Thankfully, dog training today is light years away from the dark days of making a stark choice between reward and punishment.
This means we can use tailormade training programmes to teach new skills and to change behaviour. However, we are now faced with what can seem like a bewildering choice:
Which training method should we use?
What are the pros and cons?
What are the consequences?
What effect is it having on the dog?
In Training For Dog Trainers, Melissa Fallon and Vickie Davenport, both highly experienced trainers, have gone back to basics and imposed a structure on all the methodologies:
- The starting point is to make a thorough assessment of each dog, highlighting individual preferences in terms of motivation and reinforcement, and finding out what might be perceived as aversive.
- Learning theory then comes under the microscope so that we understand how dogs learn, and how learning influences behaviour.
- This leads to an examination of the available training techniques, and how to use them, including desensitisation, discrimination, generalisation, and the different levels of guidance that can be used to establish new behaviours.
- Then it’s decision time! Training goals are defined and broken down into achievable steps, and success is measured so that adjustments can be made to ensure the best possible outcomes.
- Finally, there are a series of sample training plans that focus on teaching a specific behaviour, explaining the learning theory that is involved and the techniques that can be employed.
In Training For Dog Trainers, a variety of diagrams and tables are used to make complex material more accessible, allowing readers to make informed choices and, most important of all, to train every dog as an individual. It is essential reading for all students and professionals involved in dog training and behaviour as well as providing guardians with the resources to better understand their dogs.
Vickie Davenport gained her BSc in animal behaviour in 2004 before going on to work as Dog Welfare Manager at Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. She has spent the last ten years teaching animal behaviour and training, and currently works in higher education alongside Melissa. Vickie, whose interests centre around both dog training and the human-animal relationship, completed her master’s degree in Anthrozoology in 2018.
Melissa Fallon gained her MSc in clinical animal behaviour at the University of Lincoln and is currently undertaking her PhD, focusing on impulsivity in dogs, at the University of Bristol. Melissa has been teaching dog behaviour and training for over ten years and currently works in higher education. Her main interests centre around dog impulsivity and dog bite prevention, but she has also trained cats for TV.
