The Holy Grail of Dog Training

Today a woman and her husband arrived to drop off their dog, Olive, for our Board & Train program.

About a month ago I spoke with Paula on the phone at length in order to gain a sense of her perception of Olive’s needs for professional training.   Prior to that conversation, Paula had chosen the following options on the enrollment form to describe her 16 month old pup:  “Pulls on the leash, Nips or mouths, Jumps up, Scratches, Does not listen, Chases other animals or people and Does not come when called.”   In the ‘List Other Information’ dialog box, she wrote, “Primary problems:  she gets over exited when she sees people – she just wants them to love on her and play with her.  Recall when she is fixated on something is non existing.”

My 30+ years of experience working with dogs and their people has culminated in a list of red flags that typically require deeper exploration than an enrollment form can capture.  As an example, when the word “love” is in a dog’s description, the owner is usually sugar coating their dog’s naughty behavior about which the owner is particularly concerned.  A fairly common comment I might read might go something like, “We absolutely love JoJo.  He is a puller and he sometimes knocks over our three year old child, but he’s the best dog!”

I’ve learned that most people rarely take into consideration that experts in their field will quickly figure out an issue once they get their hands on the subject.  As an example, when I told a mechanic that, although my engine was ticking at start up, he asked when I last changed the oil.  In order to disguise my poor car maintenance schedule, I answered ‘every 3,000 miles’ because that’s what I had read on a Jiffy-Lube ad.  Of course, it didn’t take him very long to recognize that I wasn’t telling the whole truth about my vehicle care practices.  That amount of black sludge in the oil reservoir just wasn’t consistent with routine exchanges.  Paula’s claim that Olive’s interactions with others was motivated by seeking their love was a way to offset the potential danger of Olive’s behavior.

When we spoke on the phone, Paula shared a lot of information with me.  Most of it was wrapped in a well-wordsmithed jacket to lessen the severity of Olive’s conduct.  I didn’t hold it against her.  Paula was actually acting quite normal based on my experience.  However, I felt a need to share with Paula that she would likely have to make some changes to her dog’s management to help maintain Olive’s training.  It was also highly probable that she would have to change her own behavior when interacting with her pet, or Olive wouldn’t recognize that anything was different between the two of them after Olive was with us for training.  There was a good chance that if Paula didn’t change, then Olive would act the same way with Paula after training as before.  Paula would need to learn how to represent herself as Olive’s leader.

Back to the drop off appointment where Paula began shedding tears due to the angst she was experiences as Robert explained the same sort of information I had shared with her during our phone call.  Paula would not have sought our assistance if the strategies she had attempted up to this point had resolved Olive’s unacceptable behavior.  But, they hadn’t.  The information that other dog trainers had imparted both via social media and in classes she attended, simply hadn’t solved her dog’s unruly exploits.  She understood she would have to implement a correction-based method to set proper boundaries for Olive – hopefully before Olive hurt someone by dragging them to their knees during a walk or leaping and knocking someone to the ground. 

My guess is that the torment she was feeling was deeply rooted in information she had heard in classes, private lessons and on the internet; DO NOT CORRECT A DOG.  Yet, as a 50-something woman, she had raised children, managed others, been managed at a few jobs and most importantly for learning the need for setting boundaries, she had been married!  : )   She understood the necessity of establishing boundaries, giving fair warning when the boundary limits were about to be broken, and then delivering appropriate corrections for non-compliance.  It’s nature.  IT’S NATURAL to experience and implement CORRECTIONS for unacceptable behavior.

While her eyes welled up with tears as Robert explained the strategies for resolving Olive’s disobedience, Paula understood that it would be necessary to teach Olive that specific behaviors are not acceptable.  It had been a mere guise to suggest Olive was seeking love and affection as she jumped up, pulled and scratched people.  To reduce or eliminate an unwanted behavior, the most natural, clear and fair way to communicate those expectations is through a correction.

It is the Holy Grail of dog training to explain what a correction is and how to execute it.  Why?  Because it’s all about whether an action solves the problem.  It’s not about the action. 

I can sneeze at my dog Feather and she’ll think she needs to leave the room because I’m unhappy with her presence.  Another dog may require a significant, impeccably well-timed, fair yet averse physical interaction before he will consider pulling back his gaze at a cat that is across the room.  

That’s why it’s not just pure “science,” click-treat, positive-only interactions that help a dog learn how to remain a valued member of the family, which is what many “trainers” would like you to believe.  That is why I believe Paula was crying.  She had hoped that all the jargon about using exclusively positive reinforcement, gold at the end of a rainbow and unicorns were real and true.

Who wouldn’t rather just give out treats and get perfect behavior? Who wants to have to correct a child, a spouse or a valued employee? Deep down (because she is a human, which at the core is to be a very natural being that survives under natural principles) Paula knew she needed to correct her dog.  She had been bombarded with content that claims corrections are bad.  Now, she was bringing her dog to people who openly and honestly describe that their methods include correcting a dog for unacceptable behavior and she had a little emotional meltdown.  I see it all the time.  It’s very sad to find out that a joining the lemming movement is not a good strategy for survival in our world.  You have to think for yourself.  When you discover that you were just going along with the rest of the folks towards the edge of the cliff, or you were toasting your life with purple Kool-aide in matching Solo cups – well, that’s a bad moment to endure, especially if deep down you always knew better.

If you are interested in learning about when it’s critical to use positive reinforcement and when it’s just as critical to use a correction method when training a dog, you may find my book Dog Algebra very helpful.  It takes the reader on the journey that includes the history of how corrections became criminal and exclusively positive reinforcement methods became the one-and-only-acceptable dog training strategy.  It’s not that hard to train a dog if you have common sense. 

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