This page is not intended to tell anyone how to train their dog.  It is a brief overview of our general training philosophy and some of the tools we use for training our dogs.

We tend to avoid "schools" of training.  The clicker school, the correction school, the jerk and praise school.  We believe in communicating with the individual dog, and we will use every available technique to accomplish this communication.  We feel that rigid preference for any one school is foolish.  There is no one way to communicate.  Even between people who speak the same language, effective communication is delicate and tricky.  How much more when you try to communicate effectively with another species!  We believe in compassion and understanding.  We believe in listening to our dogs.  We believe in treating them as our allies and teammates and that together we can accomplish anything.

The first step of training a dog is establishing a rapport.  This means spending time together and really paying attention to the moods and personality of your companion.  Going for long daily walks where the dog is just a weight on the end of the leash will not accomplish this.  You need to engage the dog.  Your dog needs to be interested in you and paying attention to you and you must be paying attention to your dog! During this phase you are learning how to read the dog and how to motivate-- does he like food or tug-o-war?

The process of training a given behavior starts with getting the dog to approximate the desired end behavior.  This can be accomplished by luring the dog with food, or by waiting until the dog naturally offers the behavior or by inducing the behavior by manipulating the environment.

Once the dog offers the behavior, reward!  This means praise, food, clicking, play, whatever seems appropriate to the dog and the situation.  Let the dog know that you are happy.  This is obvious and simple; however, it must be timed correctly so you are actually rewarding what you want.  A few seconds too late and you are rewarding the dog for stopping the behavior!

After many times of praising the dog for the desired behavior, you begin to pair a command.  You say "Sit" and when the dog sits you give the reward.  You now repeat this many times over numerous training sessions until the dog truly understands that the command and the behavior go together.

Now that the dog gets what you are asking, you can begin to vary the frequency of the reward.  Sometimes after a success give food.  Sometimes play, sometimes nothing, sometimes praise.  This process is also repeated until the dog truly gets it.

Now that the dog understands what is being asked and knows how to succeed, correction can be used to ensure that the dog understands that the behavior is not optional.  The role of correction in training is a subject that tends to inspire passion.  Our view is that correction is another part of the arsenal.  I use "No" to help my dog understand what I do not want.  This helps him to succeed and makes us both happy! 

Overcorrecting is counterproductive.  You want training to be fun for your dog which means it should never be painful or unpleasant.  Ego and impatience have no place here! If your dog is not succeeding, it means you have failed, not the dog!  Dogs are not malicious. You have failed to communicate what you want.  You have failed to motivate the dog to want to succeed.  You have failed to set realistic goals for this dog.  Go back and examine your process and figure out where you went wrong.