Forum Greatcompanionkennels En Further Jacobite Great Companion Kennels KOMO-TV interviews me about Cesar Millan

As far as the “BIG CHAIN STORE” training goes I wish someone would compile some data/stats on the number of dogs that fair poorlly from the attempts at using a one size fits all approach. I know for a fact that often the training methods that are used DO NOT WORK…

I bet if you do some research and check out a half dozen of the big dog chat sites you will read testimonies to this effect that will keep you busy for years to come.

So much for absolutes and agendas

cheers

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I’ll make an attempt to explain the differences between the methods and add my own, personal, commentary on the subject. I’m doing do as a professional dog trainer who has used methods similar to Cesar’s since the early 1980s (well before I knew he existed). I was also very much in the dog training realm when the “new and improved” methods were first introduced to dog owners. I actually learned about the methods before they were applied to dogs. My first job out of college put me in contact with the head dolphin trainer at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. I visited with the dolphins on several occasions and he explained the methods that they used for their aquatic mammal training program (which become “click treat” when applied to dogs).

I don’t want to speak for Cesar, so I won’t refer to “Cesar’s method”. I don’t want to speak for the lady on “It’s me or the dog”, especially since her methods are not “ALL positive” or “only click-treat”, but she certainly has a prevailing strategy that falls into the “new age” methodologies. So, I will refer to the two methods as “correction for compliance” or “incentive + ignore”. I know that neither titles are perfect for describing the methods, but I needed to separate them the best that I could.

The two basic premises of the “Incentive + Ignore” method are “offer incentives” for desired behaviors and “ignore bad behavior” and it will go away. The folks who use these methods use “scientific research” to make you think that they have some new-found data to support their dog training strategies. I will simply say that most of those folks are not scientist themselves, and their ability to interpret data is, at times, a bit off kilter, in my opinion. I say that as a scientist, myself; a person who has a degree in science and worked in the field (designing and statistically interpreting experiments in a highly reviewed field) for over twenty years. But, I also speak as a dog expert who does not rely on science to train dogs because training dogs is more an art as it is a science. The “new age” folks will criticize Cesar because he isn’t a scientist and doesn’t have a degree. I’m here to say, as a scientist, that you don’t need a degree to train dogs. You need skills (both innate and learned through experience). Some people are just good at training dogs in the same way that some people are just very good at playing the piano. There is an innate aptitude that enhances learned skills that are acquired through experience. Cesar obviously has an innate ability, which could also be called a gift.

Incentives work for any animal. However, the method leaves the decision about whether the behavior will be presented wholly to the animal (and how much value the incentive has over the animal at any given time). So, it ignores one of the most profound and intriguing elements of domestic dog – the fact that it is not just *any* species. It is a species designed by man, in man’s image, with a keen genetic-based desire to subordinate to a human authority figure – which is derived from their wolf ancestor’s genetic based need to subordinate to a wolf authority figure.

An incentive method clearly works to create behaviors that are especially challenging to “describe” to the animal. Wild species, like dolphins, bears and parrots that have no genetic code that supports subordination to a leader, are often best or only served with this method. Incentive based training is also very useful to teach dogs to perform complex and non-compliance / non-respect based tasks, such as climbing a ladder, jumping through a hoop, dancing on two legs.

The second aspect of the “Incentive + Ignore” method is the “ignore” part. This is the idea that if there is no incentive for the behavior it will go away. I don’t happen to think that all behaviors that are not rewarded completely extinguish because I believe “to experiment is to be intelligent and adaptive”. Sometimes, it is just worth trying a behavior again to see what happens, even if nothing has happened for a very long time. I see hummingbirds coming to an empty feeder months after I last filled it – “just incase” the status has changed. So, to rely on complete extinction of an unwanted behavior through the “zero reward” theory is to wait a very long time, at least for some behaviors.

The “ignore” method suggests that if the dog jumps up on you, so long as you wholly ignore it, the dog will find no value in the behavior and will stop. That has been shown in scientific experiments where the scientists can actually create a situation of “NO REWARD”. However, it’s very challenging for most dog owners to completely ignore the pain of the nails digging into their flesh repeatedly, or watching as their child is bullied or trampled. For most dog owners, it is impossible to ask guests to “just ignore” the dog when he jumps on you. So, there is very often a response that the dog can perceive – either from the person on whom he is jumping or the owner who is standing by wondering why her dog trainer would instruct her to let the dog damage friends and family members. The woman on “It’s Me Or The Dog” show often wears a calf-length rain coat when she arrives in the home. She turns her back to the jumping dog and instead of having the pooch jump on her front, he jumps on her back, apparently because she can be less damaged that way and the coat offers a bit of protection. She even attempted to employ the “ignore” method when a Siberian Husky began to hump her leg to no avail, so they took the dog to a veterinarian and got it an “injection” that would reduce his *Censored Word* urges, rather than simply address the behavior the way another dog would – by correcting the dog!

Along with the ignore aspect of the method, the “new age” trainers often offer the dog a treat when he STOPS jumping up. Where is the logic in that? The dog is being rewarded for “no behavior” or the “absence” of bad behavior. Huh? The dog jumps on someone. The dog is ignored. The dog looses interest. The dog gets off the person and then he hears, “Good Doggie!” and is given a treat for an absence of behavior. On “It’s Me Or The Dog”, I have seen this approach used several times. That’s just bizarre to me.