"Everyone knows my/their dog gets loose." Discussions

As a woman, I can imagine a woman or a man doing this. I've encountered a few women who make me say that.

Where I used to work we could see in a area out the windows where some dogs were trained for certain things or protection dogs and I have seen all sorts of things and some not nice to the point that I wanted to go out and rip into the people that were doing it, but I knew I couldn’t!! With things like when the dogs were play fighting when they got out the vehicle they would get kicked to stop them, rather than making them sit and wait or moving away from each other, that was the way they dealt with it, I’ve been told that if a dog excepted anything from a stranger be a treat or anything the dog would get a hiding until it learnt not to take anything other than from it’s handler. This is the way they train them. It used to make my blood boil, if I had of said anything I would in no certain terms, would told be to go forth a multiply. In a nicer way of putting it

How sad. The sooner people recognise that these old -fashioned forceful methods only produce a fearful and reactive dog, the better.

I think there are more people, dog professionals as well as casual dog owners, who believe in positive based training now than ever before.

Unfortunately, the ones who believe in aversive methods are far more vocal. I did a search on youtube a while back and it was disgusting to see how many aversive trainers were posting - far more than positive trainers do.

Amazon, Chewy, etc, sell aversive tools. To my mind, they should be required to include a disclaimer that says something like "The use of this product may result in physical and/or mental injury to your dog. Current studies show that aversive training tools such as this are less effective overall than positive training methods. Please speak with your veterinarian or certified animal behaviorist before attempting to use this product."

Hollywood still promotes aversive trainers like Chavez. It also glamorizes the idea of having an attack trained dog.

People still encourage others to "get a dog" for protection which encourages the thinking that dogs are objects and not sentient beings. It also encourages the completely screwed up idea that if you "raise the dog mean" it will protect you.

Many dog forums and social media refuse to take a stand against aversive methods stating in their rules that "all training methods are welcome to be discussed". Even when someone suggests shocking a scared dog who is snapping until they cower in fear, these forums consider that an acceptable form of training. I have found that non-dog related forums are far more likely to call out abusive methods like that than are the dog forums - which is an extremely sad commentary on all of us so-called dog lovers.

Those who use aversive methods on their dogs are more likely to be aggressive, dominating, and/or abusive to people and far more rigid in their thinking and disregard others' points of views. Those who use positive based methods tend to be more empathetic towards other people and less likely to cause a scene or create discord. This means that the former tend to argue their opinion and refuse to back down, while the latter tend to go silent. This creates a misbelief that aversive methods are far more universal than they really are (which is why I personally fight so hard against the pro-aversives).

Society has allowed the softening of terms of aversive tools and methods. E-collar instead of shock collar, balanced training instead of aversive based training, etc. Pro-aversive folks use these softened terms to minimize the negative image of their methods. And pro-positive folks have allowed these terms to take hold by also using them instead of using the more accurate terms.

The majority of our pet and obedience trainers have qualifications from a body that only recommends positive methods, KCAI, APDT, etc. I don't know about the working dog people, can only say that I never had a 'hard' trainer when I was doing KC Working Trials. My two trials dogs both had basic weak temperaments and couldn't have coped if they had been pushed too hard or too fast.
I did two Confidence Days with a famous retired police dog instructor, now sadly deceased. He was a brilliant instructor, who guided us through a variety challenges that a service dog might face, and the day ended with our dogs jumping through a hoop of fire.
These day courses were for any dog, and show and pet dogs attended - though they did have the option to leave out the eventual fire jump. Every challenge was trained very gradually, using high value treats, and building confidence in both the dog and the handler.
I really must seek out some of the photographs, they are on a disc somewhere.

I wish we would do that. But any idiot can call themselves a trainer here. And more idiots hire them because "guaranteed immediate results" is more important than a happy healthy dog to them.

There are unqualified trainers out there too. The best of them were teaching years before formal qualifications were set up and can be judged by their successes and the way their dogs perform in the ring. Most of these are well known in their locality, or on their dog sport circuit.
We tend to train via local training clubs. It can be difficult for owners to get a place though, due to there being a limit on the number that a trainer feels happy to have in each class.
Residential dog training would be rare over here - especially if the dog is being taken away from his owner to be trained. I think anyone should be wary of a trainer who promises a quick fix. A dog needs whatever time it takes to build a new habit and they are all different.