Our Philosophy - Blog One

Hi everyone;



Congratulations, this is our first blog post! To start off with, I thought it would be a good idea to explain the theory of why we train dogs the way we do. This way, we can have a basic understanding on how we are going to train your dog.



In our day to day lives, we communicate with people all the time; everyone understands how we as humans communicate with each other. Dogs do not have the benefit of knowing our language right away, so we have to create a way to communicate with them that is not only simple, and easy to understand, but gentle in nature. This type of training is often referred to as balanced, motivational, or natural; regardless of what term you wish to use, it is simply the most effective way to train your dog.



Balanced/Motivational/Natural training is the style we use. Put simply, we do not support large behavioral modification abuses such as those seen on the Dog Whisperer like placing a dog on his side, however properly powered corrections are important and do have a place in training, but only with properly trained, adult dogs that are misbehaving. Unlike most dominance theory trainers, we believe this is stressful and harmful to puppies. By using a Balanced/Motivational/Natural training, we utilize normal, natural canine pack and puppy behaviors to our advantage, and train them to use their natural thinking abilities with fast, effective, reliable response times. To be a Balanced trainer, we start off gently, and work up into more reliable responses from the dog. This way, you can always teach your dog something new, and it won't ever overwhelm them.



Here at Ideal Companions, our training means using a communication system rooted in marker/clicker training. While in the learning phase, which is the stage where the young puppy is still trying to figure out what we want them to do in order to get the reward, we do not correct a dog. This is critical, as it can confuse and stress out the dog into believing it can never do anything right. Once we know the dog understands what we want from them, consistently, we add in corrections for incorrect behavior, and distractions to ensure they perform the task, no matter what. This way, by the time you are finished training a command, it's instant, accurate, and reliable every time the command is issued, no matter what - which is something one rarely sees in the vast majority of pet dogs in the world right now. The moment you say "down", wouldn't it be marvelous to see your dog, whom could be chasing a duck, cat, or squirrel, to immediately drop into a down, and wait for you?



These goals are achieved by using luring, and marker training. Lure training is simply using a piece of food to manipulate the dog into whatever position you want him to go into. It works best for teaching sit, down, and stand, but can be adapted into all commands very easily. We want to use the least amount of correction, force, or negative reinforcement possible, to get your dog to where you want them to be. Food rewards are a huge part of our training; they must be something that is of a high value to your dog. Some dogs will not work for food but will work for a toy, and this works well for this style of training, albeit a little longer in time consumption to allow for play time. Marker training and clicker training are the same thing; and is simply either a sound via a clicker or your lips clicking, or a word to mark that the dog did the right thing, we prefer to use 3 words for our marker training those words are “YES” and “GOOD” for correct and continue, and “NO” for incorrect/that wasn't done correctly. This doesn't mean the dog gets corrected physically; just withhold the food reward and try again. It is important to note that if you use "No" inside the house for a stoppage of behavior, you will need to use a different word to mark the incorrect behavior, otherwise the dog will think it is to stop performing the behavior altogether. We suggest using "Uh-Uh" or "Ahh!" because it is different enough from "No", rather than "Nope" or "No-no".



Our system creates a clear and easy way to communicate what we want from our dog, and it allows the dog to think and figure out what we are asking of them. The more force you use to train a dog the less motivated the dog is going to be to want to please you. You can implement this system with any dog, at anytime, at any age, and it sets the dog up for success instead of failure. It is important if you are going to start this type of training to come and book an appointment with us, as we have only outlined the basics - there is much more information on the topic that we have left out. This system was originally created by a dog trainer named Michael Ellis. We firmly believe that his method of training will get the best results possible from your dog, and will give you a much better relationship than an older more forceful training method.



"Michael Ellis is an internationally renowned dog trainer, and teacher, with 30 years of experience in the competitive dog sports. He has taught extensively to a very diverse group of trainers; from competitive sport trainers, police departments, and the US military, to search and rescue groups, service dog agencies, and pet dog trainers. Michael’s clear, concise, and patient style has made him one of the most popular coaches of trainers in the country. He has given over 300 seminars in the United States, Canada, and South America, that’s well over a thousand days of lecture and practical work in the last eight years alone, and as a result, has been one of the driving forces in popularizing reward based training systems for the protection sports."

- from http://michaelellisschool.com/