I'm part of the World Trainer's Transparency Challenge. Now, you may wonder just what the heck that is, so let me give you some information. The challenge was created by Jean Donaldson. In an attempt to make the dog training consumers aware of what we're really saying and to make it dog owner friendly, she gave us three questions to answer.
Here is Lili Chin's graphic that showed the questions:
This graphic has been now circulating around Facebook with the captions of "Always ask questions" but the posts are missing the most important part...and that is the answers to the questions. I see so many sharing it who are trainers but there are no answers posted as well.
So, here are my answers and these answers go for everyone here at Peace, Light & Love For Dogs.
1) What exactly will happen to my dog if my dog gets it right?
Depending on if it's a new skill or a skill already known depends on what happens. Your dog may just get a click and a small treat. Your dog may get a click, or YES!, and a party thrown. There will be rewards and those rewards may range from treats, playing a game of tug, a frolic and sniff, playtime with a toy, or some serious lovings. It really depends on what your dog enjoys most. And, we will always work with our clients to find out what motivates them to learn the best.
2) What exactly will happen to my dog if my dog gets it wrong?
Well, nothing will happen TO your dog. We have a strict no punishment rule. We will NEVER hit your dog, harm your dog or punish your dog. We use only kind and humane methods. Now, what will happen is we will stop and try to figure out why your dog isn't "getting it". We will look at several questions: "Are we moving too fast for the dog?" "Is the dog being overloaded with distractions?" "Is there something wrong with the way we're asking the dog to perform the cue?" Simply stated, if your dog isn't getting it, then WE are doing something wrong...not the dog and we want to always set up dogs to succeed so we will work at finding out where it went wrong.
3) Are there less invasive/aversice alternative to what you propose?
We have not found them yet if there is so our answer is "NO!" Now, as our clients always are told, we are always learning more as science and behavior becomes more mainstream so if there is a less invasive way, we will gladly work towards using that!
There you have it. This is our answers for the questions Jean posed to us. We are very happy to take part of this. I feel transparency in everything we do is important. There is no smoke or mirrors, no expensive collar, or some magic to what we do. What we do is simple. We want to work with your dogs capabilities to learn and help enrich the owner/dog bond.
As always, we look forward to seeing your dog and you out and about or even just in your yard. And yes, always ask questions and get references from potential dog trainers before you even let them near your dog!
