Acceptance and Teaching: Learning To Inspire Owners To Inspire Their Dogs!

I am honored to have fellow dog trainer and Animal Behavior College Alum, JennaLee Gallicchio owner of All Star Paws Dog Training Academy in New Jersey contribute to my blog.  

Jenna shares her personal story of enlightenment and growth in her own training style and how that has translated into tolerance and understanding for anyone dealing with the challenges of training a dog. You can find JennaLee on FaceBook: allstarpaws, Twitter:@allstarpaws or her website, All Star Paws.  Enjoy! 

Acceptance and Teaching: Learning To Inspire Owners To Inspire Their Dogs! 

Recently I watched a series of Webinars by a trainer that I really love which talked about inspiring your dog when training and rewarding your dog choosing behaviors you like, such as four feet on the ground before getting some loving.  I love this concept and use it everyday - today. There was a time when I didn't think or train that way. Now that I have seen the difference between 'managing' and 'inspiring' behavior and realize how much less work I have to put into the everyday activities (like feeding or putting leashes on, walking out the door and getting treats are pretty much all effortless and quiet at my house).  I work to pass this knowledge and peace on to my clients and I do this by educating about how dogs learn.

The challenge comes in when I am working with a client who has been educated by (and bought into) famous dog trainers on TV who talk more about managing behavior than inspiring it. Trainers like this also seem like miracle workers who 'transform' dogs and people want to duplicate their results. My methods may seem fru-fru or not make sense. So it's my job to work with where they are and remember where I started.

You see, I had one of those trainers too, except my trainer was in person. I will never forget her nor will I ever forget how I believed that yelling at my dog (Sydney, a super sweet springer spaniel mix) when he broke a stay, jerking on his neck with a prong collar when he didn't walk directly next to me or kneeing him in the chest to keep him from jumping, was going to get me the results I wanted. I know - awful! But I did it.

I'm not going to lie - it did get me results. But what it also got me was a dog who shut down on me when I needed to revisit or try to train something new. It also got me a dog who had EXTREME separation anxiety any time I would leave. I remember the moment when I realized that I didn't want to train Mattie using a prong collar.

Sydney, Mattie and I were walking a few yards from my house (Mattie was 5 months old) and both boys had their prong collars on.  I had just corrected (forcefully jerked the leash) Mattie for something and he whined (which I of course thought was normal and okay). I then looked down at Sydney and his whole body was collapsed.  I realized then and there that I didn't want to train Mattie to be like that. It actually broke my heart a bit. I took off the prong collars that day, and never looked back.  

I understand why people use choke collars, prong collars, electric collars they just want their dog to stop pulling when they are out walking. They knee them in the chest because "a professional" said that would work.  I know - I've been there I understand how much we put on the words of a professional, even if they don't feel completely right to us. "He's the expert. She's the professional." And so we do what they tell us because we are desperate and don't know what else to do.

Today I understand that there is a better way where both people and dogs can ENJOY training and have fun. After all why else did we get dogs?

JennaLee, Mattie & Ryder

So when I see a prong collar my gut reaction is to get angry... especially if I see it on a 12lb dog.  I usually need to count to 10 (sometimes 100) and remind myself that that person is doing the best they can. They (like me at one time) don't know any better and are desperate to get their dog to listen to them. Its not about abuse or trying to hurt their dog. It's what they think is training.

So in order to inspire dog owners to inspire their dogs, I need to first not alienate them for using tools that I don't like or disagree with. If I alienate or judge them then they just may come to "dislike" force-free positive trainers who use their clickers as their tool of choice.  (Which by the way I LOVE my clicker and would be very angry if someone told me I couldn't use it any longer.)

So when I get angry or frustrated I need to remember that education is the key to beginning change and positive experience (or seeing results) is what creates the willingness and desire to continue the change.  I just need (as another trainer said) sneak in the back door with all of my positive force-free methods and before you know it - the prong collar is gone. I do this by sharing my story and proving that my methods work one tiny exercise at a time.

I know that the more people who get to see their joyful puppy stay a joyful adult dog, that more will become as addicted to that end result as I am. I also know that their friends will want to know who their trainer is!

Mattie and Ryder