When we sit down to think about how much ask of our dogs, how much we expect them to calmly and cheerfully navigate a world that forces them to inhibit most of their instincts, usually without adequate guidance and support or appropriate means to meet their needs and channel their energy and frustration, it is not surprising that so many of them struggle these days. We often unwittingly put our dogs in situations they don’t have the skills or ability to handle, and then get angry and frustrated with them for “acting out”.

Most of us know that helping our dogs thrive in our confusing, often stressful world requires us to increase our awareness of our dogs’ individual and species-typical communication, needs and limits so that we can do our best to create a supportive environment for learning. But when we try to get help, we are bombarded with conflicting information from our friends, family, books, tv shows, the neighbor down the street. How do we know who to trust?

The wonderful news is we don’t have to cross our fingers and blindly accept self-appointed experts anymore. Over the past couple of decades, dog training and behavior has undergone a revolution away from the intimidation and coercion that has been the hallmark of the field for all too long. Thoughtful, skillful use of methods that are rooted in ethics, compassion and science create an environment that is safe to learn in (for both humans and dogs), celebrates (or at least accepts and redirects) “dogness” instead of suppressing it, and helps them thrive. These methods no longer ask us humans to shut off our desire to be kind, affectionate and generous to our beloved dogs. There is no reason ever again question if we are a disciplined enough “leader”, or to physically punish our dogs’ bodies to change their brains.

Most of us have heard trainers say that dog training that is compassionate and enjoyable can’t be effective and reliable. That there are quick, easy fixes to even the most complicated situations, and that positive reinforcement is fine for teaching basics and tricks, but real training requires “all the tools in the toolbox” and that instilling some level of fear or “respect” is not only ok but often necessary. Not only has that been proven false, (not just for dogs, but for cats, birds, elephants, giraffes, iguanas, horses, dolphins, rats, humans…etc etc.) but we now have mounting evidence that coercive, intimidating, harsh methods not only compromise the human-dog bond, they tend to create new problems and exacerbate existing ones. (See Resources for more details.)

Effective positive reinforcement based training does require more education and awareness on the part of us humans, and it’s hard for so many of us to find time, energy and resources these days. However, once most people begin to get a taste of how transformative this education and insight can be, with their dogs and even with their own behavior, they say it was totally worth the investment.

SERVING THE DENVER METRO AREA

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