Training Methods and Definitions Again

I love this article "Dog Whispering In the 21st Century". But even it can be simplified so that those who refuse to read can understand. It's not really a problem of whether or not people are intelligent enough to understand, it's that they refuse to read.../listen to a long discussion that really only pertains to the trainers themselves.

What it boils down to is definitions and goals. Each trainers definitions are slightly or completely different in regards to "loaded" words. But that doesn't really matter if you just look at the motivations behind the "training" WHY does this person train dogs, what result is he striving for in each dog - control or relationship or something in between. EVen control can be broken down into "human control" or "self control by the dog". And relationship in the same way - master/slave or partners.

What it really means to an owner: Is each trainer ethical enough to tell you exactly what tools and methods are being used and what the expected result will be and can you ethically and with integrity accept that.

Asking questions and truly finding out the above for each trainer interviewed is what we should be pushing on dog owners. Most people are not willing to hurt their dogs (subject again to definition of what hurt is), but they also want a quick resolution to their dogs issues. If we, as R+ trainers can show that the time necessary is close to being the same as the force trainers, then there is no contest :)