  
  
  
My Philosophy
The goal of our training
is not only to teach your dog the exercises, but also to help you form a
proper relationship with your dog. 
Good training depends on
mutual respect between trainer and dog. Your dog must respect you and
understand that he must obey you. And
as his guardian you must see to
it that his needs are met. This includes affection, shelter, proper
feeding, plenty of exercise, play, training
and establishing the rules and
boundaries that he must abide by.
Training provides a
means to communicate to our dogs, what it is that we want them
to do, in a way that they will understand. Through
training we can strengthen the
bond we have with our dogs.
We
believe that fair and effective communication is the key to improving and
enhancing the relationship between dogs and people. We
also
believe that the education of each dog and owner must be approached on an
individual basis. Each dog’s training should be based
on
the dog’s individual personality, temperament, age and
history.
About
Our Training Methods
There are many different
methods to train dogs. If you have done any research on the
subject you probably have found that there is often
controversy about which way is best.
Years ago dogs were not the
house pets that they are today. The family dog spent most of the time
outdoors, tied to a tree in the back
yard or roaming free.
They received little or no training. Formal training was usually only
for working dogs. Many trainers back then used
methods that would be
considered harsh today.
As dogs became part of the
family, more training was needed to help these pets conform to their human
world. Training became less
harsh over the years. Even to
the point that some trainers today wont use any discipline at all,
not even verbal corrections, reprimands
or a firm
“NO”.
We
believe that good training lies between the harsh methods of the past and
the treat only
methods that are sometimes employed
today. A dog needs to
be rewarded when he does well and corrected either verbally or
physically when he disobeys. It is not fair to
correct a dog when he doesn't
understand what you want him to do. But once he learns he must obey. The purpose of corrections is not
to teach the dog what to do,
but to help him understand what not to do and only have to be firm enough
to be effective.
The purpose of
correction is not to punish.
Correction, when administered properly and fairly,
and punishment are two different things.
This is how dogs learn.
There is nothing wrong with telling a dog NO. In fact it is part of our
training.
Our training is based on
positive reinforcement. When you share a bond with your dog, the best
positive reinforcement you can give is
your praise, verbal and
physical. Your dog seeks your praise and approval. A common mistake made
by many handlers is not giving
enough praise and encouragement
when his student does well. The handler should find him/herself
giving at least twice as much positive reinforcement as negative.
Withholding praise will cause your dog to become confused,bored and
frustrated resulting in poor performance.
The methods we use are the same
as the methods commonly used to train Guide Dogs for the blind.
A trainer that keeps an open
mind about training can easily make adjustments to suit a specific
dog.
Plenty of genuine praise
can make training a happy and rewarding experience for you and your
dog.
"Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast
of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all
kinds of late-breaking dog news items,
which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued in
the next yard."
-- Dave
Barry
Training
Tips
 
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