MiM Seminar in VA is happening.

  I am pleased to let you know that the Manners in Minutes seminars in Virginia will be September 29th and September 30th.  The seminars will be at Hollybriar Farm in Lanexa Virginia, near Willamsburg.  Our host will be Pat Rock who breeds Lakeland Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers.

    Saturday the 29th I will be training a rescue dog, with serious issues, in the Manners in Minutes system.  This will allow you to see how this awesome method works.  I will take the dog through all the basic commands.  The six hour seminar includes lunch and plenty of time to answer your questions.

    You will also get a copy of my workbook, which will allow you to use the demonstrated methods to train your dog in Manners in Minutes.

    Sunday will be a six hour workshop where I will be working with a number of dogs and going over:

         Imprinting puppies to prepare them for their new homes.
         Dealing with Fear Aggression
         Dealing with shyness and skittish behavior
         Bolting
         Seperation Anxiety
         Manners in Minutes in Conformation and other events.

   This session also includes lunch and plenty of time to answer questions.

   For more information contact
Pat Rock
804 843 2787 or
757 871 0292

   Or you can get a copy of the flier by e mailing me a ppmim@qwestoffice.net

Hope to see you there.

Doug

 

Willaimsburg VA MIM seminar

For the last couple of years our friend, Pat Rock of Hollybriar Kennels in Lanexa Va has wanted me to come out and do a dog training seminar on the Manners in Minutes system.  This year we are going to be able to do it.

     I will be at Hollybriar (near Williamsburg VA) on September 29^th and September 30^th 2012.  Both mornings I will be training a new dog in the Manners in Minutes system to show people how easy and quickly it works.  The afternoon seminar on the 29^th will be on how to use Manners in Minutes to work with aggressive and submissive dogs.  The afternoon seminar on the 30^th will be raising puppies in Manners in Minutes and how to prepare show dogs for the ring using the system.

    As I have written in this blog before, at this time there are only two training centers using this system, Pat Muller’s Quansa Kennels in South Beloit, IL and here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes in Colorado Springs.  Since so many people find this blog looking for Manners in Minutes training, this will give some of you a chance to find out about this system if you can’t come to Illinois or Colorado.

   Pat Muller does have both a book and a DVD on how to train in this method.  So you can train without working with either of us.  But sometimes it helps to not only see it in person, but to be able to ask questions.  This will be that opportunity. 

   If you have stumbled onto this blog looking for help, and you live near Williamsburg, then this may be what you need. 

    In addition to a supply of the q-bone and q-calmer training devices I will have a brand new workbook that will explain in great detail how to train your dog yourself if you are able to attend this seminar.

   As soon as a few more details are worked out I will post here, and on the Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes Facebook page, how to sign up for this class.

   I hope you can come.  And since Pat is a Lakeland breeder you will get to see the breed I so often write about.

Doug

A dog nose how to go on a walk

     A while back I did a home visit with a client.  I do not do a lot of those since most problems can be diagnosed and dealt with in either my private lessons or in our neighborhood pack group sessions.  But this dog was bought from a puppy broker/trainer who seems to deliberately make his puppies and students dog aggressive.  That is because he is also a trainer who specializes in dog aggression.  And your dog always needs lots of extra lessons.

     Since the behavior wasn’t improving as quickly as I wanted I decided to see the dog on his turf.

     The walk was a success and I spotted what was delaying improvement, but I also saw something I realized a lot of people do.  They don’t let the dog get as much out of a walk as they do.

     A lot of us take our dogs for a brisk walk.  We are getting exercise as well as exercising the dog.  So we tend to keep the dog on a short leash next to us.   We will however, stop and chat with a neighbor or maybe pause to look at something interesting.   We even stop to smell the roses.

     Yet we don’t let our dog do the same.

     A dog gathers a lot of information through its sense of smell.  They in many ways use their nose to gather information the way we use our eyes.  So for a dog a walk is much more about what you can smell than what you can see.

     As we walked the dog I had the owners give him six foot of lead rather than one pull him in next to them.  And he was able to keep up.  He would bound ahead, almost to the end of the line, to check out an interesting smell.  He would finish his information gathering, and then bound ahead to the next great smell. 

     He never tugged ahead, nor forced them to slow down when they went past him to the end of the line.  Manners in Minutes training teaches your dog never to have a tight line. 

     As the walk progressed he got to be a dog doing dog things.  And as a result he was much more relaxed.  And since he was relaxed and having a good time, he did not spend the whole walk worrying about other dogs.  He even went up to a fence where there are other dogs.  With a short line, this sends him into a barking frenzy.  But with a relaxed line he said hello and kept going.

      So the next time you go for a brisk walk with your dog, give him or her a little line.  Let them get as much out of the walk as you do.  Your dog nose what to do.

Doug

A Dog's Six Words

When I first started training dogs in the Manners in Minutes system seven years ago, someone asked me “If a dog could talk what would he say first?” I did not have an answer then. I think I do now.

     If we could give a dog just six words, I think it would come up with two phrases.

     The first would be “It’s not fair.” A dog wants a good pack leader. And a good pack leader is firm, fair and consistent.   I believe a dog has a strong sense of what is fair and what is not.

      But I have also come to the conclusion that dogs are born con artists. Even the best behaved dog is always looking for an opportunity to turn any situation to their advantage. Personally I think the only reason my two Lakelands, and for that matter your dog, haven’t taken a car to go joyriding is that they don’t have thumbs to steer with.

     So if a dog could say “it’s not fair, it would use the phrase the way a four year old human does. Sometimes it would mean you aren’t being fair. But other times it would just mean “give me my way.”

     The next phrase would be “But you said.” Dogs, like children, are born lawyers. While their vocabulary may be limited they know what each word and each command means. And they take them very literally.

     I don’t teach the command “stay” but rather the command “wait.” Stay is usually used to keep the dog sitting in one place while you walk away. I want my dog to stop whenever and wherever I command at the moment I give the command. Wait is an X on the ground where the dog is not to move from until I release it. But unless I add something else it is up to the dog whether they stand, sit, or lay down while holding their wait.

     Sometimes someone else will tell their dog “sit” in here. The dog will sit then get back up. They will then tell the dog “I said sit.” And then I will tell the owner you said sit and the dog sat. You didn’t tell him to wait.

     And as I do the dog looks at them and thinks “But you said.”

Doug

Dog aggression, throw the first punch.

There are only two reasons a dog becomes aggressive. They are play and fear.

Play aggression is the rarer form. It usually occurs when a young puppy is encouraged to play too rough with people. Because of a puppy’s instinct to please, the puppy begins to think that being rough pleases people.

This is desire to please by being rough is how police and military bite dogs are trained. The dog is taken out and sent after someone wearing either a bite sleeve or suit. When the dog bites and holds on it is praised. Then when it lets go it is rewarded with a toy (usually a Kong) to play with. The dog makes the association between the two. Knowing that the Kong is definitely a toy, the dog sees biting a human as part of the game. The difference between this and a pet dog is that these dogs have “off” switches.

Sometimes people accidently train a puppy to be aggressive by playing more roughly than they should. The dog grows up thinking that all humans want to be played with as roughly as possible. And often a dog that has been taught to play rough with humans also thinks it should play that way with dogs. These dogs do not have “off” switches. And playing rough with humans can also result in being fear aggressive with other dogs.

The most common form of aggression though is from fear. For whatever reason the dog has become deeply fearful. And when something or someone triggers that fear the dog has three choices, negotiation, fight or flight.

The first and best choice is negotiation. Dogs do negotiate, they do it through body language. When a properly adjusted dog is confronted by something that it is not sure is prey or predator, it uses body language to say “I don’t have to fight and I am not a threat to you.” Provided that the dog knows what to “say” and the object or being answers or ignores the dog, the dog will attempt to avoid confrontation. Many dogs that do not grow up in a pack, or who do not have any pack based training, may never learn to negotiate.

Flight should be the second choice. If there is no good reason to fight, and the dog has a way to move away from the danger, it should leave rather than fight. But if the dog cannot retreat, because it is backed up against an object or on a line, the only choice left is fight.

Some dogs chose to fight even when there is the choice of flight. This may be because they do not know they have an escape option because at some point they chose flight and it did not work.

Dogs also believe if you are going to get into a fight, you throw the first punch. This is why even a small dog will launch itself at a large opponent. A fear aggressive dog will always try to throw that first punch even if it does not need to.

Once a dog has become fear-aggressive it is going to take work, a lot of work, to undo this reaction. The dog does not see itself as being wrong, it truly believes it is fighting to save its own life. The dog’s judgement has become so warped, and its fear so deeply ingrained, that it sees no other option.

But it can be fixed.

First the owner must establish trust in the dog. Many dogs love you but they have not learned to trust you. Without the dog trusting your judgment, the dog will never have an “off” switch.

So any training to deal with aggression has to meet these conditions.

1. The dog must trust the owner so that when the owner sees the dog is fearful, and is about to go to aggression, the owner can tell the dog that it does not have to become aggressive.
And the dog must learn to do what the owner is telling it to do.

2. The owner has to know how to recognize the aggression before the fight starts.

3. The owner must have an “off” switch that works both before and after a fight starts.

4. The dog must have training in group situations where it is tempted to become aggressive but is never allowed to succeed.

5. The training must trigger the ability to negotiate before turning to fight or flight.

6. The dog must learn not to fight even when the other dog is challenging it.

7. You must have the ability to protect your dog if the other dog becomes aggressive even though your dog has done everything right.

8. You have to learn to avoid situations where your dog will be attacked.

What I cannot tell you is how long this will take. It depends on how long the dog has been aggressive, how deeply the fear has entrenched itself, and how much time you can devote to working on it. I have had many dogs respond within a few weeks of training but others have taken much longer.

Genetics can also play a part. In any litter one puppy will be the most confident and another is the most fearful. Plus as any good book will tell you all puppies go through a period where they have a lot of fear reactions. Most will go through this with little harm. But a very few will never gets past this stage without help from a good trainer.

I am currently working with the most fear aggressive dog I have ever seen. And I have been working with this dog for almost a year. This is a rare European breed, the only one I have worked with so far. It hasn't been easy but I never give up on a dog.

When we started the dog was afraid of everyone, dog or human, other than its owners. I believe it was born this way. In fact had the breeder been a good breeder they never would have placed the dog since I am sure this behavior was abundantly clear even when it was a puppy.

This dog did not come in until it was almost five. And unfortunately the only time the owner tried to deal with it they went to someone who used a shock collar. That just made things worse.

But with a lot of dedicated work from the owners we are getting there. The dog comes to pack almost every week. The only problem left is that the dog still has trouble with its body language. He body still says fight when she means play.

But where they could never have anyone in their house before the dog now lets other humans be around her. And she doesn’t challenge every dog she sees.

Finishing this dog is actually up to her new pack mate. A couple of weeks ago they added a puppy to their house. Like many dogs this once super fear aggressive dog learned to get along with puppies before she learned how to get along with adult dogs. And instinct has kicked in, all dogs take part in raising puppies in the pack.

The new dog will actually grow to be a much larger dog. They are best friends. This dog will become the dog she was meant to be.

A word of warning, by itself a puppy does not cure aggression in adult dogs. Had they brought the puppy in a year ago, this dog would have killed it. But through their hard work they now will have two great dogs.

If you are here to find a trainer, and you can’t come to me or Pat, then read the other blogs here on this site for selecting a dog trainer.

Consider the following things.
1 Can the trainer specifically tell you how the training will deal with aggression? A simple “I can fix this” is never enough.
2 Will the trainer let you see them work with aggressive dogs?
3 Take in the list above. If the trainer cannot tell you how they are going to do those things, don’t train with them.
4 What will the trainer do, and what will it cost, if the dog needs more training. Remember some trainers will actually encourage the aggression so you keep coming back until you run out of money.


Doug

The Brittany and the Parakeet.

I called my sister the other night to wish her a belated birthday. We talked, as we occasionally do, about growing up. I asked if she read the blog “Butchie’s Paper Route. She then reminded me some other family dog stories.

When I was about 4 and my sister was about 2 our Dad decided it was time to get a family dog again. He found a Brittany Spaniel. Her name was Dozie (pronounced doozie) from combining our names, Doug and Suzie. I don’t think Dad saw this as prophetic. But it was.

I personally do not believe any dog is dumb. I tell people if you know someone with a dumb dog, what you really know is someone with a smart dog who’s figured out acting dumb pays well in their home. I don’t think Dozie was dumb but she was flighty and absent minded.

We lived in Wichita at the time. The people next door owned a Boston Terrier. The dogs were good friends and their favorite activity was chase. Back then no one had fences so the dogs would chase each other around the Boston’s house. Dozie was usually the chaser, meaning that the Boston was probably the dominant dog.

The Boston was much smaller than a Dozie. About the third time around the house he would run under the gas meter. This was the old fashion kind with the big body that came out of the ground between two pipes. He could make it under the body. Dozie would follow him. But she was too big to make it so would run head first into the meter, knocking her woozy.

A couple of years later we moved to Arlington Texas. We added a parakeet to the household. His name was Sweetie Pie.

Sweetie Pie soon learned to exactly mimic my father’s whistle, which Dad used to recall Dozie.

Periodically you would hear that whistle. And Dozie would dutifully run to the dining room where he was kept. She then would frantically look for Dad, who was often at work. Sweetie Pie then would add insult to injury by loudly declaring “Dozie is a dirty bird.” She would look at the bird in disgust and then go back to whatever she had been doing.

Sadly I don’t have a picture of a Brittany to put with this blog. I kind of wish I did. I don’t think there is a prettier dog than an orange and white Brittany.

Doug

Pat Muller and Manners in Minutes

I check the stats on this blog on a regular basis along with the stats on my website, www.ppmim.net. Among other things I can see what web pages or articles get looked at and how many people looked at them. I also get the search phrases that found each site.

One of the more common search phrases is Manners in Minutes or Pat Muller Manners in Minutes. I think some people are looking for her rather than me.

So if you came to this site looking for either Pat or her wonderful training system, let me tell you about her.

I met Pat about seven years ago when she gave a seminar in Denver. We had taken Chicklet, our female Lakeland Terrier, to that seminar when a fairly good and very likeable trainer in town here had worked with Chicklet. And unfortunately his training had not helped, it had just made things worse. When I asked my breeder what to do, she sent me to Pat.

I attended a lot of seminars when I was in law enforcement. Most were pretty good, some were excruciatingly bad (usually the subject was okay but the instructor was lousy) and a very few that had an immediate and important impact. When Pat stood up and explained how her system and tools worked, a light bulb went on over my head. This was a system that both the dog and the owner could understand. And this was a system that mimicked how dogs learn when raised in a working pack. And Pat is one of those speakers who leave an indelible impression on you.

A few months later we attended a Lakeland event at Pat’s Quansa Kennels in South Beloit IL. There is a reason I call this blog the Accidental Dog Trainer. Somehow from those two events, without intending for it to happen, I ended up opening a Manners in Minutes training center here in Colorado Springs when I retired.

It did not take me very long, due to the Manners in Minutes system, to start to build a solid reputation as a dog trainer here. And it would be easy for me to get a swollen head. Cops aren’t known for having modest egos. But for the first couple of years I got to go out and train with Pat for a few days each year. And that has kept me humble. It still does.

When each dog finishes in here, it goes out a well trained and well mannered dog. A big part is my experience in using the system, an even bigger part is the system itself. But the biggest reason for that dog and owner’s success is the talent and brilliance of Pat Muller.

So if you got here today because you are looking at training in the Manners in Minutes system, then yes, you should use it to train your dog.

There are a couple of ways to train in this system. Pat does mail order both a book and a DVD on how to train the dog yourself, along with the necessary training equipment. And she has a Yahoo group that supports her system. A few of you may know someone who has trained in the system who can help you. I think it really helps to have someone with experience in the system to work with you, but I know that is not always possible.

Through Pat I know a number of people who are not doing this professionally, but help out with rescue and other organizations.

If however you want to travel where you can work in a training center in this method, at the moment you only have two choices, Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes here in Colorado Springs with me and Quansa Kennels in South Beloit IL with Pat.

As much as I would like you to come here for training, and I will add that I think it’s prettier with a nicer climate, if you can't come here, go to Quansa.

Listen to Pat, do what she teaches you. You will end up with a wonderful, well mannered and obedient dog.

I did.

Doug

PS The picture is Pat Muller training me at Quansa a couple of years ago. The dogs were fine, I needed some extra work.

Dog Training, money back guarantee

A few nights ago I had to stop for a couple of cans of dog food. I feed a good kibble but always add a small amount of canned dog food as kibble does not have enough fat for a dog’s diet.

Usually I buy my supplies from an independent (non chain) pet store here in Colorado Springs. This guy is awesome, knowing how to match dogs to food by breed. The best food for one breed may not be the best for another, and this guy is a pro. I send all my clients to him and have had a lot of problems cleared up just by getting a dog on the right food.

But he is all the way across town and was closed by the time I finished here in the center. There is one of the large pet supply chains that is not too far out of my way so I go there when I have to.

I don’t like going there. That is because of one of their “trainers” knows me on sight. This person was at a dog show I had a booth at a couple of years ago. Although this person did not talk to me they did stand there while I explained Manners in Minutes to someone else. I remembered this person because I have a great memory for faces, a survival skill left over from my police days.

Whenever I go into this store this trainer makes a point of running me down to let me know how great the store’s training method and trainers are. I am not that impressed. First it is hard to be in awe of someone who has “trainer” on their smock but every time I see one of them they are either stocking shelves or running a cash register. Secondly my office is bigger that their training area. And third their method is food based training which I have explained my views on elsewhere on this blog.

I did not see this trainer (I also still have my surveillance skills) so I went in. As I walked in I glanced at their board for training. I saw, handwritten, “guaranteed money back dog training.”

My first reaction was “Huh.” Why would they do that? How can you guarantee training? Either you can train a dog or you can’t. If you can’t then you should not take the dog and its owner as a client.

You aren’t selling a washing machine. If you sell someone an appliance and you give them their money back you get the appliance back. But if you sell someone a skill, you can’t take that back.

Then I thought is their training so poor that they need to refund money to keep people from being angry at them? And then I knew the answer, it is marketing.

Dog training is approached differently if training is not your main product. If I owned a chain of stores that sold a variety of products then I would know that training is not going to make or break my business. Due to the high cost of prime retail space, every square foot has to produce income. Since training will never produce the income per square foot the sales of supplies, toys, equipment, and all the other things I sell I can’t afford to use a lot of space. And too keep the price of training down I am not going to pay my trainers a lot.

So since training is not going to be a large source of profit, why bother? And the answer is the marketing plan behind chain store training. The reason is repeat business.

Over a lifetime you are going to spend a lot of money on food, treats and toys. You are also going to need an occasional replacement for a bed, or collar, or line, or something else. By getting you to train in the chain store, they build a relationship and you get in the habit of coming regularly to my store. Then they make their profit from those sales, not training.

So does this affect the quality of the training? I think so.

First since I want to get you to come into my store as often as possible, and I have to keep my costs down, I have to do group training.

Group training has both advantages and disadvantages. For someone training with a dog for the first time I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. In any group there is one dog that needs more work than any other dog. That dog will take up a disproportionate amount of the hour session. Also there is usually one human who also takes (often demands) more time than anyone else. And usually they are together. So if you are one of six people with a dog, odds are you won’t get an even share of the instructor’s time and effort.

Due to the cost of space, training spaces in these classes tend to be small. Not every dog is going to get along with every other dog, at least at the beginning. The smaller the training area, the greater the danger that someone can get bit. So you keep your dog on a short tight line. A short tight line tells the dog you are worried. The dog figures that if you are worried, it should be worried too. So you and the dog spend too much time worrying and not enough training. Also small training areas limit the amount of movement you can do with the dog and increases the danger when you are concentrating on the command that another dog will successfully go after your dog or you.

I always wonder about the quality of the trainers. This is not a hard business to get into. Many people with good training skills start by having group sessions at the park. There are a number of issues with this choice, but I think it is better than working in too small a space. If you can’t afford to open a training center, which are usually located where rents are lower, you can start there and then move up. But either way you are going to do better financially than working in the chains.

So who is left in the labor pool since each store has a trainer? Often it is someone who doesn’t mind stocking shelves and running a cash register in order to train. Or is it someone who doesn’t mind training in order to have a job or to make a little more than someone who is just a clerk? While I do not doubt there are some very good trainers in a few of these stores, I do doubt that all of them are equally good.

As for the training itself, the training method must not offend anyone in any way. So this training has to be food motivation. I stay away from food training for one simple reason, it is hard for someone training a dog for the first time to tell the difference between motivation and bribery. Most clients err on the side of over using food. And they end up with a fat dog that won’t do anything if you don’t have a cookie in your hand.

And what could happen if I go to one of these places, have the training not work, get my money back, and go somewhere else? It could be nothing bad, or it could make things worse.

To me there are two possible outcomes. If you have an easy dog, one that has not developed strong habits and/or major alpha drive, then this may be all the training you need. An easy dog does not need that strong a trainer, provided you are working the dog on your own.

If the training works then well, most of them teach several different classes so you can continue on to get to whatever level you need. This often leads you to spend a lot more, and you are going to go to more than one six to eight week course. So you may spend 18 weeks or more to train the dog. And if you miss a class, then your dog does not learn everything or is automatically behind.

If you have a dog that already has the more serious problems this kind of training does not work well for you, then even if you get your money back, you have spent your time for little or no results. However you have also convinced the dog that it does not have to respond to training making your task all the more difficult if you go to someone else. You can get your money back, but not your time, and you may now have an even more difficult dog.

My advice, don’t automatically discount this training. But just like any other trainer, before you sign up, go watch that trainer train. That way you are making an informed decision.

Does Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes have a money back guarantee? No. First of all you are not going to start training here until you have come in for a free consultation. And I strongly discourage from signing up until you have had some time to think things over. If you don’t understand what I do and how I do it, or if you are not comfortable with me or the system, this is not going to work well. On the other hand if it is for you, then success is just a matter of us both doing our part.

The other week I had someone come in for an evaluation. At the end she asked if I had a money back guarantee. I told her no. She asked why. I told her I never had a dog fail in here, but I had had people fail.

She never called back. Sadly I don’t think chain store training will work with her dog. It had too many problems. But at least she could get her money back.

Doug

Puppy Training Part III, the worst two weeks to own a dog

I think the hardest two weeks to own a dog are weeks 14 and 15.
Because of the way a dog’s mind develops weeks 8 (usually the youngest age a breeder will sell a dog) through week 14 are pretty easy. Again during that time you aren’t really training, you are conditioning.

Training differs from conditioning in that in training we give the dog a command and if it performs, we reward the behavior. If it does not we correct. In conditioning there are no corrections, just distraction.

We take advantage of the fact that during that period, the puppy’s whole world revolves around its owner(s). When we tell the puppy to sit we raise our closed hand. Since a dog has to sit down to look up, it sits and we praise. When the dog comes running to us we praise it effusively while giving a recall command. Since puppies are all about pleasing us, the praise reinforces the reaction to our words.

If we walk by and the puppy stands up we tell it “good stand” and if remains laying there we tell it “good down.” If it bites our hand we shriek or use a rattle can while saying “no bite.” When it releases we praise.

Because a puppy is all about pleasing us during these weeks, it seems like the puppy is already training. And if it were not for what happens in weeks 14 and 15, it would be.

Then the puppy hits week 14. This stage in a dog’s development can be described as the worst parts of the terrible twos and puberty all wrapped up in one. The world is not about you, it is about the puppy. The dog has gone from pleasing you to pleasing itself. It truly believes it is now smarter than you and you are there to do what they want, not the other way around.

I see this all the time in Neighborhood Pack Sessions (group). Puppy came in for puppy class and now comes to Neighborhood Pack every week. It sees how the adult dogs listen to their owners and tries as hard to work for its owner as the big dogs do for their people. Exposure to adult dogs in a pack situation is one of the best things you can do with a puppy.

And Mom and Dad are just beaming. By week 13 I can see it in their eyes. Their little darling is going to be the best dog ever. Why they won’t even have to spend the time or money on adult class.

The next week the phone rings here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes. It is puppy’s owners. I get told that the dog will be 16 weeks and one day (the point where it can train as an adult) on the 22nd. They would like the 7:00 AM appointment.

I know what they are going through. And I can usually give them the 7:00 AM appointment.

Oh and the picture is Vino, the legendary service dog Rottweiler, as a puppy in 2009.

Doug

Why dog training fails, part III

Every now and then I get a minute to look around the web at web sites for dog trainers. I pick a city and see who is out there and what they have to say. You never know when you might find something to help you improve.

Today looking a city in the Midwest, I came across a website. On every page the trainer emphasized and re-emphasized their years of training. And yet they did not seem to have stayed anywhere very long.

Then I remembered something a great trainer told me once.

This person was not a dog trainer. He was my field training officer when I joined the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in 1984. And he was a great trainer.

This was old school police training. Back then you did not go to a six month academy and then 14 weeks of Field Training. They swore in and took you to the range where they taught you to shoot, in an afternoon. You then spent a week working in each section of the office. That was followed by just five weeks of field training and you were out on your own. If you survived, and did not get the sued, then you went to the academy before the end of the first year.

When I showed up that night for my first shift most of the deputies introduced themselves. One made a great show of telling me, in front of everyone, that he was a ten year veteran.

Later that night Skeeter brought up that conversation. Then he told me:

“Look there are two kinds of ten year veterans. One kind has one year of experience ten times. The other has ten years of experience.”

This is why I highly recommend you meet with any dog trainer before you decide who is going to train your dog. You want a trainer who grows and improves with every dog, not someone who does the same thing over and over again.

Doug