I love this photo. It shows Fate, Zinnia and Bud waiting patiently in front of their food bowls before I say “okay” and release them to eat.
My own feeling is that dog training in America is a catastrophe. There are many wonderful and qualified dog trainers, but few people use them or want to pay for them.
Dog training books, TV shows, and videos are a billion-dollar industry, but veterinary surveys have shown that only 3 percent of American dogs are trained well, if at all.
A woman from Michigan emailed me recently to ask for dog training advice for her three-year-old Lab who was destroying her living room.
I said I wasn’t a dog trainer and she should call her vet and get the name of a good one.
She was outraged and said I was rude and promised to write about my refusal on her mailing list. Please do, I said and I’ll be happy to join the list and point out how irresponsible and lazy a dog owner you are. She went away of course, in search of another free round of advice.
Dogs are worth more than that.
I respect Cesar Millan, I don’t agree that his methods are cruel in any way. But most of us don’t have a busload of assistants to help us train dogs, and we don’t see the dogs he can’t handle.
His book about getting the “perfect dog” is badly titled. There is no perfect dog, I don’t have one and neither will you. He is entertaining, but what he does has little relevance to me, my dogs, my life.
Dog lovers are set up to fail because they can’t do all of the things those videos and expensive books tell them to do. Training is personal, individual, and requires patience and commitment.
So they quite and buy more videos and watch more TV shows. But their dogs rarely get trained.
Training is never over for my dogs. It is not about obedience, it is about communication and trust.
It’s about the spiritual connection between us and our dogs, people who don’t train their dogs miss out on the very best thing about having a dog – the love and faith we put in each other, and the way we show them how to live safely and lovingly in a confusing and alien world.
The definition of a good dog in our culture is a dog who acts like a human, not a dog. The definition of a bad dog is a dog who acts like a dog. Training bridges this very wide gap.
We owe them stewardship, which is love, care, and the chance to know how to live with us without being punished, yelled at, or allowed to be dangerous. We owe them the great responsibility of choosing them wisely, training them, or getting the right help, not just loving them.
It’s fun to take a dog to a pet store for four hours of training. That is, at best, a small start for real training.
We owe it to the many people and children who are bitten, knocked down, or frightened by the dogs who are never trained. Love is about much more than hugging or talking baby talk. Dog bites on children’s faces are epidemic, report pediatricians. We owe it to them too to train our dogs carefully and be careful when we adopt or rescue or purchase them.
My dogs are trained every day. They get nothing for free. At feeding time, we put the food on the floor and wait – between three and five minutes – and if they move, the food gets taken away.
They don’t move anymore, they sit and wait patiently not a minor thing for a Boston Terrier a big and boisterous lab, and an impatient and independent border collie.
My dogs are trained to go out calmly, how to approach people, how to respect the elderly, how to sit-stay and lie down on command. I have no “perfect” dogs, and I wouldn’t want one. I don’t even know that that is.
I appreciate the training and certifying process for my therapy dogs – Izzy, then Red, now Zinnia. This gives me no choice but to work hard to train them.
Sometimes I mess up, sometimes they do, we move on with love and trust and try again. It humbles me and teaches me humanity, mercy, and love. It opens me up.
Training is the language through which we speak to our dogs. I am not like anyone else, they are not like anyone else’s dogs. I am my own training guru, I keep at it until I figure out how to do it, and I am humbled by it.
It works about 80 percent of the time. I’m always working on the other 20, slowly, patiently, and with love and respect.
Nobody needs to be perfect, and no one I know can be. We have to be ourselves and never quit.
I was proud of them this morning, they sat still for four minutes before I released them. When we go outside to throw the ball, they will wait even longer first.
Good points Jon
I have been studying dog behavior and training, formally and informally for about the last 12 years…. and what a ride it has been!
Up to this point this is the most important thing I have learned….they are always watching and trying to figure me out even as I zone out and go about living my life unaware of them….they are always watching, always learning, always aware of me.
You are so correct, however one chooses to train, it never ends.
I’ve been training my own dogs probably for as many years as you. I absorb all the information I can from dog trainers, books, seminars, watching dogs, etc. It’s ongoing for me because I find it fascinating and of great interest. Fairness and training is the best gift you can give a dog. I’m always striving to be better at it. In my years of being a trainer I have found other dog trainers to have BIG egos. Their way is the best, it works! They were not open to ever revising their methods. To be a better trainer for my dogs I learned was to put my ego aside and be open to good advice. The five minute stay with food in front of the poor dog’s face is one I used. However another trainer awhile back asked me why five minutes when a minute or half a minute will do? She made me question my ego and how we humans can get carried away with our power over our dogs. It was humbling. But I have not since asked my dogs to wait for any long length of time over their food bowl and I can’t see that it turned them into being ill-mannered. A very brief pause before the release was all that seemed necessary to get the point that you should take your food politely. Best advice a dog trainer ever gave me was to let my ego outside the door.
Fabulous! The Training should NEVER end. This was clear to me because the father of my children was without sight, and used a guide dog for all of our time together. We also trained German Shepherd Dogs, for the sport of Schutzhund , a working trial. I have always enjoyed my dogs so much because we know what to expect of each other! I too, have made many errors, with each of the dogs I have trained and I do rely on friends who are professional trainers for solutions that I have not been able to come to alone. Thank you again for your honest assessment of Canine and human relationships.