The Delicate Art of Dog Training

[Nelson]

Fast food or home grown?

In today’s normal everyday life it seems we’re bombarded by all sorts of media and daily interactions with getting and making a faster pace. People seem to have less and less time with each passing day. The normal response to everything we usually get from people is “there’s no time”, “with what time”, I don’t have time”. Sounds familiar?

Yet everyone on this earth has 24 complete hours a day to themselves. Why then do people always seem to “run out of time”? Many are wagering a constant war within themselves thinking of the future and the past. Thinking about what they don’t have and how they’re going to get it. Or tormenting themselves on days past.

This type of attitude has permeated the dog training world too. With the advancement and development of better e-collar now everyone who hold a leash and a control are considered dog trainers. The dog jumps on people … zap him, the dog doesn’t “Out” … zap him, the dog doesn’t sit … zap him. It will bring immediate results which in the fast food society that we live in will bring a smile to the owner’s face. But at what cost? Did the dog actually LEARN the why of his correction and the how to avoid future discomfort? Of course not.

I can still remember the 1st time I saw a professional dog training demonstration. A beautiful German working-bred GSD. He marveled everyone there with his precision as he went through the routines. Eventually the bitework came. The dog got very pumped-up and on he went to do the routines. Everything was going fine until the hander commanded the dog to “Out”. The GSD need various commands shouted at the top of the hander’s lungs for to eventually comply. This gave me sense of uneasiness. The thought that drowned my mind was “he doesn’t have control of this dog”. Right then and there I told myself that if was to ever have a trained dog the “Out” would be my most important command.

At the time where the only good dog training book was Koehler’s Method of Guard dog training, and everyone trained the “Out” by pulling and choking the dogs off … I said to myself “I have to develop something better”. That’s why I wrote the article about the “Out” and how to get quick, non-conflictive response from the dog. It takes more time than it would if you latched an ecollar and zapped the dog into an “Out”. But at the end you have a partner, a teammate, a family member who’s bond and trust in you go above and beyond a dog who has been pummeled into compliance.

With training that goes beyond the simple pull / jerk / zap and into the intricacies of understanding both parties (dog-trainer) the benefits are astonishingly different for the better. The training becomes the fun part of your interactions with dogs. That’s why I’ve always wrote in my articles that it’s the road to the title the fun part (because the title is a given). There’s no need to worry about it. And it’s also why I like to finish by saying “happy training”. Because that’s the way it should be. Take care ya’ll.

Happy training,

[TheRedQueen]

Well said...

So where can we find this "Out" article?

[pitbullmamaliz]

So true, Nelson!

[furever_pit]

Well said...

So where can we find this "Out" article?

+1.