Congratulations! You’re a Dog Trainer
You have a dog, and whether you intended to be one or not,
you are now a Dog Trainer. It's true. Whenever
you interact with your dog, someone is being trained – it's either you or the
dog. And, it’s best if you are training the dog, not the other way around! Learning doesn’t stop just because a scheduled training session is over. Unfortunately, many dog owners don’t realize that they signed up for a
fulltime Dog Trainer position when they acquired their dog. When they do realize it, they are
understandably unsure of how to do the job. Which book to read? What collar to use? Which training method?
There are hundreds of books about how to train a dog and it's not uncommon for the authors to coin a phrase for a common training technique to make it their own. Although sometimes that helps make a training concept more understandable for some people, it also tends to make the reader think that the author invented the technique and creates a cult following of fans. Some of the best dog trainers are not authors - and some authors are not the best dog trainers. Some people are talented enough to be both.
Here's a tip: Training an animal is primarily a mechanical skill - like driving a car
or swinging a golf club. Just like teaching someone to drive a car, you need well-defined
standards of what good driving should be and you need good timing. Oh, and don't forget patience.
Good trainers "chunk" information. They break the behavior into smaller steps. They also motivate by finding ways to make learning meaningful and enjoyable for the animal. And, they make a plan. They think about what the desired behavior should look like and plan all the
steps needed to get it before they start training the dog.
The principles of learning
are universal. Simply put, reinforce
a behavior and it’s highly probably that the behavior will be repeated. When learning a new skill, our pets (and us, too) learn most quickly, efficiently and enthusiastically by earning a reward for correct behavior. In dog training, that's usually a food reward,
play or petting. It’s up to the
trainer to find out what is reinforcing to the dog. Some dogs don’t give a hoot about a dog biscuit but will do anything for a piece of cheese. Some dogs are
more interested in playing ball than eating a treat. And some dogs will do anything for love. Have you made a list of all the things that you can use to reinforce a
particular behavior for your individual dog?
