We are proud to share the following photos and video from Jennifer Thomas' Saturday Basic Obedience classes that started May 23rd.
On Week 3, students were given the following missions for extra credit (and extra tickets!):
Showing posts with label Basic Class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basic Class. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Monday, August 8, 2011
WOOFS! Training Class Basics
By Laura Sharkey
WOOFS! number one priority in our basic class is something we call Voluntary Attention (VA). Simply put, voluntary attention is the ability of the dog to pay attention to it's handler in a distracting environment without the owner using the leash or constantly cueing to the dog to look at them. The idea is that we make it so reinforcing for the dog to pay attention to the owner that they do so voluntarily and with duration.
This underpins our training philosophy which is that the dog does not HAVE to do anything you ask. A well trained dog WANTS to do what you ask because there is a history of reinforcement behind the behavior. I don't ever want to force a dog to listen or make them feel like they don't have an option. Every dog I train has the option to do what I ask or not. It is my job as the trainer to get them to WANT to do it. We start with voluntary attention because if the dog doesn't even want to pay attention to it's handler how on earth are you ever going to get it to do anything else? You can't train a dog that won't work with you.
WOOFS! number one priority in our basic class is something we call Voluntary Attention (VA). Simply put, voluntary attention is the ability of the dog to pay attention to it's handler in a distracting environment without the owner using the leash or constantly cueing to the dog to look at them. The idea is that we make it so reinforcing for the dog to pay attention to the owner that they do so voluntarily and with duration.
This underpins our training philosophy which is that the dog does not HAVE to do anything you ask. A well trained dog WANTS to do what you ask because there is a history of reinforcement behind the behavior. I don't ever want to force a dog to listen or make them feel like they don't have an option. Every dog I train has the option to do what I ask or not. It is my job as the trainer to get them to WANT to do it. We start with voluntary attention because if the dog doesn't even want to pay attention to it's handler how on earth are you ever going to get it to do anything else? You can't train a dog that won't work with you.
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