At the RSPCA, where I help as a volunteer dog trainer with the dogs that need support before they are adoptable, we frequently come across dogs that are unhappy about having their rear end touched. While this can have any number of reasons, I couldn't help but wonder what impact training methods had on this problem, after I witnessed a training session at a well frequented dog school recently. Advertised as offering "gentle, fast and effective" training methods, and showing dogs in head halters on their web page, I was ill prepared for what I ended up seeing. The training ground was fenced and packed with at least three different classes in close proximity to each other, one of them a puppy class. Many of the dogs were quite aroused in this situation. With mounting dismay, I watched as dogs were "corrected" by jerks on the headhalters as if they were choke chains. One of them, a small boxer pup, was dragged over a small obstacle which promptly fell over after him and scared the living daylights out of him. No food rewards were in sight, only praise by voice was allowed.
In one of the classes, the trainer was demonstrating how to get a dog to sit. He had a dog in front of him and was pushing down on his rear end, with the dog frantically trying to snap at the trainer's hand on his back. They had to take a greyhound out of the class and work on him separately (sighthounds don't take well at all to having their body forcefully manipulated). I watched in horror as the trainer pushed back this greyhound's head further and further, until it looked like he would break his neck. Still the dog did not sit. When the trainer let go, the greyhound panted with a wide open mouth, a clear sign of stress (it was not hot and he had not exercised).
I understood better then that whippet I had met at a dog park, which would start to shiver when it heard the word "Sit!" - and of course wouldn't sit. "He doesn't like sitting on his bony bottom" the owner informed me.
How many dogs end up at the RSPCA because they are subjected to this type of "training", and end up biting their owner's hand in defense? How many of them don't get any further training because they resist this sort of treatment?
In one of the classes, the trainer was demonstrating how to get a dog to sit. He had a dog in front of him and was pushing down on his rear end, with the dog frantically trying to snap at the trainer's hand on his back. They had to take a greyhound out of the class and work on him separately (sighthounds don't take well at all to having their body forcefully manipulated). I watched in horror as the trainer pushed back this greyhound's head further and further, until it looked like he would break his neck. Still the dog did not sit. When the trainer let go, the greyhound panted with a wide open mouth, a clear sign of stress (it was not hot and he had not exercised).
I understood better then that whippet I had met at a dog park, which would start to shiver when it heard the word "Sit!" - and of course wouldn't sit. "He doesn't like sitting on his bony bottom" the owner informed me.
How many dogs end up at the RSPCA because they are subjected to this type of "training", and end up biting their owner's hand in defense? How many of them don't get any further training because they resist this sort of treatment?
To think that training the "Sit" is one of the easiest exercises to learn using Positive Reinforcement. Luring a dog into a sit is usually so easy that the next steps of fading the lure, and then fading the hand signal and installing the cue are quickly achieved, and both the dog and the owner are able to successfully experience all these phases of training, which helps for all further training.
Forcing a dog into a sit: gentle, fast and effective? I beg to differ.
Forcing a dog into a sit: gentle, fast and effective? I beg to differ.
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