he has enough leash to comfortably sit, stand, or lie down, but not enough to jump up on a stranger?
with a Gentle Leader or front-attach harness so that when the dog pulls on his leash he ends up facing his handler?
“Is it considered forceful to stand on a dog’s leash so that Is it forceful to fit a dog I can’t tell
you, and neither can anyone else. Each of these training methods is one that I frequently use, and each of them produces different results for different dogs. For some dogs, these methods might be considered forceful. A soft dog, who’s very sensitive to spacial pressure, might be really uncomfortable when her handler body blocks her, for example. For that dog, we may have to adjust the handler’s technique (perhaps having her han- dler lean towards her instead of actually stepping in front of her).But we can’t know until we look at the dog’s response.” Sara recalls watching a friend’s dog that happily and
quickly recalled using low-level shocks from an e-collar. “While the tool isn’t one I use or recommend, in this dog’s
case, I didn’t see any body language indicating the dog was uncomfortable or stressed by the use of force,” said Sara. “Rather, the dog understood what the sensation on his neck meant, knew how to turn it off, and had a great relationship with his handler. I didn’t consider the interaction forceful.” In another instance with another dog and handler, Sara
recalls watching a trainer shape a dog to “bang” the teeter tot- ter using a clicker and treats. “It felt highly uncomfortable. The dog was on a leash but
was not being physically guided in any way. Still, she couldn’t go more than six feet away from the teeter totter, and was clearly uncomfortable with the amount of pressure placed on her by the trainer. The dog’s body was low and she was licking her lips and turning her head away from the trainer. Even though I often use clickers and treats to train dogs, I was very uncom- fortable with the interaction, and didn’t feel like the dog was enjoying the training or building a good relationship with the trainer at all.” Of these two scenarios, the positive+training camp would
have us believe that the first trainer is wrong because of her use of an e-collar, while the second trainer is good because she was using a clicker and treats. “If we were able to ask the two dogs who was happier,
we’d get very different answers,” said Sara. “This doesn’t mean that I’m going to start using an e-collar anytime soon, or that I don’t think clickers and treats are good training tools. The mark of a good trainer has a lot less to do about what tools are in their repertoire as it does with how they modify their techniques based on the animal in front of them.”
Continued on following pageg
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