DogSecrets
Dog
Isn’t it frustrating when your pet does something that you don’t know how to stop? You get all sorts of advice from well meaning friends, but you still can’t stop it. You get embarrassed – after all, it’s only dog training!
But why should you know what makes a dog tick? Who taught you? Where did you learn? You don’t study it at school. There must be a secret to it…
For years dog trainers have tried to persuade us, the dog owning public, that there is something special about the ability to train dogs. They invoke some special method, mysticism or secret that makes them better than anyone else. Well, allow me to let you in to a secret: there are no “secrets”.
Scientists have conducted a tremendous amount of research into canine behaviour, and dog trainers have an accumulation of trial and error principles that have worked for them in the past, but the two rarely meet. The science is often hidden in obscure journals, and difficult to read. The trainers may have done it before, but don’t know why it works and what to do if it doesn’t.
I’ve combined twenty-six years of practical experience at the top levels of professional dog training with a post-graduate diploma, with distinction, in companion animal behaviour counselling from the University of Southampton, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for animal studies. I’m also independently certified as a Clinical Animal Behaviourist by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Pet behaviour counselling is a growing service offered to owners with problem pets, and goes beyond the normal remit of trainers. It covers problems such as: separation distress, aggression; phobias; anxiety; in fact, almost anything considered to be a problem by the owner. If you have a pet with a problem behaviour that you would like improved, please continue to the pet behaviour referrals page.
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This full day seminar explores the theory and practice of training for scent with dogs.
We all know that dogs’ noses are so much better than ours, but a greater understanding helps us relate to our dogs in greater depth.
Whether you train for work, competition, or simply for the huge fun that you and your dog can have together, understanding how our dogs observe the world through their noses helps us to get the best out of their remarkable abilities.
David focuses twenty-six years experience of working with police dogs and training …
In Defence of Dogs
John Bradshaw
Published by Allen Lane £20
(This review first appeared as an APBC Blog)
John Bradshaw has written a thought provoking book, but why in “defence” of dogs? He must have agonised over a few titles* In Praise of Dogs? In Explanation of Dogs? For the Love of Dogs? For he does praise, explain and obviously love dogs throughout.
He makes it clear that dogs are in dire need of defending from the very humans they sought to befriend over ten thousand years ago; from the misguided, inconsiderate and …
I’m NOT a “Positive Reinforcement” Trainer (and neither are you).
I’m fed up with being called a ‘positive’ or a ‘positive only’ dog trainer. It is usually in the form of an insult as in, “Them positive dog trainers with their clickers and their treats don’t understand what it is like to train a really dominant dog”. It is often used by the proponents of the ‘dominance’ theory of dog training who like to alpha roll and lead jerk to supposedly ‘show the dog who is boss’.
The term is also used …