Online Dog Training–The Agony and The Ecstasy
We all know that family dog trainers don’t train dogs, they train people. As I tease my veterinarian friends, our job is harder, because we have to train our clients to do the equivalent of the surgery themselves. And we all know that we, as a species, can be a bit challenging to train. Not because we’re bad people, but because we inherently aren’t consistent (ie, the downfall of synonyms), have a hugely variable repertoire, and focus on word content often more than inflection and visual signals.
And now dog trainers all over the world are coping with social distancing rules that make in-person classes impossible. My heart breaks for all of those who are struggling right now, as are so many millions of people in so many different types of jobs.
But the silver lining here is that so many trainers are stepping up to the plate and offering all kinds of help online. One of them is dear to my heart, Dog’s Best Friend Training in Madison, WI, who is now offering several online classes, including Puppy Classes, Beginning Family Dog Training Classes and “Get Focused” classes. My friend and colleague, Karen London, PhD, who writes the Behavior column now for Bark Magazine, just posted an article about the classes, and the benefits of online training. (Full disclosure, I began Dog’s Best Friend in 1988, and sold it to my kick-ass Training Director, Aimee Jarosz, where she and her trainers and behavior consultants are doing great work (I’m talking about you Chelse, Julie and Shannon!)
Some of the benefits include being able to go at your own pace, watching as an entire family, fewer distractions from other dogs, and most importantly in my mind, being able to repeat the class over and over again. There’s nothing like repetition to help you see things you might have missed . . . a dog’s subtle response, or an important aspect of the trainer’s posture. You can watch in short segments, which is actually how most of us trainers wish we could do a class. We need to train our dogs in short segments ideally too, so in some ways online classes are superior to in person ones. At least in that sense. I’m sure you will agree though that it will be a wonderful day indeed when normal classes can resume.
Here’s another spot of sunlight: Suzanne Hetts and Daniel Estep have recorded an On Demand three-part course, How To Conduct Telephone and On-Line Video Consults and Lessons. You can watch any time for the drastically reduced price of $35. There will be a live Q & A based on the information on this Friday, April 10th, at 3 pm CDT, which will be added to the course after it’s recorded.
As someone who did in-person consultations about serious behavioral problems, I can tell you that this kind of information is invaluable. It takes some experience and planning to be able to truly help people over the phone, so I hope this will be helpful to those of you who have clients who need your help, but who can’t come to your office or have you do a house call.
Look for more offerings from Dr. Hetts and Dr. Estep in the near future, including ones that they plan to offer for free to struggling trainers who need CEU’s or simply more ways to help their clients.
Last but by no means least, I wanted to remind all of us that, in the wise words of dog trainer Melissa McCue-McGrath, we are all doing the best we can with the tools we have. (You might remember Dr. Chris Pachel also saying that in the Come, Sit, Stay podcast we did with some wonderful people a few weeks ago.) I don’t think those wise words can be said often enough right now.
Melissa teaches with the New England Dog Training Club, (and at Massachusetts SPCA) and is learning as she goes how to create a series of online training classes to help their students. That is familiar to so many of us now, learning new skills to cope with our world, which seems to change every day.
Melissa has established her own Youtube channel in hopes of offering as much help as she can for no cost to anyone for the broadest of all possible audiences. I say Here Here to that.
What I love especially about these videos is that Melissa doesn’t edit out anything. If “stuff” happens, (like it does to all of us when actually training or dogs rather than making carefully edited training videos), she shows how she deals with it. We all need to do this at home, right? Pretty much every day, when our session is interrupted by the cat, or our kid. When the high-value treats lose out to the unexpected knock at the door, or whatever you’re doing JUST ISN’T WORKING and you need to stop for a moment and take a breath.
Here’s one of my favorite lessons, in which her dog Captain bops her in the butt for not paying him enough attention while talking to the camera. Yup, been there.
“We’re all doing the best we can with the tools we have” are wise words for us all, and not just for these challenging times. Dog trainers everywhere have been doing the best they can working with dogs in challenging environments in group classes. Owners, with whatever skills they may have, have been doing the best they can with their new Silky Terrier puppy or adopted bully breed mix from time immemorial. And now everyone is doing it with added challenges. My hat is off to everyone doing the best they can with the tools they have.
What about you? Are you teaching dog training online? Taking classes online? Tired of being online and happy to just get outside with your dog? Tell us what is going on, we’d all love to connect.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Good friend Lisa N brought her young teenage Golden pup, Ruby, for a romp with Maggie in our safely fenced pastures. Lisa and I stayed over 6 ft apart, while catching up on life and watching the dogs play.
Here’s Maggie with her usual cautious face when meeting a new dog:
Once greetings were accomplished, Maggie asked Ruby to play “race horse”:
Wanna learn to play “cutting horse” too?
Ruby is no shrinking violet:
Until she met Nellie, who insists on going on walks with us, even with unfamiliar dogs.
Ruby thought it’d be fun to play by slapping her paw on top of Nellie’s shoulders. Nellie did not agree:
There’s not much color in the fields now, but there are islands of it in the gardens:
I hope there is some lovely color in your life right now too, either literally or metaphorically.
27 Comments
SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL
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.
LEARN MORE FROM PATRICIA’S BOOKS & DVDs!
Patricia is known the world over for her clear and engaging books and DVDs on dog training and canine behavior problems. You can also “meet” Patricia in person on her seminar DVDs, from The Art & Science of Canine Behavior to Treating Dog-Dog Reactivity.
Thanks for the highlight on the industry! The podcast last week was also very supportive, it felt validating to know that so many others are feeling the same way.
I am offering remote sessions, and have been working on getting permission from clients to use all the videos I had stored up. My current clients have been very supportive, a few new ones have given it a try, but I am still not sure how this experiment will turn out. The feedback so far has been positive, my client yesterday said they felt meeting me remotely was just as good as in person.
I think people are still in shock, so they aren’t quite ready to focus on their dog’s behavior. I hope in the next two weeks I get some more registrations.
The silver lining with me has been that I can collaborate with a friend in Maine for this remote consulting project. She prefers a different subset of clients than I do – so we are teaming up to share resources and develop content. Having someone else in it with me has been really good.
Thanks again – I always enjoy reading your blog but don’t often have time to comment.
Heather, I think you’re right about us being in shock. So many transitions, so fast. This is about the time that many of us are starting to get used to the “new abnormal” as I’m calling it. Good luck with registrations, yay for you for doing all you can!
It’s great to hear that more trainers are finding new and creative ways to help dogs and their people! We are launching online classes today using a combo of video instruction and Zoom chats, and offering individual lessons via Zoom as well. Paws crossed that people find this a useful way to keep on training during our stay-at-home time, especially those with young puppies who are dealing with housetraining, puppy mouthing, and socialization right now. So fun to see pictures of puppy play with Maggie and Nellie!
To Kelly: Tip Top Tails will be tip top at this, no doubt about it! If anyone can do it well, Kelly and Matt can!
Hi Patricia, I apologize that this has nothing to do with the current message, but I’m still hoping you can help. I’m house training a one-year old male dog and wondered if I treat him every time he goes outside or just when he eliminates in the place I’ve designated for him. I’m worried if I reward him every time he marks outside, which is often on our long walks, that he’ll associate any time he lifts his leg with a treat, inside or out. Thanks so much for your help.
Good question Karen L: I’d reinforce him every time he goes in your yard, especially after just leaving the house, but not on long walks. Having just house trained a three year old male, who marks at least 30-40 times on every walk, boy would that get old! Luckily, it’s not necessary.
I feel so lucky to have met and now work alongside Melissa at the dog club! Thank you for the encouraging words and awesome resources. I’m excited to check the rest out!
I have been working with my dogs every day with all the training tips given, and keeping the brain training activities for the pups at the top of my list. Reading, podcasts, emails – just keeping the communication going is so important. I remind myself that when I feel stressed and out of sorts, my dogs may feed off that. I try to keep my voice happy when working with them. It’s not perfect or normal, but during these unusual times, we’ve all had to adjust. I’m lucky to live in an area where I can continue to get out on the trails and take in the beauty and forget just for the moment that we do live in a beautiful world.
Would not be interested in doing my work on line. I need to be able to feel what’s going on the house and truly know what kind of person and dog I’m working with. I am blessed with time to do whatever I want at this time and prepare financially for times like these.
I loved the photos of the dogs at play and the beautiful environment!
Hi Trisha,
I am glad that you and your love one’s are safe and healthy, too.
Online dog training ( which has been around for several years) and professionals are now doing long distance consultations than ever before during the CORONAVIRUS.
That said, Trisha what is your take on the subject of online K9 training or virtual consultations will be taking the place of folks ever wanting an in- person dog trainer ever again ? I believe once this horrible crisis is behind us , I feel that people will want to go to live group K9 classes and/ or private K9 lessons than ever before. Please share your thoughts…
Nothing beats in-person in my opinion, but virtual is better than nothing!
Glad she didn’t hurt the puppy, but there’s just nothing quite as awesome as a beautiful girl with moxie… I LOVE that cat!
Beautiful photos too, as always.
Great post in what has become the new normal and how we are adjusting. I would agree with Trisha in that in person is my preference as well. But have never spent so much time in meetings on line before.
Thank you for the blog and for Melissa’s video. It sure helps me feel not so alone in this crazy new world. I have converted a class that was already in progress to a virtual one so folks can finish up. I am doing instructional videos that I send to them and then we meet via zoom at our normal class time. It really helped to see Melissa’s video as I also do not cut anything out. I think our clients want to see that we nor our dogs are perfect. It makes us more human in my opinion. Unfortunately, most of my clients have not been interested in doing privates virtually. Everyone just keeps saying they will wait until we can meet in person.
My problem in making the videos is not so much in the making of them but finding a good platform to record on so I can edit the video. Such as adding several clips together. I am definitely learning lots of new things in order to try and keep my business up and running.
Years ago when I lived in Massachusetts I trained my first dog thru New England Dog Training Club. We met at the Cambridge Armory.
Also years ago I paid for an online consult about an abused pup that I adopted and had major issues. The woman charged me $100 an hour and I felt that what she told me could have been said in 30 minutes. She rambled on, repeating herself many times and finished at precisely 2 hours!
The photos of Maggie, Ruby and Nellie (what a cat! What clear inter-species body language!) are terrific! Looking forward to more on play styles.
One of our local KPA-CTP trainers has set up online classes ‘for the duration’. Another, with whom Rowan and I were taking a puppy class (yes, Rowan is two years old, but this is the perfect class for her to learn to be more comfortable working around other dogs) has a Tricks competition going on – we’re to send in videos of the fun we’re having with our dogs (Rowan being helpful: https://youtu.be/Z7pySNfw9U4). And I’m reviewing virtual classes I’ve taken with Denise Fenzi’s Dog Sports Academy, in specialties (far more than dog sports) that our local trainers don’t cover. We’re making the best of it, and hurray for all the creative trainers out there who are helping us.
Stay well out there!
Of course, when we (YOU?) are taking dog training classes, we are NOT working as ‘dog trainers’. We are working as ‘Dog Training Instructors’. Our clients are the people, not the dogs.
When we train our own dogs, we are working as ‘a dog trainer’ 🙂
There is an important difference. Not all good ‘dog trainers’ are ‘good dog training’ instructors — and vice versa
To Jenny, re the distinction between dog trainers and instructors. Yes yes yes yes! So important!
The advantage is that ‘in person’ we as learners get immediate feed back. Not to mention that our instructor also gets immediate feedback as to how well we understood her (him?) and can hopefully see where we have gone wrong.
Watching the video, I see it as really no more helpful that many other ‘how to’ videos we can find on the Internet.
Speaking as an ex-Teacher and a sometime dog training instructor, I feel that it would be best to send clients ‘worksheets’, and ask them to post back videos of themselves actually working through these sheets.
Doing this we can praise the good, and offer suggestions to improve the not so good.
Especially bearing in mind that some dogs do third easily that other dogs find well night impossible. And that ‘instructors dogs are usually already trained to do the whatever we are trying to teach,
Very late to the party but just had to say how cute the puppy playtime pics are! I’m on a break at work and these are almost as good an awww moment as watching my Duncan (Golden mix) and Missy (BC mix) play. Dunc looks like a senior version of Ruby, with a darker GSD snoot and black tips on his fur but not a full shepherd saddle. Thank you for sharing them!
I’m trying to shift my business to virtual training and it’s difficult. I’m not the most computer savvy and there are so many options available. Thank you for your words of encouragement as we all muddle through this together.
Hi!
I am, like most of us, a teacher working from home during this pandemic. 8 months pregnant, I have spent a lot of this time reading your books- “The Other End of the Leash,” “For the Love of A Dog,” and “Feisty Fido” trying to help my dog settle on walks before the baby gets here.
Trouble is- he only seems to react to certain, unfamiliar dogs. I have yet to find a pattern. So, I guess my question is– should I still train the “watch” command and use it, even when it’s totally not needed ? (I’m guessing the answer is yes… and its ME who needs to be consistent here.)
I, myself am becoming more and more frustrated by an inability to find a pattern with his behaviors. And, I’m sure my frustration is translating to the other end of the leash.
I’m desperate at this point. I’m dealing with Jekyll and Hyde.
Franklin just turned 2. Cavapoo. Never growls. Never shown a tooth. Does doggy daycare occasionally– does wonderfully! Loves being around other dogs (so his body language when with them shows) Understands other dogs wonderfully. Mild mannered, curious, submissive.
Typical behavior when he sees a dog he knows:
Sits and looks at them, waits for them to approach. Or, pancakes and lays flat on the ground. Usually hops up and smells their muzzle and likes to lick their muzzle. Occasionally “hugs” bigger dogs. (which I know isn’t polite of him– but, he’s never met an unfriendly dog in our neighborhood)
Dog he doesn’t know. 0-60 in a matter of seconds, faster breathing, barking and lunging. Does well with an extended watch as he is being shoveled treats. But does not work for all dogs. If he WERE to approach and meet this dog– he would be fine within 1 min as soon as he calmed.
HELP! (Any virtual resources?)
First, thank you so much for your book “The Education of Will”. I could relate to so much with what you had been through and your book helped me feel better about my own reactions to certain things that happened to me when I was younger. Thank you so much.
We adopted/bought/rescued a show dog last year. She had been in a concrete kennel for all three of her years, thus, going to the bathroom wherever and whenever. She knows to go outside and we praise her for doing so. But she also thinks she can go anywhere and on anything in the house. She will even go in her crate, so that does not work crating her. She wets her dog beds, couches, beds, rugs, you name it. Could you tell us what to do in trying to train her to not go in the house but to go outside? She is so lovable and adorable. She just doesn’t know better. The first night we brought her home, she clung to me. I think she was so afraid that she would not be able to stay with us. Everything outdoors is new to her, the leaves, bugs, grass, etc..
Thanks for helping me understand the effectiveness of online dog training. I have a three-month-old German Shepherd that’s set to be trained next month. However, with the pandemic still around, I think I shall find other options. I like what you said about some benefits of it such as being able to go at my own pace during trainings and few distractions from other dogs.
It’s interesting to know that there are video resources online that can be used to help me train my dog. It’s quite difficult to teach him to only pee at a specific spot in the pet room. I hope that finding online dog training classes can help me better understand how my dog thinks.
This post is VERY late, but what I love about Melissa’s videos is how much her dog Captain wants to be with her and wants to work with her…there is a…I’m not sure what to call it I can’t in good conscience call it dog training…an organization that calls itself a training club that trains everything that walks in the door with shock collars, even puppies. When you watch the videos of these dogs (I can’t for long) there is no joy, no enthusiasm…just robotic dogs.
I love the idea of being able to train my dog at my own pace and with my entire family. My kids wanted a dog for Christmas so we got one. He is old enough now to really start listening to us so I’ll talk to my wife about taking an online course as a family.