At
Great Dog! my job is to make you the trainer. The process
of teaching and reinforcing instructions forms the architecture
needed for behavior modification and brings clarity to the
question of social hierarchy. In other words,
"Who's the boss?"
Woody
& Coal in 'Down Stay'
Training
plays a critical role in establishing a healthy relationship
with your dog. Defining the social hierarchy and opening communication
between owners and their dogs. My approach is not "one
size fits all" but does employ both classical and operant
conditioning. It's important that lessons are fashioned to
you and your dog so that common sense objectives can be determined
and achieved. The sessions are fun and build positive bonds
that last with these amazing and intelligent animals.
An
important part of each week involves working with both the
dogs and the great group of volunteers at the Warwick Animal
Shelter in Warwick, RI. The shelter provides me with an opportunity
to gain new insight and develop new ideas. It's also a chance
to help the dogs look their best before the families thinking
about taking one of them home. Ironically, properly trained
dogs rarely end up in animal shelters. According to the ASPCA,
approximately 8-12 million companion animals enter animal
shelters nationwide every year and approximately 5-9 million
of them are ultimately euthanized. Many of the dogs represented
in this figure end up in these shelters for behavioral issues
that would have been avoided with early training or addressed
with behavior modification.
