 Barked: Sat Mar 9, '13 1:51pm PST |
 | |  | | I saw a post on a site called the dog training secret about police dogs and their training. It said that police dogs should never be trained using fear methods. You wouldn't want the dog chickening out on you, especially not if your life depends on the dog.
*****
"When I was slightly younger than I am now, and I was training very actively with one of my many mentors I was beginning to learn the world of police, military, competition, and attack dogs.
Ironically the older man who was teaching me was insistent on using positive reinforcement as often as possible. Unlike the woman who I began learning from he believed that NO PUPPY should ever have a prong collar on and that teaching dogs how to behave was the only way to train.
...Most people training police and attack dogs, especially back then, were all about corrections, and shock collars and punishment. And, even though he had been working with police departments for over 30 years, he wanted to be kind to the animals and teach them what to do, not force them.
He also refused to work with any dog that did not pass his temperament test. He always told me never to become the kind of trainer that “scares” a defensive or fearful dog into a behavior that makes him uncomfortable to bring out aggression.
He convinced me that these dogs may begin to come out of their shells and show signs of being aggressive in the work, but it was not a strong training technique and eventually something somewhere would break down.
He simply declined to work with a dog like that, for the sake of the dog and all the discomfort it would have to endure and work through while knowing that someday when a police officer’s life hung in the balance the dog might break down and revert to his first instinct of flight rather than fight.
That was an important lesson to me when I was young. You can force some dogs… but what does that get you and when will those behaviors break down?
So I never learned to use table or box work to make a dog more aggressive, I believe what he told me back then and I am grateful for the information and education he instilled on me when I was young. Seeing a big police dog trainer using the principles of positive reinforcement and reward was very powerful to me and was when I fell in love with the work."
*****
The above was taken directly from the dog training secret.
I use positive reinforcement to teach behaviors and then gradually switch over to punishment once the dog understands what's expected. I use the punishment, usually a sterner voice, more threatening posture, or even a little swat on the butt, for teaching them to listen to me without me repeating myself ninety times.
I would never do anything to make the dog fear what ever I am trying to have it do, however. I want them to know that not listening to my commands is not a good thing so if their lives depend on it one day I can keep them out of trouble.
It makes me so angry to see my dogs being submissive around my father. One of them is so scared of him right now she won't even go near him. He's constantly yelling at her to lay down even if she is already sitting and being calm. Ugh! |  |  | |  |
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