A lot of people have been asking me to record my August 18 appearance with Frieda at the Red Fox Bookstore in Glens Falls, N.Y. (seating limited – 518 793 5352). I don’t want to videotape or record it. Frieda needs a quiet and focused coming out and I want to concentrate on her and on my training talk.
But I have this blog and why not talk about training here? So I will do a regular series of columns abut my experience with training. Couple of caveats. I don’t want to argue about dog training. These are my methods and other people have theirs. I’m just passing along what I have learned. Take it as that. Or leave it if you can do better.
If you think your dog is your kid, or understands ideas like grief, spite, wicked calculation, or can tell you when he is going to die, or thinks in human language, or is a kind of psychic or healer, or is your therapist, then my methods are not for you. My training is based on food centered and other positive reinforcements, and a series of exercises I call calming training that involve daily repetition, rewards and consistency. Sometimes up to 2,000 repetitions over the course of several months. My training methods are predicated on the idea that dogs are animals with a limited vocabulary, no sense of human narrative, and keen instincts for manipulating people for food and attention. But they do not think in words, and are not like us.
I believe training cannot be acheived in a few lessons, or by reading the manuals of celebrities and monks. It’s a personal experience, and a spiritual one involving you and your dog in the environment in which both of you live. It goes on forever. It is never done, and is woven into the daily lives of you and your dog. The most elemental part of it requires a comprehension of the dog as an animal, not a little angel with fur. If you train a dog like a kid, you will get what you deserve.
Training is the method by which we teach our dogs to live safely and happily in our world. Not an easy thing. My training approach with Frieda began with the observation that she was anxious and territorial, and very much a working dog. She protected fences and property, and had a very high prey drive, as Rottweilers and Shepherds do. She had no sense of rank or place in a pack, and thought she was in charge of everything all of the time. She would not let me touch or come near here. So the first step was trust. I went to see her in her barn-home every day for nearly six months and brought meatballs, beef jerky or other treats every time I appeared, tossing them on the ground in front of me, saying nothing, and then leaving. Over time she came to see me as a good thing, bringing good things.
People don’t want to believe it, but dogs love almost anyone that feeds them regularly, as do most animals. Food is life to them, and how you use it and give it to them is essential in gaining their attention positively and in establishing trust.
More later.
