We've reached Day 90 of our mammoth trek through 100 Days with 100 Dogs and today we're reiterating an important message. Unfortunately, many aspects of dog welfare are poorly regulated if they are at all. A key service here is behavioural training and even more so for many of the dogs coming into our care.
Like all fields of human endeavour, there is a constant flow of research and new learning. This is notably the case for animal behavioural training where outdated techniques have been found to be harmful to the animal's development. Positive reinforcement encourages your dog to follow the behaviour you want. Fear or pain-based methods can appear to provide swift results but research has shown that this merely suppresses the unwanted behaviour.
Animal training, therefore, is an evolving field and with complex emotional creatures like dogs, there is still much to discover while their minds may not be as complicated as ours they do share many traits and are much richer than many people realise. With that in mind, it's sensible to seek professional help with training and behavioural problems in the same way you would consult a vet for health issues. The important difference here is that vets are required to have specific training but this is not the case for trainers or many other services. In this context, it's alarming how many adverts (especially on social media) offering a shortcut to a dog training career.
From Lisa Hird, the behaviouralist we work closely with
The wrong type of training can ruin a dog. It can mess them up completely. Dogs do not think like us. Therefore, when trying to use a human method to solve a problem the dog doesn't learn what you hope he is learning. It may suppress the behaviour for a while but chances are it will resurface with a vengeance.
When posts are put in the group about celebrity trainers and we make negative comments it is not personal against the poster. Part of the reason for this group is to educate dog guardians in the hope that fewer dogs end up in our care.
Proper dog training is based on science. I prefer to follow science rather than some whim or fad. Some of the celebrity trainers do not have adequate training themselves. They show problems being solved in the hour that the program is on. They don't mention all the behind-the-scenes work and the times it went wrong. There is no such thing as an overnight fix. They also don't mention the aftermath when the problem rears its ugly head worse than it was originally. Rehabilitation takes time. Often there is an emotional issue at the root of the problem. The emotional state of the dog needs to be addressed. If you are hollering and shouting and I tell you to calm down it won't work.
If you are a dog pawrent you owe it to your dog to look into the science of dog training and how dogs learn. That is only fair. You chose to share your life with another species.
If we make negative remarks about trainers that are not using science-based training it's because we care so deeply that dogs are not getting a fair deal ❤
From Debbie Hill, GSD Welfare Fund chairman
Someone recently asked me for advice about their dog. From what they were describing, it sounded like the dog was a bite risk. This problem needed to be handled with care. It needed qualified behaviourist advice. I make no secret of the fact that I don’t trust many behaviourists. We see the problems they cause and the dogs that come to us because of it. I suggested that they arranged a zoom consultation with Lisa Hird from Dog Behaviour Clinic. I made a follow-up call to see how it was going. They informed me they hadn’t contacted Lisa as they couldn’t see how a zoom meeting would help. They needed someone to come and see the dog so they found one on Facebook!!! I cringed.
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree that an in-person consultation is best, I also know that the trainer/behaviourist cannot train your dog or do what is needed to help your dog. YOU need to do that. I also know that an in-person consultation with the wrong behaviourist can lead to your dog going into rescue or worse still, euthanasia. What the zoom consultation can do is give you the tools to work with the problem. But it has to be the right advice and the right tools. Some of the dogs we have come in can be very difficult. Lisa is always my “go-to”. Obviously, she cannot get to see every dog in our care so we have online discussions and it works really well. Most of the dogs that are here with me are bite cases which could have gone horribly wrong.
People often ignore the little problems with their dogs thinking they will grow out of them. The truth is they will grow into it. Then it escalates until it cannot be ignored. These problems do not need training advice. They need behaviour advice. There is a big difference. A zoom consultation with a behaviourist such as Lisa can save a dog's life.
If you know someone having problems with a dog, what a great Christmas present an online consult with Lisa would be ❤️
We obviously love Lisa and if you frequent our groups especially our Friends of GSD Welfare group she is incredibly generous with her advice and support.
https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/
