Basic dog training techniques do not encompass any of the things your dog needs. Dogs don’t need to be taught tricks (example: Teaching a dog that barks on the walk to stand next to you and wait for a treat isn’t actually dealing with why the dog wants to bark and how to safely and properly train that anxiety out of your dog). Your certified dog trainer will focus solely on approaches that are 45 to 60 years old or on processes that are nothing more than distraction techniques without dealing with the environment and the wide range of stimuli dogs actually deal with on a day to day basis, the things which cause anxiety and problems at home and on leash.
After I had my first dog Buddy Rhodes for a few years, and was still having trouble with him, I had been, by that point, told by a 15-year expert in dog rescue, two experienced trainers (one from a well-known training franchise; the other a private trainer), and a veteran dog behaviorist of more than 20 years that “I was doing everything right” with my dog. Fact is, I wasn’t.
What I was doing was just what had been expected in mainstream, ineffective dog training. The latter three people I mentioned above all said Buddy was “untrainable.” (Only the person in rescue was aware there’s no such thing.)
Since no one could comprehend my dog Buddy, I set out to comprehend him.
I read articles all over the internet from a ton of sources. I read about classic dog training techniques, the ones your trainer with the choker and prong collars use (things I never resorted to and absolutely refused to) in order to understand what used to be standard. I then boned up on new techniques like “natural dog training,” ideas like “pushing” (a technique I would no longer use, but an interesting one that required getting a dog excited in a particular way then telling them to sit, thus teaching them to hear your cues in even the most intense situations), and all kinds of insights from breeders on specific breeds and the instincts of those dogs and how to train based on a dog’s breed.
From the above, I moved on to learning about medical and further psychological insights from veterinarians. Although a vet’s expertise isn’t usually behavior, vets (and, fyi, most hate being called that; they prefer “veterinarian”) can tell you things about when dogs are “presenting” with various signs of pain or neurological issues and the like, and that knowledge helped me further understand dog behavior.
Yes, I read dissertations, essays, articles, blogs, and more from breeders, trainers, rescuers, PhDs, MBAs, and SWFs (Oh, um, that’s just Single White Females. A lot of them tend to blog) than most people with certifications. Matter of fact, there isn’t a SINGLE certification that requires that amount, or breadth, of studying.
Since Buddy Rhodes, I have trained literally several hundreds of dogs. Many of these were dogs and owners I met on the streets here in NYC or at the dog park. Observing a dog (and its owner) for a few minutes, I can usually diagnose problems, and then offer several tips to resolve everything from barking on leash to separation anxiety to attacking dogs that try to take their ball, and on and on. If you still have questions, feel free to contact me!
