What's Important To You?

[Lablover]

Some of the threads in General have prompted some questions in my mind - particularly the thread on destructive puppies - but I thought the questions might be better posed here.

What's important to you when you go to train a dog? I'm not talking about titles, but about what you want to achieve in the broadest behavioural sense when you start out with a new dog. And how you want to achieve it. I know it's a big question. I guess I'm asking "what is your training philosophy?"

When you give advice, how do you factor in what might be important to the person asking for advice if it differs from what would be important to you?

Destructive puppy thread? Mind you having not it, my first thought is, puppies are destructive, teething etc.

I could waffle but may I add the conclusion of my favourite little theory book. Excelerated learning by Pamela Reid.

"By now you have a reasonable understanding of how dogs learn and you should be in the position to think about and analyze your training procedures and practices. Dogs learn about stimuli, they learn about associations, and they learn about contingencies. They can learn with positive consequences, they can learn with negative consequences, and they can learn with a combination of positive and negative consequences. How a dog learns BEST depends upon you and your personality, the dog and his personality and what response you are attempting to teach"

The best trainers I have seen in my travels are those who never loose their tempers. They have a plan, experience and results.

[Jigsaw]

My aim is to get the dog to understand what I want it to do in the most clear, simple (hopefully fun) and quick manner I can for that dog! If the dog doesn't learn it's something I'm doing wrong I would think. I have one occasion when things of a personal nature happening in my life crossed over into my training and I raised voice and my dog simply shut down. A valuable lesson for me.

[BigBen]

Important for me: General manners...: Don't beg (I really hate that), sit, lay down, when told... Wait, when told.. and... DON'T BUG ME WHILE I'M SLEEPING... (I work shiftwork, and he doesn't... )

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Destructive puppy thread? Mind you having not it, my first thought is, puppies are destructive, teething etc.

..snip..

The best trainers I have seen in my travels are those who never loose their tempers. They have a plan, experience and results.

The destruction thread is here. The main thing I noticed was that some people were taking a "my dog would never dare!" view of it, and other people were taking a "eh, puppies chew" view of it. There were also some different views re management vs training.

I love the "never losing your temper" thing, it's something I aspire to - mostly succeed but still don't have a completely calm approach all the time.