Bad training or Good Training

This is Herzhund Charlee, I bred her and she is owned by a good friend, Team K9Pro member Candace who also runs my office at K9Pro.

Charlee is 8 years old now and she has her BH (x2) and loves to work. She is a retired girl now but  comes out on special occasions to flaunt her skills.

I have been the person who has engaged her in bite work since she was young, only me.

She knows and remembers me for being that person in her life. The one to bite.

And when she can, she does bite with everything she has.

Something that many people do not get is that, this is her HIGHEST form of POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT.
Charlee LOVES bite work.

She has extreme prey drive and this is how it has been channeled in her so that she is not going to focus her prey drive on other animals, people, cars, bikes kids etc.

Of course this means that Charlee does not like me, maybe even hates me or is fearful of me right?

Well, that’s what people with no experience will tell you.

This is because they simply don’t know, or do know and they are simply lying to get support for “their” idea of animal welfare.

The below pic is her right after the above workout. She is like this every time she see’s me.

 

Anyone who has any idea about the feelings of a dog will see exactly what Charlee thinks of me, this work and her life.

Imagine Animal “Rights” political parties want to stop this. No bite work, no tug play, no instinctual activity.

Secretly but not so hard to uncover is that these people also want to stop humans having dogs altogether!

They will tell you that the training tools that experienced, educated, specialist trainers use, are bad. Although these people don’t train dogs, have never used the tools, seen the tools used correctly, they want to tell the experts how to train dogs.

They will tell you that the only way to train all dogs is with “proven, scientific, positive reinforcement methods“.

They don’t provide the proof but accept when the training doesn’t work, the dog should be euthanised.

Bite work training is a controversial topic too, but looking at Charlee, and the other dogs I train, they love the work and me.

There are of course other ways to train bite work, putting high levels of stress on dogs to scare them into biting is one. 

I have been brought dogs that have been trained that way for rehab, I have seen dogs that have gone to sport dog clubs and now fear entering the field.

But that is not training, its bad training.

I have worked with dogs that have been exclusively trained with food only to become savage resource guarders and attack their owners. 

Does using food create these problems? No. Bad training does.

I have seen dogs spin with excitement to get their prong collar fitted.

Do prong collars cause that?

No, good training does.

I have seen dogs race to get their e collars fitted, do e collars create this?

No, good training does.

I have seen dogs go to dog parks to “socialise” with other dogs many times every week since young, only to become dog aggressive. 

Do you see the common denominator here?

It is not the activity, tool, reward or dog in most cases, it is how the person who owns the dog arranges these things for the dog. 

What causes them to happen or not happen.

Misdirection 

We always need to focus on what exactly is best for the dog in front of us, mid and long term outcomes need to be the focus.

Imagine a Politician telling a Doctor which scalpel or procedure to use in surgery, of course not, but when your a dog trainer, be prepared to be told what you know and what has worked thousands of times is wrong by someone that has never done a single thing.

I founded the organisation “Professional Dog Trainers of Australia” to gather together the dog trainers of Australia, unite them, provide education, support, representation and set ethical standards of dog training and behaviour modification.

If you have not heard about the PDTA, please take a look here (https://dogtrainersaustralia.org/)

Join as as a dog trainer or associate member to help our words be heard and our dogs be saved.

Don’t be fooled by those who talk the talk but can’t walk at all.

Steve