| My Training |
| I've had a good education, if I do say so myself. Luckily for me, my people choose to forego the traditional choke collar style of "training". I do much better with positive reinforcement like clicking & treating when I guess right; pretty soon I figured out what they were trying to say. (Soon after I learned enough English to understand them--and to create this page). Schoolin' helped shape my behavior, and while I'm not perfect yet, my people have learned a little "dog" and can clue me without hitting or yelling, which is very un-doglike. |
| I'd like to thank these folks for making me a better dog.
The Bureau of Parks & Recreation for providing nice places to run free & chase squirrels. Since most parks here aren't "leash-free", I make sure to pay attention to my people when they tell me to come or get out of the way when a jogger threatens to run me down. If us dogs learn some basic manners, we can get along with the people just fine (without the fines). |
| Animal School provides classes from Puppy 101 (where I honed my socialization skills), to the Basic Obedience series, to Agility. Unfortunately, they are now defunct, but you should be able to find positive reinforcement classes just about anywhere. |
| Auntie Tracey & Auntie Sally are private trainers. I got to know Auntie Zoe and she impressed me when she whipped out that clicker & some kind treats and convinced me to do stuff I hadn't even thought of. Toss out that choke collar and get on-board the Clicker Train |
| A book that really opened my eyes was, "On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals" by Turid Rugaas. She explained alot of the things I do without even thinking about it when I meet other dogs. This has really helped my people figure out dog body-language. Now they can tell when I am anxious and can read a strange dog almost as fast as I can. You can find this great book at Dogwise, just search by title or author. |