View Single Post
  #5  
Old June 19th, 2011, 12:12 PM
violagirl violagirl is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Canada
Posts: 90
Thanks for the videos and books. I am convinced that positive reinforcement is the best way to train - i feel like I am sometimes swimming against the current because my husband and friend i mentioned basically say do what works.

What kind of ticked me off about the trainer was she called it "treat training" in a dismissive way, well its is NOT treat training and my friend thinks that when my dogs are barking and i'm giving them treats that i am "treating" the barking...when to me that isnt' what i'm doing at all. And it makes complete sense to use encouragement rather than punishment.

As a former piano teacher you hear the stories - "I used to take piano lessons from the Nuns and everytime i made a mistake i got rapped with a ruler" well, that may work technically, but will not make a person WANT to play piano and besides, who doesnt' learn from mistakes? Would that not make you afraid to do anything for fear of making a mistake? Wouldn't a dog have a similar reaction?

I would rather my dogs obey my instructions because they want to, or they prefer to rather than obey for fear of consequences. When i explained this to my husband he was like..they are dogs!! A short tug on the neck isn't going to hurt them. He wants me to sign up for this trainer's course. But i just do NOT feel comfortable using her methods and i dont' think i can do it halfheartedly.

There are a few things i have worked on with the dogs today already. For example..they are used to jumping up on the couch willy nilly. She advocated getting them to wait to be invited. I'm pretty easy going so i don't mind willy nilly, but i can see her point because my dogs do surprise visitors by jumping up on their laps...so her method is to do this..dogs go to jump on couch..snap...and repeat. My method i tried is...i sit down, if dogs jump on couch i remove them...i sit down..get them to sit on floor...when they sit on the floor..i praise and invite them up on couch as a reward...seemed to make everyone happy. Didnt' involve the dreaded "treat" at all...AND no violence was needed.

Now I have a crusade (like my CORN in pet food rants i have exposed my friends to) i want to prove them wrong. I want to prove that i can have well behaved dogs without corrective leash tugging. Sometimes it is overwhelming though. i have to develop a method of attack.
Reply With Quote