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To me, positive dog training is...
using methods that enhance our relationships with dogs.
The methods of Ian Dunbar, for one.
Using clickers with dogs. The Tellington TTouch. Rewards at times,
when the dog does what we want.
Maybe it's helpful to say what it is NOT...
It is not using training methods that hurt or terrify the
dogs.
It isn't electric shock, no matter how "humane." In a
milder vein, it isn't teaching a puppy to sit by shoving his butt,
nor is it teaching him to heel by yanking on a choke chain. It isn't
thinking in terms of punishment.
Is it possible to train every dog using solely positive methods?
I don't know. But it is possible to do far, far more
positive dog training than people are doing so far -- and that
is one of the main reasons I'm creating this website, to add my
bit to this movement.
In the last few years, many trainers have crossed over to using
clicker training and similar positive dog training methods rather
than the forceful approaches. You may hear them called crossover
trainers for that reason. There's an organization -- the Association
of Pet Dog Trainers -- which emphasizes this approach,advocating
"dog-friendly" training.
For many years, the thinking has been that dogs are descended
from wolves, wolves are pack animals, and therefore you must dominate
your dog.
But we are in the midst of a paradigm shift here... a significant
change in thinking is going on. Positive dog training is on the
rise.
It is not so much a matter of the old ways being wrong and the
new ways right. Rather, positive dog training approaches are more
useful.
Instead of thinking of our dogs as beings who are ever-eager to
dominate us if we don't dominate them, we can think of them as
beings who like to feel good and don't like to feel bad.
In that simple shift, new joys open up in dog training --
and in every aspect of our lives with dogs.
Positive Dog Training & the Paradigm Shift: Some Books and
an Article...
 Bones
Would Rain from the Sky, by Suzanne Clothier
The book that has most increased my own joyous sense of relationship
with dogs is the recent book, Bones Would Rain from the Sky:
Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs, by Suzanne Clothier.
The title is based on a Turkish proverb, "If a dog's prayers
were answered, bones would rain from the sky."
I began reading the first chapter in a bookstore one day. The author
is telling of being a child, under her family's dining table, pretending
to be a dog. The first sentence is "My only mistake was licking
her knee."
My immediate surroundings fell away, and I was under the table
too. Of course, I bought the book, and as I drove home, I was
in a reverie about my own childhood love of dogs, with its intense
yearnings and joys. In the next few days, I devoured the book.
I felt like I was in the presence of a zestful and compassionate
friend who also happened to be a good storyteller. The chapters
range around all things related to dogs. It's not a how-to book,
but lots of how-to ideas came to me as I read.
It's a book to read slowly and reflectively, really, and so it
has stayed by my bedside, where I can pick it up and read a bit.
Clothier writes so beautifully and so much from her heart that
as a writer I am jealous. And as a person who loves connecting with
dogs, I am inspired.
Update: I've also written several other pages related to Bones
Would Rain from the Sky.
Bones Would Rain from the Sky is available at Dogwise.
The Power of Positive Dog Training, by Pat
Miller
 Great
title -- and a very useful book! No wonder it is #1 on a list
of top ten books for dog owners put out by the Association
of Pet Dog Trainers.
Pat Miller is one of the crossover trainers I mentioned earlier
on this page. She had been successful in training dogs with punishment-based
methods, but once she discovered positive dog training, things really
improved.
The Power of Positive Dog Training begins with four basic
and powerful concepts:
-
All living
things repeat behaviors that are rewarding and avoid behaviors
that are not.
-
Your dog
already knows everything you are going to teach him.
-
Dogs can
only learn one behavior for any particular cue. (For example,
they don't understand that a word can have several meanings.)
-
Think in
terms of what you want your dog to do, not what you want him
not to do.
From there, the book has three parts:
-
A discussion
of the foundation of our relationship with dogs, explaining
operant conditioning in a nutshell, discussing reinforcement
vs. punishment, describing supplies, and how much and where
to train.
-
A six-week
training course you can do with your dog, which includes core
exercises and extra ones to do if you want to... all clearly
described and illustrated with photos. Get yourself some clickers
and yummy treats for this part!
-
Behavior
challenges: housetraining, digging, chewing, barking, separation
anxiety, biting, jealousy, and more.
The Power
of Positive Dog Training is available at Dogwise.
 The
Culture Clash, by Jean Donaldson
This book looks at dog training more from the dog's point of view,
and I found it so inspiring that I lent it to friends who never
returned it, and so I don't have it here to leaf through for this
review.
I liked Jean Donaldson's emphasis on the fact that dogs are
dogs and not people. One thing I found interesting was her discussion
of how dogs don't generalize in the way that we do. That's why a
dog may respond to Sit beautifully in the living room but
not in the bedroom. The solution? Train in many places.
This groundbreaking book can be scathing on the force-based methods
of dog training that have been the mode for too long. At times,
I got tired of that aspect of Culture Clash. But then, the
cutting edge is often just that... cutting.
Better get another copy... it's been long
enough, it'll be worth a re-read. It is really focused on positive
dog training.
The Culture Clash is at Dogwise.
Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution is
recommended for
readers who are interested in the science behind the evolution
of dogs. It challenges the old paradigm.The book is a combination
of good science and controversial personal opinions. The authors,
Ray and Lorna Coppinger, are well known in the fields of sled dogs
and livestock guarding dogs.
Here is the description from the publisher, University of Chicago
Press:
Biologists, breeders and trainers, and champion sled dog racers,
Raymond and Lorna Coppinger have more than four decades of experience
with literally thousands of dogs. Offering a scientifically informed
perspective on canines and their relations with humans, the Coppingers
take a close look at eight different types of dogs--household,
village, livestock guarding, herding, sled-pulling, pointing,
retrieving, and hound. They argue that dogs did not evolve
directly from wolves, nor were they trained by early humans;
instead they domesticated themselves to exploit a new ecological
niche: Mesolithic village dumps. Tracing the evolution of today's
breeds from these village dogs, the Coppingers show how characteristic
shapes and behaviors--from pointing and baying to the sleek shapes
of running dogs--arise from both genetic heritage and the environments
in which pups are raised. For both dogs and humans to get the
most out of each other, we need to understand and adapt to the
biological needs and dispositions of our canine companions, just
as they have to ours.
"Chock full of both scientific studies and personal experiences,
this fast-paced, absorbing book deserves a wide audience."--Publishers
Weekly
"Dogs will be interesting to anyone who has ever wondered
about the origin of their favorite mutt's species."--The
Economist
Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution
is available at Dogwise.
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