Okay, another question for you and then I am going in with my comments later this week!
I want to know:
- What is your favorite animal training tool? Please explain why.
- What is your least favorite animal training tool? Please explain.
Please note all comments are moderated and will be posted once reviewed.
Also take note that on this series of questions I am going to wait a bit until a variety of comments are in–this means that I am going to delay approval in the moderation queue so your answer might not appear right away.
Why? Because there are a variety of opinions and I don’t want to influence or to deter anyone from chiming in.
Okay, ready? Simply post your comment below.
Favorite dog training tool is the training plan. It is the roadmap of a series of simple steps that will get their dog and the owner to their goal. This does not mean it’s forged in stone, it can be changed and tweaked if needed, but the bones remain the same. Stable and steady bones.
Least favorite tool would be anything that is cheaply made for the cost price point alone. Simply because it may fail, it may hurt the dog, and it won’t do what the better designed and thought out tools will do easily. Therefore it looses much of it’s use as a tool.
Nice answer Robin–a totally vital strategy and one that most people ignore. I wrote two posts about this previously, Animal Training Plans and How to Design an Animal Training Plan. Check them out.
I like them:) I think the training plan for trainer and owner may be the same…but there is a learning curve that an owner needs to climb. A trainer has a learning curve too, but after training X amount of dogs there are less surprises in temperaments. So the learning curve is applied to a dog that may have the bad manners not to fall into line like the last 100 dogs did, and you have to extend yourself beyond the known box LOLOL. The owner only needs to deal with knowing their dog, and learning from their dog…that is until the next is adopted.
The owner also does not have the benefit of being able to trust in the work done. It’s not just the training but the ability to act calm, proactive, and not reactive. That is probably one of the biggest hurdles that an owner needs to get over:)