My Next Step? (Long Post)

In my earlier posts I talked about what a job should be, and how I view jobs and work. Before I got my job at the dog boarding facility, I had considered attending a career academy (known as Petropolis) that specialized in dog grooming and dog training. It sounded and looked really good: training and managing dogs that performed scent detection, narcotics detection, service assistance for a variety of purpose. It was a nice program that had depth to it, and the class schedule was very flexible: as long as you completed the number of days required for the program you could attend whenever. This meant that I could work while going to training school. However, when I went in for the interview and tour of the building something just didn't resonate within me. Did I love animals? Yes. Did I love dogs and want to work with them? Absolutely. But this place just didn't seem like the best place there was. I won't lie, I was drawn in by what they had to offer--but only because I didn't have anything to compare it with. Kinda sounds like the time when I went college searching. And that was about 4 years ago.

Anyway, about a week into working at my job there was a new girl who was hired as a trainer. From the short glimpses I got from watching her work I was absolutely floored by her performance. She had a very professional attitude (though some of that might have been influenced by her personality as well, I don't know her that well), and she was very confident. Compared to the other two trainers, two guys (one was currently enrolled at Petropolis and working at the facility, while the other had attending Petropolis and received his certification), she was top dog. One of my managers told me she attending a well renown school ("The Tom Rose School") in Missouri and had just graduated, though she was still waiting to take the narcotics detection test with one of her dogs. Because I was blown away by how this girl worked, I had to check out this school.

I wasn't disappointed with the results.

This school is top notch. If I thought Petropolis had a good program, this school offered a more intense and more in-depth program. With their professional training program the school teaches training in: Obedience (traditional and motivational, aka "positive training"), "puppy imprinting" which is basically obedience training for puppies (and is equally as intensive), agility, tracking, narcotics detection, how to teach group and private obedience classes, public relations/sales/management, Police K-9/IPO/civil protection & security--all of which are tested with the standards of national organizations and associations. There are written tests along with the physical tests, and the training is both hands-on and lecture based.

In comparison to Petropolis, this school didn't seem like it offered much flexibility. There were only two dates which you can enroll in and you are required to have/train 3 dogs at the end of your training. You can receive these dogs from breeders or shelters that have been approved by the school. If you decided to bring a personal dog you were only allowed to bring one (absolutely no puppies) and it would be evaluated by the staff (to make sure your dog has enough drive and willingness to work, my guess). While making this program a tad bit more expensive, I understand why they do this. As a dog trainer you will come across many temperaments and personalities with each dog. Using just your personal dog doesn't make you a trainer, and your learning is very limited. With that, you might as well enroll in a dog obedience class.

One negative thing about the school, however, is their use of e-collars. For those of you who don't know, e-collars are electronic collars and are very different from shock collars (though they are very similar). They also use pinch collars as a form of training as well. Now, when I say negative I mean it's negative to the general public. I'm not going to get defensive about these particular training tools because we all have our opinions; however, that being said I would like to say a few words on this matter. And because, it wouldn't be my blog post if I didn't make this post longer.

Just like anything else in the world, these two training tools get a bad rep because they're seen in bad light. Many people aren't well-informed about e-collars and pinch collars, therefore they're misused--again, just like any other tool at our disposal. Unfortunately there have been many people (professionals and "professionals") who have backed up the reasons as to why these two objects should never be used to train a dog. Well, one things for sure: people will see and believe what they want to see and believe. To me, those two tools aren't about causing the dog pain, but more of discomfort. Like getting spanked. If you have to apply that much force, where pain is inevitable, then you're doing something wrong. I believe that a good, well-rounded trainer will have a good understanding of how to use each of his/her training tools in his/her tool box whether they like them or not. Like learning how to do long-handed arithmetic. We have calculators in this day and age--but what if some day all the technology just shut down? Including calculators? Huh? What then? Long-handed arithmetic comes in to save the day!

...I never actually believed that, but that's what all my math teachers told us when they had sections on tests that didn't allow calculators....

There are a lot of dogs out there, and at least one of them is going to respond better with those two methods of training. One of the negative critiques of the Tom Rose School I read was that they don't tell you their "training method". Funnily enough, in their catalog they state that they don't teach a single method to use, but rather, they show you a variety of techniques and strategies that help you determine what suits each dog best. A school that doesn't tell you "This is the right way to train a dog! It's the absolute right way!"? I must be dreaming. Of course, if there was a way where methods didn't involve physical consequences (like the e-collar and pinch collars) that would be awesome--but like I said it's no different than spanking (or for you animal-inclined people, using a bridle with a bit with a horse).

I mean really, we reward kids with all kinds of things in school: stickers, extra playtime, food, even grades!

Bottom line is, I really love working with animals. I can easily see myself as a dog trainer. And as stated in my previous post, there's no doubt that it will be a lot of work. But it's also very rewarding--and let's not forget, fun!

For more info on the e-collar, read this article I found! This author does a very nice job providing a neutral perspective on them, and unfortunately, some of the commenters didn't pick up on that.
http://www.chicagonow.com/training-the-wolf/2013/07/shock-collars-myths/