Kirby Mountain Sporting Dogs
What Went Wrong
To start with let’s step out of the hunting forum and talk about
general obedience with your dog. Before your dog can be a proficient hunting
dog it must be an obedient, biddable, good citizen. It must obey commands. It
must be able to sit when told, come when called, and not jump up wildly (the
most potentially dangerous situation for a hunter with a loaded gun). To get
this desired behavior takes teaching the basics, more basics, and more basics.
When the basics have been thoroughly taught, the requirement is repetition,
repetition, and repetition. I believe that after you train something 100 times
the dog has a grasp of what you want. To translate into the field, hunting
grouse with a pointing dog takes 500 grouse encounters before the dog gets the
picture.
Whether it is a hunting or non-hunting situation, many of those who
train do not graduate the training level. In other words, these people train in
low distraction situations. You need to raise the bar-make it hard, test your
dog. Your dog is not always going to be in your controlled environment with the
same boundaries, the same people, and the same noises. Change is inevitable’
and our training strategies and tools can change as well. We are in a time of
instant internet, fast cars with power windows and AC, and cell phones with all
the modern features, and yet we fail to use the modern conveniences of the dog
world. The three basics are the dog crate, the outdoor dog pen, and the
electronic training collar.
People continue to argue that, when they grew up with a dog, their parents
didn’t have these things; and they are absolutely correct. Your parents (and
mine) did not use these things, but look at the changes in our home lifestyles
in the last 25-30 years. We live in a whirlwind world that is pulling us in
every direction. Moms used to be at home with the dog all day, kids came home
to play after the school day, and dads were at home at earlier hours. The work
day was shorter, there were fewer meetings, and people socialized and ate at
home because their schedules allowed them to. There was much more time for being
with and training the family dog. Life was much less chaotic, so dogs were
raised and trained in less chaotic environments.
Life has changed in so many ways so must our methods of dog training. After
working with almost 1500 situations in the last couple of decades, this picture
is very clear to me. The way that I have seen more people have the most success
in the least amount of time is with an electronic training collar. This has
been the only method where I have seen people become totally successful so that
the dog is doing for the people what it was doing for me. Two other areas
enhancing people’s success with dog training are the use of the dog crate and
the outdoor dog pen. We get fewer calls dealing with the death and injury of a
dog caused by being run over, being lost or being poisoned as more people take
the recommendations of using these three training tools.
Just having these tools in your possession is not enough; the dog
owner must have the gumption to use the tools. In order to get the dog to do
what you want it to do 100% of the time, you must be in a position to reinforce
the command 100% of the time. Do not a give a command that you can not enforce:
Actions speak louder than words. This way of
thinking is tough because we live in a non-touching, hands-off society. Dogs,
especially puppies, need to be shown what to do before they are told; and then
they cannot reason, they can only respond behaviorally to what they have been
trained or not trained to do.
For example, if you have a dog that is jumping on you, it clearly has
been trained to be allowed to do this behavior. “No, no, no, down, off,” will
not teach the dog not to jump on you. Instead, every time the dog jumps up, you must be in a position to train the dog that it is not allowed.
This training can take many forms whether the dog is not in a position to jump
up because it is confined, whether the dog is on a leash, or whether the dog is
stimulated by the electric collar.
Discomfort is the key to 100% success in dog training. Discomfort, not
to be confused with abuse, is what causes the dog to eventually respond to your
words. All dogs have a prey drive, a function that makes them chase things and
zone in on activities, good and bad. An E-collar will interrupt than zoning
effect and bring the dog back to a listening posture. This method is the only
method I know that works 100% of the time in any situation be it a high or low
distraction.
Trained behaviors take time to learn and time to change. Today people have
less time. No amount of verbal praising or pleading alone will change the
behavior of a dog. The dog continues to do its own thing without the discomfort
(the reason not to). Eventually the person resorts to screaming, leading to losing
his cool, and then the hammer comes down.
What has this person really accomplished? Most often the person has
created a cowering, less trained dog and has given himself higher blood
pressure. Unlike a professional trainer, who has the time, the controlled
environment, and the strategies to accomplish a trained dog in a shorter amount
of time, the average person needs the training tools and the knowledge of how
to use the tools to train the dog to be both a good companion and a proficient
hunter.
Whether you want a good hunter or a good companion, you need an
effective way of training the dog to do what you want and need him to do. You
need to get serious, to get involved with a trainer, to take some lessons, and
to invest the time and energy to be involved with the dog. Your dog’s behavior is often a product of his
environment (given you have started with a genetically sound animal).
Once you have the tools, you need to use them. Use your dog crate and
dog pen. Give your dog off time in a place where he can’t do anything wrong and
you have no need of yelling at him.
Most importantly remember that it is never too late to train your dog.
It may take longer with bad behaviors that have been allowed to go unchecked
and even tolerated for some time. But start today and you will not believe how
happy you both will be!
Good
Luck,
John
at Kirby
Mountain Sporting Dogs
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Posted 10/26/03 |
goldy©2003 |