Dog Manners Training in Seattle

Dog Manners, where all the dogs are at least eight months old, during the six weeks of class we moved from a group of barking and lunging dogs to a room full of dogs who know that focus pays off and who (for the most part) can relax, think and learn. ´Stay´ and ´Leave It´ were two of the more challenging commands that we tackled in class, and all of the dogs showed great progress.

Week six included a friendly competition, a chance for everyone to show off all they´d mastered. Not every dog was fluent with every command, but every person in the room was clearly proud of their dog´s achievements, and no one seemed to think that the end of the class meant the end of the training process.

In Super Manners, all of the dogs and their handlers came to class with great working relationships - which is why the course is able to focus on polishing and combining behaviors. Just a few of the behaviors taught in Super Manners included moving to voice-only cues, shaping behaviors such as, ´go to your bed´ with the clicker (as opposed to luring or capturing) and strengthening recalls. It´s been an inspiring class for me, both in terms of the dog´s achievements and in observing the level of commitment that these handlers have made to their dogs.

Proof of that came last week when I was able to successfully walk Mishka and Max (together adding up to more than 170 lbs of adolescent dog manners), on a dual leash, past three romping squirrels, a group of pigeons squabbling over a tasty bit of road kill, an off-leash dog and two excited Boxers shut in the back of a truck. If you had told me I could pull off a stunt like that last summer, I´d have questioned your sanity.

It´s clear that I am well on my way to being what Brothers, who also runs her own training business, Sidekick Dog Training, calls a "dog-training nerd." My husband thinks I´m obsessed.

I still have a lot to learn about dog training. My timing isn´t great and the manners of my dogs and I have many goals still to achieve, for instance, putting behaviors on purely verbal cues, without any type of hand signal. But the great thing is that working on this isn´t a chore – it´s fun. And you can most certainly train your dog using the techniques taught by the instructors at the Seattle Humane Society without becoming any kind of a nerd.

All the training done at the Seattle Humane Society is based in Dog Manner animal learning theory, which, while reaching all the way back to Pavlov and his dogs, is mostly based in the work of pioneering behaviorist B.F. Skinner. The method evolved from training marine mammals, which makes perfect sense, if you think about it. You can´t really put a choke collar on a killer whale.

DOg Manner type of training, commonly known as positive training, basically involves rewarding the dogs for behaviors you want to encourage and removing the reward for behaviors you want to discourage. Admittedly that´s a huge over-simplification, but it is enough to get you started. If you want to know more, a few great websites to visit include: clickersolutions.com, Karen Pryor´s Clicker Training, and the San Francisco SPCA´s Dog Training and Behavior Library. And don´t miss the Seattle Humane Society´s Dog Behavior Basics.

I´m not claiming that the Seattle Humane Society´s training curriculum is a magic pill, but it is a recipe for building a great relationship with your dog(s). If you put in the time, and pay attention, you will see great results. Believe me, if I can do it, anyone can.

When you see the light go off and know that you are really communicating with an animal, it´s an amazing feeling. And it is so much fun! Once your dog learns how to learn, the possibilities are pretty much endless. Most important, the more training your dog manner has, the more open his or her world is and the more of your life your dog can share. And for most of us, that´s really the ultimate goal.

I´m proud to report that Max and I passed the Canine Good Citizen test last month at the Seattle Humane Society. Mishka and I will be enrolling in CGC class next. I hope I´ll be seeing you and your canine buddies in one of the Seattle Humane Society´s many training classes for dog manners or workshops soon.