Guys: We Need You In Dog Training Seminars
I’ve been to a lot of dog-related seminars, and, at every one, the female/male ratio is something like 90/10. Or 95/5. I thought it would be different at the Im-PECK-able seminar put on by K9 Behavior Consortium, thinking of all the guys I’ve run into over the years with law enforcement dogs, especially drug and bomb dogs. But nope. Mostly women again. I asked a colleague if this was typical for other scent discrimination training seminars, and the answer was yes.
So. Why so few men in dog training seminars? The U.S. population is about 50/50 male/female. (With slightly more women, and less than half of one percent non-binary.) However, like many professions, dog training doesn’t reflect the country’s demographics. According to Zippia, 61% of dog trainers are female, 39% male. That number surprised me, because in my area, it feels like the skew toward women trainers is much higher than that.
But if the percentage of professional dog trainers is about 60/40, then why isn’t that reflected in seminar audiences? I am asking this respectively, especially to the men reading this blog, who I very much hope will chime in. I know it’s easy to make assumptions about this, and uh, some of them, aren’t particularly gracious to the males of the species. But, please, please, let’s try not to go there. There could be lots of reasons why men are less likely to go to seminars than women.
Before going much further, it was time to consult my resident expert on men: Jim. After I asked him why he thought more women than men went to dog training seminars, he said, initially, “Men think they already know how.” He said it, not me. But this led to a much deeper discussion–Jim noted that in years past, before dogs were house pets and considered members of the family, most dogs were working dogs, trained by men whose duties and hobbies included hunting with dogs. I added that once dogs more commonly began living in the home, we know whose job it was to teach the “youngsters” manners. Women.
It does feel that, recently, as men became more involved in child care, they also became more likely to go to dog training classes. (Anyone agree? I’m just speculating.) But going to classes is one thing, becoming a professional dog trainer who goes to seminars is another. The glaring exception to this is the demographics of seminar presenters. Look at all the men who are doing a fabulous job training us to train dogs? (I was going to say “look at all the hot men who are…,” hot meaning popular, but then I caught myself.) (Okay, fine, let’s face it, some are hot in both senses, but if you think I’m going to name any names you are delusional.)
I am not the first person to speculate about why so few men go to dog training seminars, or become dog trainers for that matter. Stanley Coren wrote an insightful article for Psychology Today in 2016 about this very topic, titled “Are Women Better Dog Trainers Than Men?”
Whether they are better at it or not was not my primary question, it’s why more men aren’t more interested in learning from others in this field. (Could they be related? Is it easier for women?) There are lots of possible reasons, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Here’s just one, to get us started: If women currently dominate the field, would men be uncomfortable showing up? Like going to a beauty salon and feeling out of place?
My goal here is not to be negative about men. There’s more than enough of that going around. It’s to figure out how to encourage more men to get involved in dog training, to go to the best of the best, and learn how to be better at what you do, if you’re already in the business. There’s a reason for this, one I think is more important than understanding interesting demographics. It’s the powerful effect of watching a member of your own gender performing a skill. I’ll never forget the first time, after two years in undergraduate college (in my 40’s), that I saw a women lecture on the stage at UW-Madison. (Karen Steudel, who passed away in 2021.) Everyone I had listened to and learned from up to that point had been male. Seeing a women was transformational. Truly. The effect it had on me was shocking. Wait? I could do this too?
According to one site, 71% of men from age 18 to 44 own a dog in the U.S. You can find lots of data that mess around with different figures, but the fact is that a gazillion men own dogs, and those men need role models to teach them how to train dogs in the most effective, efficient, and compassionate way possible.
What can we do to encourage more men to be involved? Chime in, but please, keep it constructive and respectful. I need it for my sanity in this day and age.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Spring in the country–So much to do, so little time, not enough energy. After a morning working outside, Jim and Maggie, consummate nappers both, are snoozing away, but Skip and I are still wide awake. Regrettably, Skip’s energy far outlasts mine. Please tell me he isn’t begging me to go back outside again in this photo.
Maggie, however, is always awake around dinner time. Below, she has her paw in Skip’s empty bowl, as she often does once the bowls are licked clean. Please Sir, may I have some more?
We had the sheep in the small pasture behind the house, and they stopped grazing when I went out to brush out Skip, the Official Winner of the Sweeping the Beach Dog Contest. I would give a lot to know what they were thinking when the piles of dog hair got bigger, and Skip got smaller.
Birdwise, it’s like a Natural Geographic documentary out here! Right now we have eyes on 11 nests: Two with two different house wren mommas, (that’s the house in one of the photos), a house finch, phoebee (there’s a picture of her in the carport—you can just see her tail and head), a Mourning Dove, at least 5 barn swallows, and one bluebird nest in the pasture at the top of the hill. Most nests have a momma bird sitting on the eggs—for days on end—but the bluebirds and finches are already busy feeding their babies.
The last few years we’ve been trying to clear the honeysuckle and garlic mustard from an area we call “The Mystery Woods.” (We never went there until recently because it was solid honeysuckle, the invasive kind.) We’ve had some success, but it’s a never ending job. Here’s my reinforcement, two native plants that are showing up–quite a few Jacob’s Ladder and one precious Showy orchid.
Keep in mind these are surrounded by mostly invasive scrubby things, but still . . . You gotta find delight where you can, right?
Tell what’s delighting you this week, and chime in on the male/female skew in dog training. We’d all love to hear what you think.
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About the Author
Patricia B. McConnell, PhD, CAAB Emeritus is an applied animal behaviorist who has been working with, studying, and writing about dogs for over twenty-five years. She encourages your participation, believing that your voice adds greatly to its value. She enjoys reading every comment, and adds her own responses when she can.
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I had the exact same initial thought as Jim (asking for directions, anyone?).
I’m assuming many of these seminars are geared toward professional dog trainers or handlers, and so I’m thinking about why there aren’t more male dog trainers. I think your theory on same-gender learning and teaching has a lot of merit. An organization I know of works with a large volunteer base to repair and modify low-income folks’ homes realized that their base of volunteers was skewing more male (even though the job site supervisor and scheduler were female). They began to hold construction skills training sessions taught by females for females and the results were quick and sure—more females signed up for training and then became frequent volunteers after being offered female-led training sessions. And the retention rates have remained steady.
I also think many (not all) dogs are more worried about male humans than female humans. And that makes an already complicated and not-immediately-gratifying profession even harder.
And, like teaching in general, the money isn’t up where it should be, and there is that stubborn wage gap, so men will be the higher earner in most opposite-gender households with both people working. So, spending years studying, getting certified, building a practice (that isn’t medicine or law or hedge fund trading) is daunting for anyone, perhaps it is more so for males for reasons externally placed and internally formed.
We have the privilege of watching a Carolina wren taking care of her babies. The male is there, too, watching over, bringing in food, doing his part but not signing up for any training session 😉 It’s amazing how such a loud, clear song can come out of a bird the size of a chickadee. The nest is tucked up into the framing so we can’t see the youngsters yet, but we can hear them.
I wouldn’t say women are better dog trainers. Some of the best trainers I know are men. But women still far outnumber men at most of the competitive dog sports I’ve been involved in. I think sometimes men are more afraid of looking foolish in front of others, so they if they need to get a dog trained, they will work at it on their own using trial and error, or perhaps watch some videos or read about it if they are a reader. Whereas there are a lot more women who’d rather learn in a social setting and don’t mind if other people see them being not very good at a new technique.
When I started training, I worked at a large pet store. So many men would attend with the family, but they were uncomfortable doing the work in the ring. Many just wouldn’t do exercises out in the aisles. (recall, distance, distraction all those things.) I attributed that to being more self conscious and also not wanting to look foolish. Men were more unwilling to make kissy noises and change their voice to get the pups attention. Women were much more open to those things. Many women train children and use any technique to do it! Maybe that helps be open about working with pets.
My quick thought on the lack of men at seminars is the beauty shop analogy – it’s going to be mostly/all women, so they feel out of place. Many men at dog sport events (with the exception of conformation) are there with their wives, at least in my observation. And I also agree with Jim – why ask for directions if you already know how to get there? It would be good to have more male participants in all aspects of dog sports – diversity is important.
I think that there is another consideration here, and it applies to other professions too: where professions are dominated by women, they tend also to be less prestigious. It is also common that men are afforded more respect and higher status than their female colleagues when they are in a minority.
This is certainly the case in the professional ballet world where the bar (barre?!) is much higher for entry and continuing company membership for women than men and where men are given far more opportunities for career advancement such as moving into choreography or company management. In the choral world, the standard required is much higher for women than men and higher for sopranos than altos because of their relative numbers.
It will be interesting to see whether medical and veterinary professions will lose their relatively high status as they are now becoming dominated by women. I wonder if men dominate in referral veterinary practice?
I have just attended a professional seminar where male speakers dominated but one joked that he could have been “at a Barry Manilow concert” because the delegates were mainly middle aged women.
Anecdotally, I have found that training obligations are more commonly shared between younger male and female partners, especially those at the beginning of their relationship. Owners in more established relationships tend to show the classic pattern of the dog/cat being the responsibility of the woman in the household.
In behavioural consultations, I often feel as if I need to be marriage guidance counsellor or social worker. The woman is shouldering the burden of the problems whilst being undermined by the rest of the family who either think that behaviour modification/training is unnecessary or deny that there is a problem because they are not having to deal with it. I have certainly felt that I am afforded less respect by men in such situations and I wonder of that would change if I were male.
During the several years I trained dogs I also dealt mainly with the ladies of the house. I would agree that, in many families, taking the puppy to class was in the wife’s job description. But sometimes I think the wife brought the puppy because the husband was frustrated in his attempts to train. I had a man come to one of my sessions years ago. The first thing he did was announce, “You won’t be able to do anything with these dogs (2)!” They were constant barkers. When I was successful in quieting them within a few minutes, without yelling or getting angry or doing anything other than a quiet shh sound and a gentle tug on the leash, he took his dogs and went home. I also believe many men have a different energy than women, more of a straight line, get it done with way of being. While that is great in any number of situations, it’s not so much in teaching and that’s what training is. I also see the same result in handling horses. The quiet slow moving handlers have much better success than the hurry up and get it done types.
In my classes, I tried to teach the pup parents to see the world through their puppy’s eyes which makes teaching them SO much easier. I found the ladies to be much more interested in learning about how the pups viewed the world. Most of the gentlemen seemed to be looking for the quick start guide. I will also say I had a few men in my classes (we are actually teaching the owners more than we’re teaching the puppies) who were excellent students and great to work with!
I am a pet parent trainer. Nothing fancy just the foundation basic. When I have a couple come to a session, rare, the male always says “the dog doesn’t jump on me (bite at my hands and feet etc) probably because I have a more authoritarian presence than my wife. And this is where the lesson begins:-)
Interesting, but not surprising, about the lack of men voluntarily participating in learning how to be good dog owners and/or trainers. My thinking is that your husband Jim is correct; many men I know think they already know what they need to know when it comes to dogs. Also, many men I know believe in the domination and physical control of dogs as opposed to the “other end of the leash” training model. I also know many men who are not interested in having a woman (especially an older woman! ) tell them what works best when it comes to training dogs.
After reflecting on this, I believe that if you want men involved in learning how to become better dog owners, bill your training seminars as “women only “experiences. Many of the men I know do not like being told they can’t do something, and this may encourage them to insist on coming and then actually learning how to interact more happily and effectively with their canine companions.
I think you are forgetting the very important difference in trainers. You, undoubtedly, are attending R+ seminars. And yes, women outnumber men 90 to 10 in the R+ arena. On the other side of the aisle are the P+ trainers, where men probably outnumber women 90 to 10 there, and I’m sure there are many more men at a P+ seminar. When accounting for ALL dog trainers there are 61% women trainers and 39% men.
Jeff, that’s a great point. I’m going to ask some of my buddies who work with LE dogs, etc, where prong collars are often used, and see what they say. And yes, the data do indeed show that about 39% of trainers are men, as I mentioned in the post, but I don’t see anything even close to that in my area. In my former dog training business, 16 of the staff/trainers are women, one is male. That’s not that different from some other local businesses.
Such an interesting discussion. Could it be that men are too invested in how the dog does? Ages ago, when I taught pet classes, men would attend. One of the most difficult training challenges I had was when the man’s dog didn’t do the “simple” behavior that the man thought the dog knew. Oh my. I enjoyed playing a game with the humans and their dogs in the last night of class. Kind of bingo, but the dog is in a square and does an easy behavoir (sit, down). One night I had a male student almost in tears as his pup had so much fun that it couldn’t stop jumping. It was NOT fun for the man. I realized too late that the man was so embarrassed. I did diffuse the sitation for the poor guy, but I felt bad about it and never did games in the last class again!
Another not infrequent response from a male student was that the dog didn’t need what I was teaching. Tooth brushing falls in this category. Of course, maybe this husbandry activity wasn’t the most important task in the dog’s life. However, the men often rolled thier eyes and declared themselves too busy to add this to the dog care routine. Ancedotal info, I know. Just thought I’d add it to the pot.
Love the natives. Happy spring!
Great point Barb,k about different investments in how the dog performs. Certainly a lot of women know full well to feel like the dog’s behavior reflects back on them, but I can see that being more intense for many of the men I know. Kevin de Becker, in his book The Gift of Fear, says that “Men are most afraid that women will laugh at them…”, and I think there’s great truth to that. We have set men up so much to be hyper capable and strong ….
Personal anecdote from my experience with my wife, my teenage daughter, and two dogs:
We read OEOTL several years back, and the parts dealing with the internal lives of humans, what we are communicating non-verbally, how to regulate our own emotions and reactions… I don’t want to say it was foreign territory for me, but it was plainly my girls’ home turf.
Likewise the extensive sections (with photos!) describing all the tiny minute signals a dog could display with posture, hair, ears, tail, eyes, embouchure, tongue, motion…. How could anybody hope to keep track of all of that in real time??? Yeah, turns out it was easy for my girls. They just couldn’t fathom how I struggled to keep up!
Am I the caricature of a typical male? Maybe. Maybe not. My ladies are psychology majors and I’m physics/finance. Communication with another living entity is just hard work… for some of us more than others.
Joshua, so grateful that you chimed in. Your point about what’s comfortable, and “do-able” for that matter, was insightful. I think you tapped into something truly important: Social signals, high-level communication, emotions and reactions–certainly things more often associated with women than men. Who knows how much is cultural/gender related, and how much is genetic, but there certainly is something there. On a sort of related note (which I suspect you can understand well), I remember once asking Jim “What are you thinking about?” (Yeah, I know, very girlie question just unto itself.) He said “nothing” and I couldn’t understand how that could be true for anyone. Then I started meditating, and now think “Wait. Jim does this without all this work?”
Dog owner. We have 2 “pound puppies”. We lucked into training opportunities in our rural area (large county, 11,000 population). Our first training class was an introduction to Agility and we went into it with the agreement my husband would take over halfway through when I had my hip replacement. That was 6 years ago. We have continued to train & compete in both Agility and Rally. However, our first dog (I’ve done ALL his training) is at a much higher level of competence than the second dog (I’ve done 60-70% of the practicing with him, husband practices sometimes) and he is still at Intro/Novice levels. Neither husband nor second dog is fully “typical”, but it is really hard to get husband to join practicing; he’ll do it in spurts, especially if we have a trial coming up, but not regularly. We both attend group practices, but those are much fewer for Agility than Rally (I lead a local small group practice weekly). Husband gets frustrated easily, has trouble keeping dog engaged between runs. He’s been very good about being the only man in a practice or fun match, one of a tiny handful at competitions. If the base of participants is any indication, there are way too few guys participating in the sports to have many move on to training. When a Rally trial is in conjunction with a dog show (conformation) I do see a larger percentage of men handling the dogs, but at stand-alone trials, very few. So, just my observations from the “bottom” of the chain that leads to trainers & seminars. I also think the current tendency to call dogs “fur babies”, “kids”, etc. feeds into the “women’s work” feeling.
The Schutzhund (IPO/IGP) seminars have been either mostly men or about 50-50 or close. We wonder what hunting trial seminars would be…
Funny, I was just thinking about this subject this past weekend while at a scentwork trial: Where are all the men? Same with herding trials (moreso AKC trials than big field trials), although in the UK it’s still more common to see more men than women training and competing. I think it has to do with intrinsic gender differences in skill sets and operating styles. And women do seem to be more comfortable being at the awkward learning stages than men. Of course, since I’m not a man, I really can’t speak with true accuracy just what I conjecture lol. When the more nuturing styles of horse/dog training became popular, it became something that no longer required brute force or mega-sterness. Really good topic for discussion.
I know this wasn’t the question, but if the goal was to introduce the value of positive reinforcement training to more men, perhaps the respected male trainers in the field should hold ‘for men only’ seminars? I know that my husband is more receptive to advice (on any subject) from his buddies on the golf course than he is from me.
Not disagreeing with Judith Villa’s comment, just the other side of the coin.
Good point Gayla, I wonder what others think??
“If I don’t know how to do it, it isn’t important” seems to include way more activities than training the “family” dog. (Loading the dishwasher so that everything gets clean?)
Around here we’re agreed that I know more about dogs than my husband. I handle most of their meds (retired RN.) We’re planning a move to senior living, essentially from a house with a dog door to an apartment with walks, and I’m struck by how Spouse acts like the way the doggos are now is the way they’ll always be. I have to keep pointing out that leash walking is a skill they can learn/relearn and if the first trip to the park wasn’t a howling success it just means they need more practice, not that they’ll never do it.
I just finished What the Dog Knows, which was recommended here recently. It’s a fascinating mixture: a carefully researched history of cadaver dogs and the unique training they and their human partners require, part personal memoir of a marriage and a father/daughter relationship, and part profiles of the talented and generous breeders, trainers, and handlers of dogs skilled at using scent to search for missing and dead individuals, drugs, and bombs. The author, a skilled and experienced journalist and editor, recounts how she married in middle age and was leading a fairly conventional life in academia until she decided to raise an extremely difficult German Shepherd puppy.
With years of hard work and lots of help, she succeeds in transforming him into an amazingly talented cadaver dog. The book profiles and praises the male and female trainers who presided over this transformation, especially those who taught the author how and when to NOT consciously or unconsciously exert control her dog, whether by words, tone of voice, looks, or facial expressions. The result is a truly independent cadaver dog who often achieves success in even the most difficult and dangerous searches.
The author not only writes well but also displays a wonderful sense of humor, as when she reveals why she refrains from telling the (mostly male) law enforcement and military trainers she learns from about her academic day job. Similarly, she rarely lets her neighbors and academic colleagues know much about her unconventional “hobby” handling a cadaver dog.
The gender differences that the commentators above observe and ponder reflect structural male/female stereotypes that stubbornly resist change rather than “innate” differences. It’s not that men are incapable of taking note of and learning from the many subtle and sometimes not so subtle “signals” that dogs present in trainings. Nor is it true that women cannot be authoritative and unsentimental when necessary to train their working dogs or pets. As this author exemplifies, it’s a matter of being willing to work hard and having the motivation necessary to resist letting one’s self or one’s dog be limited by cultural stereotypes.
I think Jim is absolutely right. MEN HATE anyone telling them what to do, or how to do it. Especially NOT by a female.
The social linguist Deborah Tannen has shown that in American culture women tend to have an affiliative conversational style when talking about problems (“oh, that happened to me too…” ) whereas men are more likely to have hierarchical or problem solving approach (sometiMes offering solutions when their conversation partner just wants to be listened to). This difference might map onto a gendered difference in approach to pet dogs, and a difference in how receptive a person might be to R+ training.
Of course there must be many variables involved. But I can’t help seeing some natural synergy between R+ and affiliative/connection seeking communication styles
I once attended a training conference headlined by a prominent male trainer. He spent a good deal of the first session complaining about how women were “too soft” when training dogs and were constantly giving mixed signals to their canine companions. My thought (as I sat in a huge room completely filled with women) was: Hey, at least we’re out here trying? Why would he figuratively “bite the hands” that were feeding him? I’ll never know. Other than that, it was a great seminar.
I couldn’t even get my husband to help me train our own dogs. He wasn’t really around much, at the time, but also, would not get on board with the verbal cues and hand signals I chose. He kept trying to get them to obey words of his own choosing, which didn’t work. Then he would get mad at me when I tried to teach, explain or show him what to do, and then just shut down and refuse to participate. Or he would be home for a weekend after being mostly gone, and ask them to do something, at which point both dogs would turn and look at me like “Do we have to?”
20 years and three totally different dogs later, not much has changed, except that the dog that was a puppy during COVID, when he was actually home and I was working, has a lot of bad habits, as a result.
My dog is a little scared of strangers who are male, and I really wish there were more men in his training classes so he could get used to them and feel more comfortable working around them.
I think there is a tendency now to treat dogs more like fragile babies, which appeals to less men than if they were training a dog partner that they respected and valued. There are men involved in herding but R+ trainers don’t like how they train, they want to use treats and toys, not pressure and correction.
When I was teaching the beginners dog class a few decades back it was still 80% females. I learnt to be very careful about demonstrating with other people’s dogs. If I took the lead and showed them how to get the dogs attention and get some good LLW, for example, then females would see the dog walking well and get hope from that. “It is achievable, we can do it!” Men, however, took it very personally. “The dog can do it, he’s just refusing to do it for me!” Men were also far more likely to insist that the dog should perform for respect only, no rewards. From what I’ve seen the dog sports which still rely on “respect” and being Alpha (IGP, Gundogs, herding) also have a far higher percentage of males
I trained for many years and raised a family. I have noticed that men are rougher than women with both dogs and children. I think the biggest thing in dog training is the switch to force free, positive training. Men do not seem to have embraced this type of training as well as women have.
I think the men only classes and seminars are very good idea. I do think that men still feel more comfortable getting instruction from other men. I don’t know how common my own feelings are but when I go to a workshop about a skill that is generally dominated by men (for example, gun marksmanship), I tend to look for a women-only class, or at least a class taught by a woman.
Does P+ mean positive punishment? Definition please.
Yes, Mary G, sorry, I meant Pos Punishment with P+.
This is just a random thought, but maybe there are fewer men in the world of professional training because it is not generally a high paying profession. Men could be more concerned with status and income and therefore inclined to view training as a hobby.
And I know when we had a behavior problem with one of our dogs my husband was much more inclined to follow the advice of a male veterinary behaviorist than he was to try the same techniques when I suggested them.
Anecdotally . . . even when there are 5 men for every 100 women in a talk, at least 3 of them will speak when the opportunity arises for comments or questions. I kind of don’t like to think what would happen if there were 50 or even 25 men there.
In a similar vein, it’s interesting to me that men account for the tiniest percentage of elementary education, and an even smaller percent of early childhood education professionals. Young children are so similar to dogs in their wide-eyed eagerness and skills. While I was training to administer cognitive/social/psychological tests on very young ones, I actually practiced on my dogs! Their problem solving astounded and thrilled me.
Is it simply because our culture has always taught that women are meant to nurture, while men (until more recently) are not? I
wonder if the answer is as simple as this: Men aren’t highly represented in the education of either dogs or kids because there isn’t a precedent?
Please know that I do not think children and dogs are the same. They do however have similar skill sets up to a certain age, and as pets they are dependent upon us to meet their needs (which include learning.)
It’s funny, my husband is a family therapist and he has often noticed that mothers have a very hard time saying “No” to their kids.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that R+ training is popular with women. Men would likely prefer a balanced approach. I don’t think this makes them evil. Someone who says “No” isn’t the same as someone who beats their dog into submission. This seems obvious but many R+ trainers are so dogmatic that they are horrified by even mild corrections. However, even some of the most popular R+ trainers on social media have backtracked on this a bit, just very recently. I have heard even Sarah Stremming admit that inexperienced R+ trainers can be really dogmatic and obnoxious.
This is such an interesting question and discussion. I’m female and work in a profession that is 94% female (speech-language pathology). I also work in a setting (elementary school) that is largely female. Nevertheless, I’ve had numerous professors who were male, teaching all female students, as well as many school principals who were male, leading predominantly female teaching staff. I think issues of status, pay, respect (or perceived respect), gender role stereotypes and the many other socio-cultural factors discussed here come into play in dog training just like they do in my professional world.
I’m a guy. My dogs are the center of my universe, and I spend a lot of time, effort, and % of my money in caring for them – including learning more about them/dogs in general. The reason I have yet to go to any seminar is simple: I don’t have the resources necessary to do so. If I had the money, access to transportation, could arrange for my dogs to have a good time while I’m gone (both have a bit of separation anxiety), etc., I would do so in a heartbeat.
I’ve never let being in the minority gender-wise restrict me. In my experience, dog training is at least respectful of guys. Some flute choirs were more uncomfortable, because the instructors would regularly “forget” I was there and addressed us all in female-specific language. Others would make a point of singling me out in their language, rather than just using gender-neutral language and focusing on the music. Some sewing store employees made no secret of thinking I was completely incompetent and in the wrong place, though I don’t know if that was my gender or my accent. In these situations, you have to really care about something to persevere. Reading the above comments made me cringe – I hope that the trainers I work with don’t think of me in those terms. But even if they do, I’ll still show up because in the end, it only matters how much it helps my dogs.
This is a really interesting discussion. In order to combat “dog withdrawl,” I started watching this trainer on Youtube, Tom Davis, out of Colorado. He works with lots of powerful breeds, GSds, Pitbulls, and has his own Belgian Malinois. To watch him, is to see a man who knows how to communicate with both dogs and humans. I was reminded of all of my guide dog instructors over the years, who were all women. He would use any tool which got the job done. He uses everything, from clickers and treats, to a prong collar if it helps the dog. I watched him calmly control this really fearful GSD with a prong collar, and all he did was literally flick a finger for collar pressure. At the same time, he put a slip collar on an eight month old golden retriever puppy, and when he’d got her in a good heel, he just melted onto the floor with her, cradling her in his lap and cooing at her because he was so happy she wasn’t trying to eat him, as he put it.
My entire point in telling this is, I think the above comenters are correct in that, it’s all about what you are willing to learn, and how you’re willing to learn. He, like many trainers, spends most of his time fixing the owners, not the dogs, and emphasizes that people get their dog engaged with them. I love watching him, and I love his balanced approach. I also wanted to add, that I appreciated the above comenter in regards to dogmatic R+ trainers who can’t stand any sort of collar corrections. Of course I love R+ training. After all, Kyle was clicker trained through and through to be an effective guide dog, but I had to give him a two-handed collar correction to get his focus back on me while we were in training, and I don’t mind that. Dogs correct each other, and just like everyone else in life, sometimes, they need to be told no, or in Kyle’s case, “I really did mean it when I asked you not to sniff that bush.”
I was wondering if you still taught seminars. My kennel club is looking to put on a seminar about dog behavior and recognizing aggression signals in dogs.