There's a type of idiom that is international in scope.
One brick short of a load.
A few clowns short of a circus.
One taco short of a combination plate.
A few beers short of a six-pack.
Three bangers short of a barbie.
A few cards short of a deck.
A few tiles short of a roof.
All foam, no beer.
The universal message here is that there is something short of what's needed: skill, brains, tools, or what has been ordered.
I bring this up because as I listen to people talk about dog training, I so often feel as if they have shown up with half the tools, and a quarter of the knowledge, needed.
Terms are poorly defined, limited experience is generalized, and techniques for one thing are assumed to work on all things, and all dogs, all the time.
Some time back, I wrote a post about "cutting sign" in the world of dogs.
Cutting sign. That's what they call it along the U.S.-Mexico border. You might know it as tracking, but of course, it's more than reading tracks on a dusty road, isn't it?
Along the border, they are not just looking for tracks in the dirt -- they are also looking for haircuts from other countries, bell bottoms that have been out of style in the U.S. for decades, and dress shoes worn in the desert or on slaughter house work floors.
If a Border Patrol officer asks a simple question, the answer may reveal whether the person answering comes from Texas, Mexico, El Salvador, or parts father South, East, West or North.
Of course, you can cut sign anywhere; all it takes is an ability to notice details and ask what they mean. You will never be Sherlock Holmes (who is?) but you might get good at gleaning a larger meaning from the presence, or absence, of small things.
So what small things -- or large things -- can tell you quite a lot in the world of dog training?
Lack of knowledge about basic dog training tools.
If you are putting yourself out there as a dog trainer, you should know how to use the full panoply of equipment commonly used in the world of dog training.
Dog trainers should have more than a few flat collars and leashes.
If you do not own a treat bag and have never used food rewards, you are not only incompetent to talk about the value of food rewards, you are incompetent to take someone's money as a full service dog trainer. Your lessons should be free as you do not yet own, or know how to use, basic dog training tools.
If you do not own a clicker or two and know how they are used as markers, you are not only incompetent to talk about them, you are incompetent to take someone's money as a full service dog trainer. Your lessons should be free as you do not yet own, or know how to use, basic dog training tools.
If you do not own a pinch collar and know how to fit one and have never used one, you are not only incompetent to talk about them, you are incompetent to take someone's money as a full service dog trainer. Your lessons should be free as you do not yet own, or know how to use, basic dog training tools.
If you do not own a slip collar and know how to fit one and have never used one, you are not only incompetent to talk about them, you are incompetent to take someone's money as a full service dog trainer. Your lessons should be free as you do not yet own, or know how to use, basic dog training tools.
If you do not own a modern e-collar and taken the time to learn to see what low-level stim can do, you are not only incompetent to talk about them, you are incompetent to take someone's money as a full service dog trainer. Your lessons should be free as you do not yet own, or know how to use, basic dog training tools.
Yes, 85 percent of all plumbing work is knowing how to snake a sink or toilet and how to replace small pipe connections.
That said, if you show up on a construction site claiming to be a plumber, your tool set better be more robust than a power snake and a butane torch!
And so it is in the world of dogs. Just as you can judge a plumber or carpenter by his tools, so too can you judge a dog trainer.
You don't have to use any tool or every tool. But with so few tools in the box when it comes to dog training, you should know how to use all the basic tools of the trade.
6 comments:
Dear Patrick,
Let's see now. No treat bag, no clicker. I think I had a choke collar thirty years ago but I'm not sure where it is. I own an ecollar, used once 8-10 years ago and unlikely to use again. No pinch collar.
Later this morning I'll go into the field and ask a young dog to burst through a hundred sheep and put those I select in a pen. No lead or other tools. Jake hasn't got the idea yet but he will.
Thursday my students and their (off-lead, no tools) dogs will gather the sheep, sort them and for the first time try to pen four in a 12x8 free standing pen. I wouldn't be surprised if the students fail but as their control becomes more precise, their understanding of the task deeper and they learn to read the sheep better, they'll get there.
I have seen good trainers work with every one of the tools you mention. I have seen good trainers who wouldn't touch particular tools with a ten foot pole.De gustibus.
Donald McCaig
I have one nitpick, but I think it is significant. In all of your examples you say:
"you are incompetent to take someone's money as a full service dog trainer. Your lessons should be free as you do not yet own, or know how to use, basic dog training tools"
I don't have any problem with a person getting paid to provide the service they advertise, even if that service is very limited in scope. Don't advertise as a full service trainer, but by all means charge for the work you do. As an example, I had a beagle started for me this summer. I am a farmer and during the time I needed to get this dog going I was incredibly busy. I have enough time during the season to hunt, and to keep the dog going, but I didn't have the time to start the dog, so I paid someone to do it. He is a dog trainer, but only trains a very specific thing and I don't have any problem paying for that thing. I got exactly what was advertised. I have also paid to take a training class. I did it to force me to structure my time, I am not a very good or driven trainer and I needed the help. Not for anything difficult, just the basics. I got what was advertised. I don't think this is a problem, I think overselling is the problem. And in all honesty I don't want to pay for the skill needed to do really high end stuff, if all I need done are the basics. Sometimes you need a master craftsman, sometimes a journeyman will do just fine. Just know the difference.
And I see Donald has said a substantively similar thing to me, from a different perspective.
As an aside my comments only seem to go through sporadically, I don't know if the problem is the content of my comments or if am screwing up the submission process. I am trying to stay within your guidelines, but if I am being moderated out I am sorry.
I think it's apples and eggs Donald. Both are food, and both are round, but things get pretty different after that.
There are, of course, different kinds of professional dog trainers -- some who just do bird dogs, for example. In your case, you are dealing with dogs working sheep who have very little interest, when sheep are put before them, of doing much else. It's a bit like one of my terriers next to a hole -- a bitch in heat is of no interest, and neither is a squirrel up a tree or a steak on the griddle.
Your dogs are also living in a very different situation. Most dog owners are spending very little time with their dogs. They are not on a farm, walking with dogs a few hours a day, learning in a holistic manner in which exercise and constant contact with the owner is a given. In that sense, your dogs (and any dog in Highland County) are more like the dogs of a homeless person, who who also have very well behaved dogs for the very same reason. Yes, I am being funny, because NO one is less homeless than a man with sheep or someone living in Highland Coonty. But I think you will see the similarity in life and outcome -- outdoors, constant contact, natural life with natural consequences from birth.
The typical dog owned by an urban and suburban client of a dog trainer gets a once around the block (if lucky) at night and again in the evening, and is bored out of their minds (and perhaps even crated all day). A dog trainer is not going to be able to do too much to change the day schedule of his or her client. There is some movement possible there, but getting them to quit work and move to a farm is probably not on the agenda. Instead, the dog is more likely to be "sent to the farm upstate," and we all know what that means.
Most professional dog trainers are expected to deal with every breed and a wide set of objectives, not one breed and one objective. I know how to train terriers to do earthdog, but I am not a dog trainer because I am not taking a big bucket of cash to advise a woman with a dog-aggressive shepherd who lives in a city apartment. I am not taking a big wad of cash to train a big dog to pull a wheelchair for a girl with brittle bone disease.
The tendency to generalize from one part of dog training to every other is pretty common. The folks who train their dogs to run weave poles with bait and clucking encouragement are sure this is dog training, which it is in the same sense that learning how to whisk is cooking. It's part of cooking, but pretty far from all of it! For the record, the same is true for the folks who run schutzhund. They are pretty sure they have this dog training thing down, but in fact they are training very particular dogs for a very particular game. And yes, it is a game, otherwise those folks in suits would not have unprotected faces.
No, of course no one has to use every tool or any tool. Yes, in the matter of taste there can be no disputes. But in the matter of facts, there can also be no disputes. You say you have an e-collar from 8-10 years ago? That's a collar based on 25-year old technology -- the kind you get for $40 or less on ebay today. Not a modern e-collar. when I had a collar like that I used it two or three times to make sure a dog did not start on deer -- same as you. Then I put it away -- same as you. The modern e-collar is to that what a manual typewriter is to the modern computer; a very different thing that can do very different things.
And no bait bag, sure. But can I check the pockets of your farm coat when they were pups or were new? :)
Jacob, I don't recall seeing your name before, so I think this is a first time you have gotten through. I don't have to moderate much any more. Most people who get dumped are either spammers, or angry fly-ins from the show dog world who are incensed that I have said "their breed" might be deformed, inbred, or reduced to doing fake work.
Yes, there's a reason I said full service. There are folks training for one thing. Are they dog trainers? Of a sort. But as I told someone recently on a podcast I linked to a few weeks ago, we folks who have purpose-bred dogs tend to take too much credit for things the dogs want to do. My dogs want to go down a den like a bullet wants to go down a barrel. A bird dog wants to find and point birds. A Malinois wants to bite. A herding dog wants to chase sheep. Putting guides on that kind of genetic drive is certainly training, but it's quite a bit easier (especially when the dogs is young) than what the full-service folks dealing with serious problem dogs from multiple breeds are having to face. I have trained a few dogs to do a few things, but I do not say I am a dog trainer.
The full service dog trainers are getting large dog-aggressive animals that are one day away from the gas chamber, they are getting confirmed cat-killers, chronic barkers, serious phobics, and dogs that are now 5 years old and have no respect. What's amazing is what these folks can do for these dogs, which is save their lives while getting their owners on a new path towards balance. That's a very different thing than training a terrier to exit a go-to-ground den on command after the white rats have been taken away (and with an owner that is setting out to DO something with his dog).
Dear Patrick,
You are correct to distinguish between you and I who work with a dog's genetics and the all breed/all owner pet dog trainer whose training goals may be contra a particular breed's instincts (viz. None of the working saluki's I've seen had good recalls.)
In my visits to well known pet dog trainers, only traditional and ecollar trainers were willing to take on very aggressive dogs. Some "positive" trainers argued that killing a dog was better than subjecting it to "cruel" training.
The modern variable intensity ecollar has been around for more than a decade.
My jacket pockets are filled with all sorts of crap but no dog treats. Our UPS driver is greeted enthusiastically by five dogs, including two enormous sheep guarding dogs because he festoons the ground with dog treats. Works for him, not for me.
Donald McCaig
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