How Do You Choose A Trainer Or Behaviourist

[corvus]

positive, negative or upside down, if you want to end up helping people with their dogs you need to come across like you have real life experience with animals and can explain it simply not like you're regurgitating a text book. All is shows is that you can read, not that you can train dogs.

As long as I have people PMing me for advice I must make sense to someone. Something that a lot of people don't seem to realise is how often someone with an advanced degree has to explain what they are doing to people that haven't even a basic background in the topic. I lost count of the number of times I had explained my project to people that know nothing about cognition, learning theory, dogs, affective state, or animal behaviour sometime about a month before I started the PhD.

I don't know why everyone else participates in online forums, but for me it's mostly academic. Exchanging ideas with people that share your interests. I know who I'm talking to when I start sounding like a text book. But do you know why people who PM me do? Because they say I sound like I know what I'm talking about and they are too scared to ask the forum in general. There's a balance in everything, obviously, and different things are important to different people. Do I have a need to help people that are more impressed by someone whose signature says they are a professional trainer than someone who sometimes talks theory? No. The pros are welcome to them. But if someone likes to hear the theory and asks me for it, I'm more than happy to try to explain it. It's not so different to choosing trainers or behaviourists, I guess. I find trainers that know the theory avoid talking about it, but if I draw it out of them they get really excited. I will always be comforted by someone I can talk theory with. It makes me think I'm in good hands. They know at least as much as I do! The APDT conference had several trainers that knew the theory intimitately and talked a lot about effective ways to apply it. There's a reason why they are at the top of their field.

[abed]

positive, negative or upside down, if you want to end up helping people with their dogs you need to come across like you have real life experience with animals and can explain it simply not like you're regurgitating a text book. All is shows is that you can read, not that you can train dogs.

As long as I have people PMing me for advice I must make sense to someone. Something that a lot of people don't seem to realise is how often someone with an advanced degree has to explain what they are doing to people that haven't even a basic background in the topic. I lost count of the number of times I had explained my project to people that know nothing about cognition, learning theory, dogs, affective state, or animal behaviour sometime about a month before I started the PhD.

I don't know why everyone else participates in online forums, but for me it's mostly academic. Exchanging ideas with people that share your interests. I know who I'm talking to when I start sounding like a text book. But do you know why people who PM me do? Because they say I sound like I know what I'm talking about and they are too scared to ask the forum in general. There's a balance in everything, obviously, and different things are important to different people. Do I have a need to help people that are more impressed by someone whose signature says they are a professional trainer than someone who sometimes talks theory? No. The pros are welcome to them. But if someone likes to hear the theory and asks me for it, I'm more than happy to try to explain it. It's not so different to choosing trainers or behaviourists, I guess. I find trainers that know the theory avoid talking about it, but if I draw it out of them they get really excited. I will always be comforted by someone I can talk theory with. It makes me think I'm in good hands. They know at least as much as I do! The APDT conference had several trainers that knew the theory intimitately and talked a lot about effective ways to apply it. There's a reason why they are at the top of their field.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that even trainers experienced in behaviour modification would learn something beneficial and increase their understanding and treatment applications more efficiently if they did the course in animal behaviour sciences???. I don't believe that the mainstream trainers who work with behaviour that haven't completed advanced studies have nothing more to learn on the subject.

[aussielover]

Well obviously you are more likely to choose a trainer whose methods and theory you identify with and perhaps like the sound of.

Hopefully, they will be able to provide you with results.

Honestly, if I was dealing with an aggression problem, i would probably go to see K9pro as he is in my area and I have heard several positive outcomes with him on DOL especially in aggression cases.

If i were dealing with severe separation anxiety, I would be inclined to see a vet behaviourist becuase they might prescribe drugs to take the edge off the behaviour.

If my dog had some small problems like general naughtiness- chewing, digging, pulling, barking etc, there are plenty of "trainers" in my area who would probably be capable of helping me with these minor problems. However, in reality, i know what to for these minor problems, it is just doing it that is the problem...

I think deep down in a lot of cases, this is true. people know what has to be done, they just can't be bothered or just can't (for whatever reason) do it!

Just my opinions on how I would choose a trainer or behaviourist.

[corvus]

Wouldn't it be fair to say that even trainers experienced in behaviour modification would learn something beneficial and increase their understanding and treatment applications more efficiently if they did the course in animal behaviour sciences???. I don't believe that the mainstream trainers who work with behaviour that haven't completed advanced studies have nothing more to learn on the subject.

Ask Aidan.

If I ever got to the point where I thought I knew it all in animal behaviour I would probably commit suicide. The whole reason why I love it so much is that it's never as simple as just being logical. There are always surprises and new patterns to discover and new behaviours to try to puzzle out. It is very rich and rewarding, I think. You learn a lot of theory, and then an animal does something thoroughly incomprehensible and it just fills me with wonder. Isn't it amazing that you can learn and learn and learn and still be thrown on a regular basis by animals just doing what they do? I know for myself at least, I have come so far in the 9 years since I started my zoology degree, and still have so far to go. It gets a tiny bit harder to find new information, but it's more knowing where to start than that there's a limited amount available. I did think hard about going back to uni for more formal studies, and wondered if it was worth the hassle, so I can understand not wanting to. But anyone who says they wouldn't learn anything from it are deluding themselves, I think. I don't think anyone is saying that, though. I think you make of your studies what you want. It is possible to do a degree and get nothing much out of it.