My coaching philosophy as a softball coach, was about the players, ethics, self direction and empowerment. In relation to dog training, I would say that I’m canine centered and want to empower our dogs to make good decisions as they navigate through our world. Good decisions in our eyes anyway.
I believe that all dog owners have a disposition when it comes to training our 4 legged companions. My disposition for example has always been referred to as soft. When we rescued our first puppy over 20 years ago, people said we were too easy on her. I just could not see myself doing the pack leader thing, and using any kind of intimidation or domination tactics in any of our training.
I still very strongly feel that way. My goal for our dog, and any dog that I coach, is that they feel content, loved and safe. I never want any dog to feel intimidated or fearful as a result of something that I inflicted on them, or how I treated them.
Coaching Philosophy
With my coaching philosophy, I believe in positive reinforcement, with the least amount of negative or aversive impact on dogs or puppies during training. This is also referred to as the LIMA principle, which is Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive. This requires an amazing amount of consistency, and compassion, and a focus on teaching rather than expecting that dogs will learn things, because we told them to, or because we showed them how to do it once. Capturing the behaviors that we want our dogs to exhibit, is also very effective in coaching. It’s when we notice that they have chosen to do something, such as go to their mat, or when they are calm, or when they sit beside or in front of someone that they want to say hi to. This isn’t always easy because it’s something that can be easily missed when there is so much going on around us.
We need to remind ourselves sometimes though, that our dog only knows what they know, in the moment. If our dog has a negative reaction to something or a bad experience, we can strategically and at their pace do counter conditioning with them. When our dog first heard a garbage truck for example, she got very scared. It had a huge effect on her. It took a long time and lots of work around the trucks for her to be ok with the sound of them, but the trucks are irrelevant now.
The important thing with my training or coaching philosophy is that I want dogs and puppies to be able to make good decisions and be a polite, well mannered dog that everyone loves. My job I feel is to give owners the tools through coaching their dogs and puppies, and to give them the best opportunities to do that. We need to be able to nurture our dog’s true personality, and guide them to the best decisions.
Everyone has a training or coaching philosophy. For me, it is just basically the way I feel that things should be done, and the way I educate and train or coach my dog. I believe that the way that our dogs perceive their training, is going to effect the success of the training. I also believe that the trust that our dogs have in us, increases their desire to follow the training protocols. And of course the treats help too 🙂
Part of my coaching philosophy is that I feel it’s my job to know how different dogs or puppies are going to respond to different training methods, and to use the ones that can create the most success for them. The most important thing again, is that they feel safe, content, and loved and that our dogs don’t have us yelling at them or using intimidation or dominance tactics. It can be hard to do sometimes, especially when our pups are young. The biting, the barking and the whining that we have to work with in our puppies is definitely not easy. But if we can be persistent, consistent and compassionate, we will be able to get through the toughest times. It’s always a work in progress but we just need to keep moving forward. And they will just keep improving.
