Not Well Trained!

When clients call, many have expressed that they aren’t looking for their dog to learn tricks per se but they do want their dog to obey them.

All of this makes sense because the average dog owner has an “old school” mentality when it comes to their dog, mainly because they’ve been relying on instincts to train the family dog or hire a trainer who also uses instincts, which are the foundation of traditional military dog training.

They use commands which is a threat to obey or suffer the consequences and when the dog is doing something correct, they are offered praise, or perhaps a pat on the head. Sometimes it’s the absence of being “yanked” around that informs the dog he must be doing something right.

And now, as always, I will digress…

One can become a parent and raise a child without a license or having read a book, simply because they use instincts. Sure instincts come in handy such as knowing that the child needs food, water, protection from the weather or  from forgetting them in hot cars. Some even know to baby proof their home so the child doesn’t put objects into the electrical sockets. Babies learn that pointing is a communication as is making sounds so the parent can (hopefully) understand that on the short list of “baby issues”, is that baby could be hungry, thirsty, sitting in a soiled diaper, or is overtired and needs more sleep. 

Oddly enough pet-parents too, without having read a book or taken a class,  can see that their dog appears to have some human-like qualities which is how dogs, having evolved from wolves thousands of years ago, ended up being the  most popular pet with over 89 million in US households currently!

Something in the way they evolved gave dogs the capacity to try to communicate with humans and become invaluable companions through the ages. Additionally, over the last couple of hundreds of years, humans began breeding and artificially selecting for other physical traits that shaped dogs to appear more baby-like, making them even more irresistible. 

So you see that even if one doesn’t have dog knowledge, they do have child knowledge and that makes dog training, to some degree, seem similar to how one teaches a child.

Of course there’s a darker side of child rearing when the parents are incompetent. If, however the child has outside influences such as teachers, other kids, other kids’ parents, perhaps therapists who have positive influences, the child may grow into a well adjusted adult regardless if the parents were unfit. 

Dogs, unfortunately have only the pet parent or traditional trainer.  The problem, as previously mentioned,  is that this requires zero education which empowers them to make stuff up about why the dog behaves the way it does. Due to faulty thinking, the dog guardian or traditional trainer will often retaliate by hurting the dog when they’ve decided that the dog knew better, but chose to do something “bad”.

The Internet is full of people who know nothing, but think they know something and have taken ignorance to a new level. 

Today, while we still have many traditional trainers and pet parents who are of the same mindset, we also have educated, science based, trainers, many who evolved from having been traditional trainers, but crossed over when they realized the old methods were unprincipled. Furthermore, these humane trainers continue to learn about the latest research and are dedicated to helping dog-guardians do better for their dogs.

And the research is nothing short of remarkable, as it has revealed why dogs seem to have child-like qualities. Dogs have the same brain chemistry as humans, develop along the same time line from infancy through adulthood, and when fully mature, it appears dogs have the learning capacity of a human three year old! This explains why dogs understand that our pointing gesture is a communication, why dogs can learn human words, differentiate blue from yellow (the only two colors they see), and are capable of copying human movements, just to mention some of the extraordinary information coming from the latest research.

The downside to their ability to respond to tones in our voices and body movements makes dogs vulnerable to the cruel trainer or uneducated dog owner.  Their ignorance is a detriment to the dog when they erroneously label the dog as having some deviant behavior, of which they conclude that using (outdated) traditional training is the only way to make sure the dog doesn’t murder the family while they are asleep!

The other day when walking my dogs, I was stopped by a woman who wanted to know what breeds my dog were. She mentioned that she was a commercial photographer who recently hired a trainer to help her “settle down” the dogs who were a having a difficult time during this photo shoot. The trainer suggested giving the dogs treats [as a way to calm them].  This woman went on to say that while she knew nothing about dogs, she knew enough to know that rewarding the dogs for bad behavior wasn’t appropriate. And this is my point. Even someone who knows NOTHING, thinks they know SOMETHING! 

She also commented that my dogs were well trained. I responded that they were not well trained, but they were very well adjusted.

I recognize that like children, my dogs need guidance, structure, a predictable routine, a feeling of safety and that they trust me. Sure they have learned some basic cues to keep them safe such as “Puppy come” to call them from chasing our cat,  “Drop it” to keep them from eating who knows what, on the sidewalk, and a few other words and sounds such as “Beep-beep” to back out of my way which seems to work so much better than running them over. 

When the only goal is obedience, what exactly is the the dog getting other than being socked, popped, or shocked into compliance?

Nope, my dogs are not well trained, but they are well adjusted!

HAPPY TRAINING & ENLIGHTENMENT!

© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2026