Canine Nation

Not so long ago, my enthusiasm for what I had learned about positive training and behavioural science turned me into an evangelist for modern training. But is pushing my training philosophy any more acceptable than pushing political or religious beliefs?

Our dogs don’t always do what we ask of them. Sometimes it can seem that they even enjoy being bad. But is this really the case? The science of behaviour, both canine and human, tell a very different story. Chances are your dog isn’t taking any joy in misbehaving after all!

Good training can’t happen without failures but too many can make it frustrating and no fun for either the human or the dog. If failures are going to happen, why not learn from them and use them to make things better? You only fail if you didn’t learn something from the experience. Good trainers try to keep their emotions in check and stay observant.

Every time we work with our dog, the history of all of our experiences with this dog follow us. For better or for worse, our dog remembers. Your dog’s expectations of you and your time together will depend on how you have shaped those memories. Our dogs are always observing but they don't remember every detail. Mostly they recall general patterns and emotions.

Most dog owners make more or less effort to train their dogs. If they are like me, they first learned to train dogs by rote. By that I mean, you followed some particular recipe for getting the dog to do what you wanted and at some point it was "trained." As I've learned more about dogs and behaviour, it's become clear to me that it isn't quite that simple.

Training our dogs can be fun and frustrating, both for us and our dogs. Humans and dogs have very different responses when progress goes slowly or in an unexpected direction. How we, as humans, respond to those frustrating moments can have a large impact on our dogs ability or willingness to learn.

Managing your dog when out in the world is just as important as training your dog to be a "good citizen." Sometimes we can't anticipate all that the world can throw at our dogs and if they behave inappropriately, it could land you in serious trouble. Your dog may even be taken away to be euthanised. But there are lots of great ways you can protect your dog with a little common sense, the right equipment, and some vigilance.

Good communication with our dogs relies on positive reinforcement, consistency and fairness. When that breaks down, our dogs can get frustrated with us. They can't be sure what we're asking and they risk being scolded for not complying with our cues to them. That frustration can take an emotional toll on our dogs.

When we went through our difficulties with our dog Vince ten years ago, I’m not sure I understood what a life-changing experience it would be. It can be a difficult and scary thing to leave behind the things you thought you knew and try something new with an open mind. What I didn't realize was that it would open my heart as well.

We make a lot of assumptions about dogs.  We pass them one.  And, over time, these suppositions can turn into things we believe as TRUE about dogs.  But ours is an age of reason and science.  Shouldn't we devote as much effort to finding out about our dogs and their behaviour as we do to a new appliance or software program?  The scientific method of posing questions, testing to see what we find, and making conclusions based on experience rather than hearsay has taken mankind a long way.  If it's good enough for modern medicine, it should be good enough for "man's best friend" shouldn't it?  Is it easy to let go of some of our beliefs about dogs?  No.  But examining what we think we know might just be the key to a better life with our dogs.  It has certainly made all the difference in my life.