Day 27 A.M. & P.M.

All is well here at Puppy Central.

My post yesterday prompted a couple of people to share additional horror stories about board-and-train situations.

Serious Yikes.

Just to be clear — board-and-train is when a person takes the puppy or dog that has been trusted to their care and leaves it with someone else.

The puppy is boarded — not bonding and learning with her family. Boarded. In a kennel. Isolated for much of the day.

Clara can tell which puppy this is — can you?

These type of places frequently involve use of a shock collar, which the so-called trainers minimize with sale pitches about how it doesn’t hurt, is like a static shock, blah blah BS. Dogs eventually learn what to do to avoid the pain — they call that training.

HUH?

In fact, a lot of dog trainers have this approach — their techniques to train a behavior are all about teaching the dog how to avoid an unpleasant consequence. For example, they teach heeling by jerking the dog when she is out of position.

I wonder what it means when people have a preference for noticing and punishing undesired behavior. It seems like a sad way to live in the world — always noticing what is wrong, and ignoring what is wonderful and amazing and great.

And what the heck — how can people seem to enjoy themselves while hurting, shocking, and/or scaring a puppy? It was one of Marti’s daughters who — with the wisdom of a child — observed that it was “creepy” when people at the dog show were smiling while doing unpleasant things to dogs.

Creepy indeed.

Training a dog is a great opportunity to shift our focus from wrong to right, and that mental shift can make a big difference in both Life with Dogs — and just Life.

I offer some additional resources as Food for Thought about training.

First, click HERE for the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s Position Statement on The Use of Punishment for Behavior Modification in Animals.

Second, I am a big fan of Dr. Ian Dunbar, who helped revolutionize dog training; the following is just some of his work:

Before and After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog by Dr. Ian Dunbar.

Click HERE for SIRIUS Puppy Training Classic

Click HERE for Dog Training For Children with Dr. Ian Dunbar.

Third, this is another good resource: The Puppy Primer by Dr. Patricia McConnell and Brenda Scidmore.