Puppy & Dog Training, Ipswich – Doggy Dogma

There are two types of behaviours that you want your dog to be able to offer as a pet dog owner, these are:

• Default behaviours: behaviours that have such a strong association or are so well rewarded that the dog does it automatically, without their owner’s constant input.   Behaviours that work best as a default are “On Your Mat” and Sit or Down.
• Creative Behaviours: When we reward behaviours that a dog offers, for no real other reason that rewarding creativity – we begin building a strong bond with our dog – we are more random with equals more interesting and exciting.  These behaviours can become tricks – or just a fun game with your dog.

You see now, many years later as not just a dog trainer and behavioural consultant, but as a perpetual student of animal behaviour and behavioural science – I really understand everything that took place in that training session.  The scare tactics that was used to elicit a fear response from the dogs, thus conditioning (creating an association) of the Word “Baah” and throw of the chain and the fear that the dogs felt in that original moment (which was a significant amount of fear) and why my dogs really liked to alert bark at anyone who came to my house for years afterwards.  Training by playing on the fear in an animal that is breed to be relatively easily spooked is really not training – it is bullying – but let me get back to the point.

Within a matter of weeks the effectiveness of the “Baah” and the Throw chain began to fade in significance to the dogs.  Why? Well here is the trouble with punishment – as there was not continued “Baah” = Fear pattern, it began to fade in significance (there was no consequence to the warning if you will).  Throwing the chain towards the dogs during heightened episodes of barking (if there was a person walking near the property for example) lead to complete ignoring of the chain as there “pain” of hearing the clinking chain paled in significance to the excitement and thrill of chasing the potential intruders.

We continued to throw the chain and yell the “Baah” even though it was having little to no impact to the dogs behaviour over all – and nor did we bother to call the trainer back to help us re-fix our dogs.  (The reality is these guarantees are one of the best marketing ploys available – charge a little extra – if they call back they haven’t been using the training properly – meaning guarantee is void – if they don’t call back I have made some extra cash).

The reality is left to their own devices, regardless of their dogs, most dog owners will fall back into old patterns once the trainer has left the building.  Sooner or later the dog will begin to display the same if not similar behaviour (and if the fallout of the Bullying Training is particular bad – the behaviour will be significantly worse) will eventually show it’s head as the dog begins to realise that – the consequence is bearable, or that it is inconsistent or what it thought was scary is indeed non-existent.

It may take weeks, months or years (most I give 6 months) but eventually these quick fixes begin not to seem so fixed, and defiantly not so quick.  These quick fix trainers also don’t provide the dog owners with enough real information to change their own behaviours for a prolonged period of time, let alone their dogs.  While telling someone they are not being a pack leader may seem impressive – it actually has little context – during these training session except to justify any pain (be it physical – with a check chain – or emotional – as with “Baah”) and fear that is inflicted on the dog.

When I began studying dog training and formulating Doggy Dogma’s processes for training modifications – I began to realise that to truly implement training I couldn’t “dump and run” the training to novice would be dog training owners – that they must be supported in the changed that they are implementing – not just for the benefit of the dog, but also for the owner.  Doggy Dogma is about understanding the knowledge and truth behind dog training – as well as the mechanical skill of training itself…

When I was younger, and my knowledge of dog behaviour was the same as every other dog owner, I found myself in need of a dog trainer.  My young dogs (around 6 months old) had caused my neighbour to complain about barking.  Being probably a little young and quite naive – I like most other dog owners who have received a neighbours complaint – panicked and went and got myself a dog trainer.

At the time the local council was all in support of a particular Dog Training Franchise Company, so that was the company we picked.  This company is not really upfront about their training technique – though to be fair I did not know there were things as different techniques in training.

Anyway, the trainer come over, we paid a large sum of money for a 2-3 hour training session, which guaranteed results.  Just what we needed – a quick fix for our puppy barking problem.  And what is more if we had any further problems, as long as we were following their advice – we would get a lifetime of free training.

The guy sat down and told us all about pack leadership and how our dogs were misbehaving because they were running the house.  Reflecting now I find it a little ironic that the problem was when we weren’t at home and it is very difficult to seek status over someone when they weren’t there, but I digress.  Then, and I remember this moment very clearly, in a nice sweet voice the trainer coaxed my dogs to him – very sweetly and very gently – then all at once he shouted “BAAH” at the top of his voice, threw a metal chain to the ground in a mighty “crash”.  The dogs bolted away from the trainer and hid – we then moved into the lounge room of my house that looks on to the street and the trainer paraded his dog up and down the curb in front of my house – my dogs – like a miracle not reacting to the man and his dog – and if they dared to look to long a “Baah” and “crash” was all it needed to correct their behaviour – our problems were solved.  Or so we thought.  The trainer then left us to our own devices with nothing but a few pieces of chain and a new word to throw at our “naughty” dogs.

This is the allure of the quick fix – as if 2 hours could solve the problems of the world – the reality is if we could find a quick fix for dog behaviour problems, then we would apply it to people – no more psychologists, justice system, or welfare system required thank-you very much.  The truth is not what happens in that 2 hour session, but what happens after that…