Dog Obedience Training

There are many problems with Obedience Training, but the most striking problem is:

• When you use any form of Obedience Training, the dog behaves "well" only while you are there - if at all.
• This is because only when you are near the dog, you can use lure or reward, or force or fear to get the dog to do what you want - or to stop doing something you don't want.
• And because the dog is aware that only when you are near the dog, you can use some form of punishment when the dog does not meet your expectations.

Again the punishment may just be that you withhold the lure or reward - but you can't do that either when you aren't with the dog. You see?

And so whenever you aren't around (you are at work or grocery shopping, or taking the kids to school or the grandma to the doctor, or whatever) ...

the dog is very much aware that neither (s)he can hope to get a treat nor (s)he has to fear your use of force.

What is the COST of Obedience Training?

The consequences of this biggest flaw of Obedience Training alone are manifold:

• from plain "potty accidents"
• to destroyed furniture at home
• from running off and not coming when called
• to attacking children, the postman, or anyone else when outdoors
• or even attacking someone on the fenced property!

While dog owners routinely notice the ramifications of Obedience Training in their own home - although they cannot relate them to the form of training they chose to undertake - the ramifications that Obedience Training has for the society as a whole are on an entirely different level:

What is the alternative to Obedience Training?

Noticing the inherent flaws of Obedience Training, Tim Carter as the founder of MYGERMANSHEPHERD.ORG realized at the beginning of the third millennium that we currently share, that Obedience Training urgently needs to be replaced by something better.

• Something that better meets the dog's inherited traits and psychology.
• Something that doesn't mislead dog owners into believing that they have trained their dog
• Or that the professional dog trainer has trained their dog ...
• when all that has been done is to entice or to frighten the dog while you were there, or while the trainer was there.

This is why Tim Carter developed Behavior Training to better meet the needs of the dog and of today's dog owner.

And although you can now find a few professional dog trainers who started to use the term Behavior Training as well, when you look at their actual offering you see that again it is nothing but Obedience Training in a new dress.

What means Behavior Training - to us?

Behavior Training as we understand it means that we behave in a way that motivates the dog to behave the way we want.

Building up this intrinsic motivation is the reason why this kind of dog training takes longer, but also why then the dog habitually behaves the same - regardless whether we are there or not.

At this point our desired dog behavior has become the dog's daily nature.

 

Our Behavior Training is void of the idea of "obedience" and "disobedience": There is no reward and no punishment for behavior.

When you think about it, reward and punishment for dog behavior don't even make sense because dogs naturally behave different than people.

So why reward or punish nature?

Dog owners really have been misguided for decades.

Instead, with our form of Behavior Training we merely change our own behavior when we are unhappy with the dog's behavior.

And we change our own behavior in a way that motivates the dog to behave the way we want. Hopefully, we want well?

This means we must be able to be conscious and self-critical of our own behavior, and we must be able to read the dog's body language .

Note that dogs learn everything from what we do, and next to nothing from what we say: When you think "the dog learned my command" then the dog really learned from your body language.

In short, our proprietary form of Behavior Training raises dogs that ultimately want to behave the way we want: well.

And thus they do so out of routine, habitually.

While all forms of Obedience Training raise dogs that instantly understand that they have to behave the way we want: to get some kind of treat, or to avoid some form of punishment.

And thus they do so only when they feel they are being closely monitored.

 

The implications of using this revolutionary dog training approach

The fundamental differences in these approaches to dog training also have significant implications, the most striking of which is:

A behavior-trained dog that is fully house-trained can safely be left alone at home with free run of the house and property (to "guard" it, for instance).

While with an obedience-trained dog you cannot, you rely on luck. And sometimes you come back and you will find that the dog deranged or destroyed something in the home, or attacked children or the postman or whoever!

Dog liability insurers calculate the likelihood of these incidents and set premiums accordingly.

In fact, drawing on our massive database of dog owner HELP! requests here, we can reliably conclude: If it wasn't for all those - even paid for! - "Obedience Classes" & Co, then our society would hardly know of "dog bite" incidents. Spare for unethical and criminal owners.

And dog owners up and down the country (any country!) wouldn't lock up their dogs - or chain them! - which really drives dogs mad.

Like it would drive you mad too. You bet.

Since our ancestors for at least 70,000 dog generations have domesticated the dogs that we prize today, we cannot and must not think we can suddenly roll this back within 50 or what dog generations - just because we foolishly jumped on the fashion that Dog Obedience Training is.

You see now?