rev:text
| - When I was looking for a dog trainer, I seemed to be presented with two options: Carrots or Sticks. The "carrots" seemed too expensive and worse, ineffectual and unhealthy (e.g., "We use a lot of treats as reinforcement...it takes a long time"), while the "sticks" seemed...well, pretty punitive ("We start off with shock collars...").
By contrast, I liked Mike's approach at Southern Nevada Dog Training. He uses a great deal of praise, but no treats, basically because you don't want dog training to be this "I'll do X only if you give me food" situation. He does not use prong or shock collars or rattling coins or spanking or water squirt bottles, et cetera -- all of which, frankly, would scare the crap out of my very timid dog. Instead, Mike suggests using a Herm Springer link collar, which I thought my dog would hate, but she was actually fine with it. The thing she disliked the most was the sound of the clinking links, but that's not a major deal, and she got used to it.
Mike's instruction was very direct, very focused, very clear. I appreciated the fact that he explained a clear reason *why* you do X but not Y, or why a dog needs to have X or Y done consistently. Our dog understood what was being asked of her and she learned very effectively. Mike's pricing for group lessons was extremely reasonable and affordable, and I appreciated knowing what we would be learning right up-front. I think the only thing I'd wish for would be Dog Lessons Part II.
|