by Scottie Westfall

Created on: February 03, 2009

Science is More Important than Metaphysical Mumbo-Jumbo in Dog Training

I have been training dogs since I was nine years old, and I remember hearing all sorts of methods that were offered for dog training when I was a child. One that I particularly remember is the method of training first pioneered by William Koehler. This training method was something akin to the old way of breaking horses or maybe the old Prussian way of training soldiers. Harsh punishment, strict control, and very little freedom were de rigueur. I distinctly remember one method that Koehler suggested that people use to break their dogs of hole-digging. First, you take the garden hose and fill the hole with water. Then you take your errant dog and do some "enhanced interrogation techniques" on him. After you nearly drown the dog, he won't want to dig holes again.

Of course, such methods are nonsense and border abject cruelty. These methods have been rejected by the discipline of animal behavior, and certified animal behaviorists now use much more gentle methods to correct poor behavior in dogs. Dr. Ian Dunbar, Dr. Nicholas Dodman, and Dr. Patricia McConnell all suggest that these methods are better than the Prussian army techniques. They do use some "correction," but all of these corrections are focused on understanding how the dog's brain works. Dogs cannot remember actions for more than a few seconds, so any correction has to be short and quick, as well as closely connected to the undesired behavior. Doing otherwise is simply follow.

These are the types of methods that Victoria Stilwell uses on her show. They are appropriate for the average person to use, because they encourage the proper setting of boundaries and limitations on dogs within a framework that is both user friendly for dogs and owners. If a dog does the wrong, thing it does receive a correction, but if it does the right thing, it receives a reward. The corrections are often isolation, which is used in raising children in the form of "time-outs."

These are the methods that virtually any certified animal behaviorist will suggest that anyone do to develop a well-behaved dog. However, the old Koehler method has suddenly returned in the form of Cesar Millan. Although Millan is not as severe as Koehler was, the methods are essentially nothing more than punishment. Some of these punishments are physical punishments that may work, but they also may be more or less a good way for the owner to get bitten. And Millan gets bitten all the

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