Training Like A Pro: The Importance of Basics
As I was working through my discussion boards for my Master’s classes this morning, I stumbled upon some thoughts I wanted to share that my students should be pretty familiar with.
With my training students, I have found many come to classes or private sessions after attempting to follow step-by-step guides, DVDs, or YouTube videos on how to train a dog. They are often frustrated that the dog in these books or videos isn't like *their* dog. That dog is already well-trained, a different breed, more focused, or just simply *better* in some way than their own dog. This often leads people to believe they need to move to harsher forms of training and they very quickly decide that "treat training" just isn't for their dog. It is all fine and great for that dog talked about in the books or shown being successful in the videos online - but their own dog is "stubborn", "dominant", "reactive", and many other labels.
Let me let you in on a secret:
It isn't your dog. It is you.
Step-by-step guides are great - if you have the skill set and knowledge to modify those steps to meet your current situation.
If you don't, they are pretty much useless.
The way I explain this concept to my students is this: Step-by-step training guides are essentially recipes for dog training.
For example, a YouTube video on training Sit is going to show you a snapshot of a person using their recipe step-by-step to create a finished product.
However, they aren't going to explain how to substitute every single ingredient should you not have it home, explain how to adjust the recipe for a different altitude, or tell you what changes to make should it be raining outside the day you decide to try the recipe. That would be silly, right? The author is probably expecting you to have enough basic knowledge of cooking to be able to modify their recipe as you need to. They are simply just showing a snapshot in time of how the recipe went for them, given their circumstances that day.
That doesn't mean the recipe is wrong, the author is stupid, the method doesn't work, or that our dog is broken; it means we need to understand the basics of how to use a measuring cup, turn on the oven in our own kitchen, and use our mixer before we can jump straight into being a master chef.
My job is to turn animal owners into at least, decent home cooks who understand how to use the equipment in their own kitchen and troubleshoot for possible rainy days ahead and your job is to grow and get better for your dog.
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