How to Train Your Dog - BETTER than a Pro!
"Train my dog BETTER than a pro? Impossible, pros are pro!" you may be quietly arguing?
Oh well! Let's clear up the mess you "learn" when googling How to train your dog, like the crap you see below:
Scratching on the surface only it quickly runs through things that have NOTHING to do with how to train your dog, but with how to choose a dog, how to name a dog, and what not!
But it's a "wikihow" page and so Google prefers to hibernate people's minds with rehashed repetitions, instead of ranking top actual, unique insight How to Train Your Dog for what you want from your dog.
Makes sense?
Of course it does.
Are you ready for something NEW? - If so, you're in for a TREAT! This is Part I.
Training your dog for the circus or for your average day?
- Do you and your dog only wish to perform in a circus?? - Then you may leave now because this won't teach you how to train your dog ONLY for the circus: An excellent illustrated dog tricks
book comes from Kyra Sundance. - Or do you wish to look over the shoulder of a TOP dog trainer as often as you like? - Then you may book who "everyone" suddenly seems to be promoting
after I personally discovered his skill many years ago and since then recommended him: Dan Abdelnoor - better than any APDT accredited trainer I've ever seen.
But otherwise: Read this to the very end. As loving dog owner you will be so glad you did.
Dog Training for the Modern Dog Owner Household
Yes, it is FUN to teach your dog some tricks. But that does NOT prepare your dog
- to live with you
- to please you
- and to behave well:
- when with you
- and WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY: while you are away!
Because, you would be the first in modern times if you can hang out with your dog 24/7 - and this every day??
Dog Training MINDSET is Key
Therefore if you want to train your dog to behave well
- on your average day
- including when you are away
- then you need the right mindset
- more than any dog training tricks , tips, techniques, methods, or "advice"!
Why? Because
The right mindset will lead you to
the right dog training approach
Dog Training Mindset of "Pros"
The below is the mindset of almost any "Pro" that advises how to train your dog.
This includes every famous dog trainer, whether on TV, youtube videos, or in books, and the one who wrote that "wikihow" you saw before. The only exception I know of is the secret Top trainer Dan Abdelnoor, indeed.
That's the stylized mindset of obedience. And although many dog trainers and owners will want to argue "No, no, not myself", their behavior and their home documents that they have the mindset of obedience and discipline.
They have the mindset that the dog has to obey the owner or trainer. Be honest with yourself like I am honest with myself: you have that currently too. It's ingrained in our human brain from childhood onwards.
I am not saying the obedience mindset is "bad" in general, it rules the HUMAN world: from parenting to school, from the military to road laws and really every law.
Whether Cesar Millan, Zak George, Ian Dunbar, Victoria Stilwell, Linda Michaels, Brian Kilcommons, ... anyone(!) - all are great people, and so they ALL apply the HUMAN mindset of obedience to DOG training.
And they don't realize it: They don't even touch on anything that you get to find out below!
As the saying goes: "Fame is the handicap of motivation to excel."
But I am saying:
HUMAN Mindset Flawed for DOG Training
The HUMAN mindset of obedience is flawed when applied to DOGS
No doubt, such insight you ONLY find at MYGERMANSHEPHERD.ORG: I have searched everywhere and yet found nothing like this. That's why
Dog Lovers from 227 nations... The famous dog trainers all have more than money can buy (fame), but fact is no one has the global reach of MYGERMANSHEPHERD.ORG.
Obedience being the flaw of today's dog training - THAT'S the secret underpinning ALL dog training advice you find anywhere! There you have it.
You can leave now if you like. Bye bye.
Still here? So then:
DOG Training with DOG Mindset!
The flaw of today's dog training is that all the famous "guru" dog trainers that we know from TV, youtube, and books ... that other trainers and you copy ... don't consider the CANINE mindset:
Even the All Dogs Supreme Court agrees:
I aim to keep my humor over serious business, yes
WHY is the obedience mindset flawed when applied to DOGS?
Because: The HUMAN concept of obedience does not exist in the animal world. Therefore the ever so popular mindset "the dog must obey me" is unhelpful in DOG training.
Obey Me Now
I can require from YOU HUMAN being - that likely is a dog owner - that you obey me and change your dog training approach to what makes sense with dogs.
And if I find some means of enforcement then I may succeed.
But clearly when I am out of sight (you left this page) you feel no need to obey: you may fall into old habits, or at least you may do what YOU want, at the time.
For the Moment...
Same with dogs when our mindset is obedience, and so to get the dog to obey
- we traditionally may have used force
- and/or at times we may have raised fear in the dog
- or you may have copied the more recent "Positive" trainers and "conditioned" the dog with food treats or other rewards?
And all indeed works, somewhat.
But only while we are there.
If at all: Most dog owners seek out dog training advice for one and only one reason:
Because what they do doesn't work, not even while they are there.
Prerequisite for Obedience
In fact with HUMANS the concept of obedience is fairly easy to achieve even when the authority is absent (when I am not with you), because people can imagine what happens when they stop obeying, when they stop complying:
For example YOU can imagine I may sue you in court for the $1000 I paid you to change your dog training approach. - Give back now.
But with DOGS the HUMAN concept of obedience doesn't work: Because DOGS cannot imagine what may happen to them . The DOG brain doesn't even consider the potentially thousands of behaviors that "you may not like".
Dogs are in no way wired for obedience
Because dogs cannot imagine the human consequences - and/or inhumane consequences(?) - of their behavior.
Dog Memory
You know this saying?
"Dogs have a short-term memory, you must reward them instantly or they've forgotten what it's for"
You also read that everywhere, right?
Well, that's wrong as well: Dogs don't have a short-term memory.
Instead, dogs just cannot imagine what future consequences their momentary behavior may have.
And so DOGS don't have the intrinsic motivation that allows us PEOPLE to memorize what we were just doing.
Examples: You may not even notice but you memorize
- when to be at work
- when the bus or train leaves
- when to take the kids to school
- when to pay taxes
- when to commemorate your wedding anniversary
- etc ...
all because you can imagine the consequences if you don't!
Good Memory Prerequisite
BUT that dog, say
- that you recently rewarded with a food treat...
- to "condition" the dog to behave the way you want...
- to achieve obedience...
...that dog cannot imagine any of the below:
"My owner is not here now, however if I change my behavior to something my owner may not like(???)..."
"...then upon return my owner may beat me up!"
"or my owner may not give me a treat ever again!"
"or my owner may pull me on a leash"
"...to the All Dogs Supreme Court"
"...which may sentence me to an existence locked away in a prison"
"...and I may never again hear that...
No, DOGS cannot imagine what future consequences their momentary behavior may have.
"Positive Trainers" Understanding: Negative
THIS is why the today ever more popular "conditioning" the dog with (food) rewards requires to be done fairly immediately:
- All the Pavlovian Conditioning or now "Classical Conditioning" that today's "Positive dog trainers" rely on requires temporal contiguity as Pavlov called it: must be close together in time.
- What none of them appears to know or understand: All "Classical Conditioning" is a reflex but not reflexive as I like to say
- it is no conscious learning, it is subconscious reaction
- a reflex action, but not reflexive action: not consciously thinking about it.
Could I make this understandable for you?
Just remind yourself that a reflex is always short-term.
THIS is what led to the wrong notion that "dogs have a short-term memory".
"It's all Pavlov's fault" you could say.
But no, it isn't. Pavlov didn't even imagine his observations would one day be abused for "dog training": At Pavlov's time, "dog training" as such didn't yet exist.
Abusing his observations to ...
"condition" the dog for the modern dog owner household(!), unduly called ...
"dog training" ... that's the sole achievement of ...
"positive reinforcement trainers" ... who in modern times realized:
"I can make a living of that!"
AUTSCH!
All of today's "Positive Reinforcement Training" relies on subconscious associative learning, it does not allow for conscious active learning.
What Would Dogs Say?
That's not fair to dogs. Dog behavior wonderfully documents that dogs have a great long-term memory.
And when you now think about it, this is no surprise:
Every dog owner able to observe notices that dogs dream, and Stanley Coren wrote an entire book about the miraculous things dogs do: Do dogs dream?
Well, anyone that can DREAM has a long-term memory: Dreams are what allows the brain to memorize!
Summing this up: The problem that "dogs have a short-term memory and need to be rewarded immediately" ... does not exist!
Instead:
Dogs cannot imagine the future consequences of their momentary behavior.
That's why dogs have nothing that reminds and motivates them to obey once they've left this page...
Sorry, when you are away!
And that's why any and all dog training methods ruled by the HUMAN mindset of obedience are flawed for DOGS.
What Dog Owner Victims Say
No, outright foolish once you consider:
- that dog owners cannot be 24/7, and 7 days a week(!) with their dog
- and that almost all maulings of children, the postman, UPS man and what not, as well as simple dog bites happen when the trainer or owner isn't with their dog!
Isn't such dog training approach UEBER foolish?
The surviving victims of dog maulings (and their families) shout it from the roof! As primary approach, dog obedience training is foolish.
Remove Obedience Training from the mainstream and you instantly get a much better world: for people AND for dogs.
What the Mainstream Says
But the mainstream is what the famous professional (="earning money with it") dog trainers dictate. In recent years even reaching entirely new audiences on youtube:
Now make yourself comfy on your couch, get the favorite treat pouch out, and watch youtube shooting star Zak George.
What My German Shepherd Says
And so, as long as you follow the mainstream ...
or as German Shepherd Dog lovers like to say:
as long as you follow the herd instead of the shepherd ...
you will not be able to genuinely TRAIN your dog.
Conditioning or Training?
Because from all in the mainstream you learn how to CONDITION your dog to a subconscious reflex action to your stimulus:
- your command
- or cue
- or treat.
Indeed, look at any of them in the videos/ on TV: they all have their pockets full of treats. For the mainstream dog trainers nothing works without food treats.
"Don't you at MYGERMANSHEPHERD.ORG use treats then?"
No. We have never used a treat in dog training. Nor has my dog. And we never will: We have no need to. Nor have you.
Now you may really leave, and maybe come back when one day you wake up from all that conditioning your dog...
Or, when you are frustrated by the lack of permanent success of it?
Well, if you consciously stuck around until here(?) you surely must have realized: Real dog training you can only learn from MYGERMANSHEPHERD.ORG.
Don't frown though: every variant of Obedience "Training" will yield some success. Even my neighbor's five-year old successfully conditions all neighborhood dogs with mom's home-baked dog treats, as I like to quote.
But of course now you are aware: that is no training. Anyone using foods in dog training is NO trainer, he or she just knows what my neighbor's five-year old knows as well:
"I can get dogs to do whatever I want if only I start out with enough tasty morsels."
And by the way, he doesn't get a dime for that (nor do the neighbors want to pay him for that).
And the dogs generally lose their conditioned reflex action soon after the morsels run out. Worst of all:
The dogs don't behave that well when the owners are not around. Because, all they learned is a reflex action to the stimulus: command, or cue, or treat.
That's why...
In short, the dogs weren't trained: no build-up of intrinsic motivation to behave well the next day when the owner leaves for work.
Think: You would never call your company's personal development coach, or your private decathlon coach, or ANYONE a T R A I N E R if his "skill" is to pull out sweets at the right times for you to munch on, would you?
Of course not!
So, to be TRULY successful with TRAINING a dog to behave well on your average day and even when you are away:
Forget the dog training mindset of "pros" who apply HUMAN concepts to DOGS:
- obedience
- and the inevitably included enforcement:
- one or more of the 3Fs: Force, Fear, Foods
All understood so far? Want to read all again? I guess it would be better, yes.
Maybe come back another day then to replace this mindset of "pros" with...
Your Dog Training Mindset
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