Seeing with New Eyes

Experience changes our ethos. There are many pathways that will broaden our choices.

The more I see “sit, down, come, stay heel” as the essential basics the more I am moving further away from the general view of living with dogs.

I know what I am, as a trainer. But does my view of “A Trainer” coincide with, or even overlap with yours?

Even though today we are surrounded by many available protocols for teaching with positive reinforcement, there is still a persistence that a dog should be set-up to make an error. An error is simply the difference between my expectation and the dog’s response. No more “distractions”, but faded-in environments.

We cannot presume a cue is a reinforcer unless we can shape a new behaviour using that cue as the marker. Read carefully. Think carefully. Consider multiple perspectives. Sometimes it seems easier to let someone else do the thinking for you and just copy, but we need to become thoughtful trainers.

Teaching your Collie “impulse control” is the wrong way of thinking about their urges, and certainly an unhelpful way of dealing with them.