“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
– Cheshire Cat
The reader is cautioned to analyze the following content very carefully to avoid any misinterpretations of what is actually being said. The author is making no accusations of any particular type of dog training being right or wrong, good or bad, better or worse, per se. The purpose of this article is to examine the differences between the wants and needs of pet dog owners versus the wants and needs of working dog owners and the subsequent training considerations that should arise from such an investigation.
Introduction
Let’s say you want to learn to play guitar because your friends have a garage band you want to jam with. They are not that great but they have fun doing “jam night” every Friday playing blues, classic rock and improvised jams in the vein of The Grateful Dead. You spend thousands of dollars to take guitar lessons from a “world renowned” guitar teacher and practice really hard for a year. Then you show up to jam with your buddies. How well do you think that will go? Oh wait, I forgot to mention, your guitar teacher was a world renowned classical guitarist. Now, how well do you think jam night with your buddies will go? Probably not great. Definitely not as well as if you had taken lessons from an unknown, mediocre blues/rock guitar teacher, let alone a great blues/rock guitar teacher. Am I right?
Ok, now keep the above metaphor in mind as we discuss dog training.
This article was inspired by 18 years of seeing far too many pet dog clients who had spent a lot of time and money on the wrong type of dog training. Of course, they didn’t realize they were wasting time and money, it’s simply that people don’t know what they don’t know. Often the trainers they worked with (or followed online) were indeed excellent working dog, sport dog or competitive obedience dog trainers, yet these people were still coming to me with behavior problems that had not been resolved. In fact, some of these dog’s behavior problems were a direct result of following the techniques, strategies and philosophies designed to bring the best out of working dogs. There was nothing wrong with the training, it just was not intended for pet dogs. Just like there’s nothing wrong with playing classical guitar, it just doesn’t prepare you for rockin’ the AC/DC tunes on jam night.
The problem is that no one told these pet dog owners that some of these working dog teachings could actually run counter to what they ultimately wanted from their pet dog. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how great the training is if it is simply the wrong type of training for the needs of the client.
In short, the best protection dog training or competition-style dog training in the world may have little to no value for someone who just wants to have a nice, friendly, social, calm, well-mannered pet.
Clearly pet dog owners need a better roadmap for navigating the dog training industry.
A Brief Message from Mr. Obvious
There are opinions about dog training and then there are facts about dog training. Facts can be hard to come by and a lot of the dog training opinions being expressed out there are loosely organized, to say the least. That being said, one thing that is an undisputed fact is that working dog training and pet dog training are different from each other in numerous ways. Sure, there is some common ground but, for the most part, the goals are different, the lifestyles are different, the foundation is different, the fine details are different and, aside from the possibility of teaching similar obedience commands, nearly everything is different. Therefore, it should be expected that the outcomes will be different to one extent or another.
If we are strictly talking about obedience training, the differences may be barely noticeable. However, when it comes to behavioral training, character development and what I call Life Integration Training, working dog training and pet dog training are so different that one is often irrelevant or even counterproductive to the other. Hence, it is generally the case that you simply cannot have a high level of success in both things with the same dog because one style of training has the potential to compromise the other. In other words, you will likely need to make a choice. Do you want a calm, friendly pet dog or do you want an intense, high drive working dog?
Once you have made your choice, it would probably be wise to hire a trainer or follow “influencers” who specialize in the type of training that actually suits your needs. In other words, if you want a working dog, you might want to follow the advice of working dog trainers and, if you want a pet dog, you might want to follow the advice of pet dog trainers.
A Disturbance in the Force
Wait, I’m feeling a great disturbance in The Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in anger. Yes, I can sense it, it’s the voices of dog trainers all around the world. They’re claiming that they can, and indeed do, train both working dogs and pet dogs, that their working dogs are also their pets and that I’m a complete _____ , oh wait, I can’t say those words because children could be reading this.
Hold on, let’s pump the brakes for a second. I am not denying that there are exceptional dog trainers out there who are perfectly qualified to train both working and pet dogs. Perhaps some of them can even train the same dog to be both an excellent working dog and an excellent pet dog without compromise or sacrifice to behaviors on either side. However, with all due respect, I am also pretty darn certain that such an accomplishment is extremely exceptional.
As a reminder, we are not simply talking about obedience training, we are talking about behavioral training, character development, and Life Integration Training. So, please continue reading before jumping to conclusions.
If you and/or the trainer you hired are one of the exceptional few who can straddle both worlds successfully, then congratulations! Please take the previous words as a compliment and may The Force be with you.
Two Very Important Questions
Before we go much further with this topic, we need to clarify what the heck we are talking about. I think we can do that by asking two fundamental questions.
- How Do We Define Dog Training?
- What are the Wants and Needs of Most Pet Dog Owners?
These questions are vital to this conversation because there is often a gargantuan blindspot between what is generally thought of as “dog training” and what is actually wanted or needed by pet dog owners. Let’s take a look at each of these questions in more detail.
How Do We Define Dog Training?
Obviously, this is a vague question but I’d be willing to bet that most people’s minds will go to some variation of teaching dogs to do things such as heel, sit, lay down, stay and come or what is generally referred to as obedience training.
If teaching obedience commands is all we mean by the term “dog training” then, for sure, any professional dog trainer should be able to take on the job. In fact, a working dog trainer might be even better than a pet dog trainer at obedience training. But, what if we define dog training more broadly? What if we dig a little deeper?
If we reframe our definition of dog training, we may find that pet dog training has more depth and nuance than it is typically given credit for. We may find that it is more about dog behavior modification and dog psychology than it is about obedience training or other specialized forms of task oriented dog training. We may find it’s about using all three of the three paths of socialization, rather than only one or two. We may find it’s about fulfillment and providing proper forms of mental and physical exercise for the development of a balanced companion dog. We may find it’s about teaching boundaries and enforcing rules around the house. We may find that pet dog training is less about obedience drills and more about everything else the dog does or doesn’t do, all day, every day, 365 days a year. We may find that it’s about training the dog to “behave” while at liberty more than teaching the dog to “obey” while under command. We may also find that professional pet dog training requires a fair dose of knowledge about human psychology. We may find that communicating with people and convincing them to change what they do and don’t do with their dog when “off duty” is actually the biggest key to creating harmony in a home with pet dogs. And the list goes on and on and on.
So, staying on point, I simply don’t see much evidence of the above concepts being embraced by working dog trainers, even the ones who also train pet dogs. I see a lot of command oriented training and drive building exercises, which is fantastic, but often irrelevant or counterproductive for pet dogs.
What are the Wants and Needs of Most Pet Dog Owners?
What do dog owners really want? I believe I can answer this question in one sentence and it goes something like this: What most people want from a pet dog, whether they realize it or not, is an easily contented, self-managing, source of affection and entertainment.
“What most people want from a pet dog, whether they realize it or not, is an easily contented, self-managing, source of affection and entertainment.”
– Chad Culp
That epiphany came to me one day in meditation and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I was so excited, it felt revolutionary! I thought to myself, “This is probably what Issac Newton felt like when the apple fell on his head!” I shared my revelation with my advanced obedience class and a woman in the class said “Damn, I’d marry that!” and we all had a good laugh.
Ok, so maybe my theory wasn’t quite as revolutionary as Newton’s theory of gravity, probably more akin to Jerry Maguire’s mission statement, but, all joking aside, if we break that sentence down and really evaluate it, I believe we will come to the conclusion that it is pretty darned accurate and a profound paradigm shift from the goals and outcomes of formal obedience training or working dog training.
Yes, of course, everyone would like their dogs to “listen” to them. Therefore, some degree of basic obedience is a good starting point as a means of management. Taking it to the advanced level would provide even more control over the dog but, let’s be honest, most pet dog owners aren’t going to do that. So, as much as they would like for their dogs to “listen” to them, what’s even more important to the vast majority of pet dog owners is for their dogs to make good choices without having to be “commanded” in the first place. Hence, my epiphany includes the term self-managing.
Conclusion
The main theme of this article is based on a single sentence epiphany, a mission statement if you will, that came to me in a meditation. As a reminder, it goes like this:
What most people want from a pet dog, whether they realize it or not, is an easily contented, self-managing, source of affection and entertainment.
Assuming we can agree on the accuracy of that statement, it informs us that most people want to have a “good” dog, or what we might call a well-behaved dog, more so than a well-trained dog. If that’s the case, then the ultimate long-term goal for pet dogs (even if they are also being trained as working dogs) should be training and conditioning them to make good choices while at liberty.
If we train dogs with the above goal as our north star, I believe we will have our finger on the pulse of what people truly want from a pet dog, which should have a profound effect on our training choices.
I could carry on at great length about this but I’ll save that for part 2. For now, I will simply wrap it up the same way I opened it, with a little pearl of wisdom from Alice in Wonderland.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
– Cheshire Cat
Chad Culp – Certified Dog Trainer, Canine Behavior Consultant, Owner of Thriving Canine.
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