Image courtesy of http://jonathanturley.org One of my most cherished bosses in the world once used the analogy that there are 3 “legs of the bar stool” of that particular company that supported our department and its efforts. Without one of those “legs” the entire operation would come crashing down. I love the first day of group dog training classes, where I get to share my philosophy on training and get students on the same page before they even bring their dogs to class. This is where I, too, get to use my own “bar stool” analogy when it comes to obtaining good dog behavior. Except in my version, there’s four legs to the bar stool. Let’s face it, when there’s something as unpredictable as dog behavior at stake, you want to make sure you’re on the most stable foundation possible… Leg 1 – Nutrition What you put in Fido’s mouth … Read More
Giving Up on Perfect
There was a time early on in my dog training career when I wanted to be perfect. And I wanted a perfect dog, too. At the time, I was volunteering at a service dog organization, and was obsessed in my interactions with service dogs who were bred and born to be working dogs. They started training at 8 weeks old, were trained every single day, attended class once a week for 18 months with their puppy raisers and then had another 6 months of dedicated training by advanced trainers. Whew! That’s a lot of training… And these amazing dogs, seemingly, were perfect. They never barked in public, they never bothered anyone, and no noise, distraction, crowded mall or cramped space seemed to phase them ever. (Of course, as you might wonder, they did have the opportunity just to run and play and “be dogs” when they weren’t working, too.) But … Read More