I got my first dog in 1991, a Border Collie called Monty, he was perfect and turned me into the “dog person” I am today!

He was trained on a check chain, and we were taught to do “dominance downs” meaning we forced our dogs to the ground and pinned them there to prove we were dominant over them.  It seems very archaic now and never really sat well with me, but at the time we didn’t know any different, I was just doing what I was taught.  As it turns out, I and many others were right to doubt its validity, and all of that has long since been debunked.

When he was 5, we got our second Border Collie - Sophie.  She was not perfect and she’s the reason I’m a dog trainer!  Thankfully by the time she came on the scene training had changed to reward based, and I will always be grateful to those locally and around the world that were brave enough to make, what was at the time, a dramatic shift in training approach.

Over the coming years, reward-based training became the common approach as the dominance-based methods dropped away; we gained a better understanding of our dogs and appreciation for the real reasons why they do what they do.  It was a rapid learning curve for all of us, but so immensely rewarding.

I believe the advent of social media has taken us backwards, with dog owners looking for quick, easy fixes to their dog’s training and behaviour problems, but that’s the general pattern for so many things in life, not just dog-related ones.

This year I’ve discovered something new; I’m referring to it as a “quiet revolution” because to me it appears to be quietly happening behind the scenes.  I’ve found (by accident) some amazing trainers who are taking a different approach, one that is exciting and fascinating to me.

I’m getting answers to things I didn’t even know were questions.  Missing pieces in the training and behaviour puzzles, that I’d never quite understood, are now being revealed.  Little snippets of information that I’m confident with are starting to flow into my classes; I still need to read more, listen more, consolidate more before I make noticeable changes. 

What matters most is that when trainers learn new things that have the potential to improve dogs’ lives, and owners’ lives, that we share that knowledge, we implement it.  We don’t hold it tight and refuse to evolve and change when the benefits are so obvious.  I know it can be hard for some people to change if they are so invested in what they’ve been doing for years, but we owe it to the dogs to just do it.

I didn’t feel comfortable using a check chain, I saw some awful things go on around me with others using them, but we didn’t know any differently.  When we learned more and knew better, we changed, that’s how progress is made, it’s how we make things better in life for each other and our dogs. 

The lesson here to dog owners who want to make sure they are advocating for their dogs is this: look at whether a trainer is willing to try new things and adjust what they do as they continually learn new skills and acquire new knowledge.  Are they sharing content on social media from other sources; that indicates a willingness to learn from others and share that expertise with you.  An absence of this, could indicate a closed mindset, where the trainer doesn’t believe they have anything to learn from others.  If there’s been no progress, no change, no new knowledge or new skills learned, that’s something to take note of and decide if you’re OK with that.

My recommendation is to choose to take advice from and follow trainers who are happy to share their newly acquired knowledge with you and that of others, who aren’t afraid to change, adapt and progress for the benefit of you and your dogs.