Animals and Training

[Cordelia calais]

I just thought I would post on here some information that may be helpfull to people wanting to buy an animal.
In regards to training it always amazes me that people claim that cruel and harsh methods of training work using choker chains, prong collars or sticks to beat the animal with. If they work then why do they have to keep being used? once you teach a child to use a fork and knife you dont go out to find them eating with their fingers, they know to use utensills and they keep doing it, why then if you train with cruel methods do you have to keep doing them?
Positive and gentle methods of dog training are proven to get excellent results in all areas of training including, Pets, Assistance dogs, Agility training, Obedience and large police dogs, you may be interested to know that the winner of a compatition held among police dogs was the only clicker trained police dog in Australia. If you are intersted in Positive reinforcement training go to Karen Pryor Clickertraining | dog training and cat training info, books, videos, events they have some fantastic advice for people looking to train and best of all its fun!! and thats what having an animal is all about, enjoying them!

[And_ROOS]

Thanks for the link, looking to get a pup soon, my dad was an excellent trainer but i dont want him training my dag, i want to train him myself, so ill need all the help i can get lol.

[Cordelia calais]

Oh good luck with that but yes it is best if you train your own dog as they are pack animals and they need someone to look up to and if your dad trains then you wont get the benifits. I can give you some places that train if you like? just pm me.

[Kikki]

You get cold, you put on a coat, you get warm.... think of that when training.

You ask, they do, make THEM feel good. My dog reacts to positive reinforcement, hugs, pats, toys, higher pitched voice and a little excitement, she will honestly do anything I ask of her. No need for books, classes, chains etc, show your dog (or cat) some respect and show them your proud and they will do back flips for you.

I think being social is a big thing too, take your dog to a class just to socialise with other people and dogs, or even walk your dog at the park when it is at its peak.

[Cordelia calais]

I think a lot of people need help in this regard and although you yourslf may not need help with your animals there are lots of people who do and I think it is important for them to know there are many different training methods out there. Clicker training in my opinion is the best and is used by many places including zoo's, sanctuary's, police,waterlife careers etc it can be used on any animal with ears and can teach some amazing things that would otherwise be almost impossible to do ( not talking about sit, drop, stay and basics ) you could never put a Dolphin or an Elephant on a chain and force it to do things and thats were the clicker comes in.
Socialising is a must for any animal you are quite right and the more you do with them the better they will be and the earlier the better!