks for the Pet Central mention,

Anne

Jules Nye wrote on 01/21/10 6:18 PM

Love it. Great post. My other favorite thing to do is watch it on mute so you can really see the dog's body language without all the fluff and "happy music" they add in

Alexandra Semyonova wrote on 01/22/10 1:52 AM

This is the whole problem with the dominance hierarchy theory: when you get a pup, you've brought the Enemy into your house. See my site for the origins of this theory:
http://www.nonlineardogs.com/100MostSillyPart1-2.html

A good link to add to your permanent list is:
http://beyondcesarmillan.weebly.com/index.html

where quite a few professionals and others comment on CM's methods. Some of it is bundled from other places, some written originally for the BCM site.

Anne wrote on 01/22/10 6:12 AM

I have adopted a quirky, cute, but very salient, training technique from one of my FB friends who is also a trainer. For the first week, my students are now asked to go home and say nothing to their dog but "yes". In other words, go home and reward all the behaviors that you like, manage the home so the dog is set up for success, and then ignore anything (completely) that you can't say "yes" to. It's hard for them to do, but those who try it say that the dog's behavior improves within days:-) Dogs do what works, and don't care a whit about you wanting to be a pack leader, since they don't have linear hierarchies in the first place.

Jaqi Bunn wrote on 01/22/10 6:39 AM

Excellent post as always! I'm one of the behaviourist / trainers (UK based) that believes that dogs learn best when the tail wags and not when it's stuck between the legs.

Kay wrote on 01/25/10 10:25 AM

GREAT post. Thank you. It's horrifying and disgraceful that CM is so "successful" (I use that word loosely. Maybe I should say "popular" instead of successful). This shows that a lot of people react to his persona and aren't looking beneath the surface and really thinking about what's being demonstrated on the Dog Whisperer and what the possible consequences are.

GREAT comments. So true - what is missing here is the fun element for both people and dogs while training.

Another excellent resource is the Yahoo group "ClickerSolutions" moderated by behaviorist Greta Kaplan.