Limited period on Behavioural Analysis and Consultation for your dog’s problem, with absolutely no charges or commitments to help the owners on how to solve and understand their dogs’ problems so that owners will not helplessly end up giving up their dogs.
Q.: In year 2000, one of my student ask me. How to tell whether your trainer is Qualify & Certify?
Ans.: “ Not important ”, most important thing you should look out for is :- 1.) one that can teach and understand what they teach 2.) personally dare to hands-on, handling your dog (problematic / aggressive / mongrel) 3.) not to be bias to any students or dogs 4.) not to hide away from any problems that you encounter 5.) judge yourself are these trainers serious in his job (any investment made to further upgrade for the students / training....). As there is so many trainers 1.) after attending 1-2 local basic courses or workshops 2.) without any knowledge or copy other’s ideas without any experience 3.) after training their dog for competition with medal(s) 4.) volunteer as a trainee 5.) Pet shop that never does training before, comes into this line. Some may claim that they are “certify” but what about hands-on experience on different kinds problematic dogs or do they follow blindly by the book and would they be able to help to solve problems is important. You can be a trainer, after you have completed your lessons or ...! (you can train your own dog doesn’t mean you can teach- that is what my ex-trainer told me before I’m a trainer today)
Q. In year 2002, Clicker training was commonly asked because some trainers had promoted it as “Positive Training”. My students started to ask how is it being trained? What if my dog is Not Greedy / Very Active & Playful / Not Responsive / Everyone in the class start clicking at the same time or different timing / Very Aggressive or Turn Aggressive towards other dog or human / Loss the clicker / Run out of treats ......., wasn’t it good to give verbal praise and reward at the same time?
Ans.: Clicker training use a leash & collar to guide the dog to “Sit” or use command & treats to motivate the dog to “Sit”. Once the dog “Sit”, Immediately the handler started to click for Positive Marking and reward it with treats. Normally these trainers don’t believe in “correcting” dog. For What if my dog is not...? Well ask the “expert” that uses this method or judge for yourself what suits you.
Q.: In year 2006, both students from the same class, one bought a Gentle Leader (Halter) from a pet shop after knowing it is humane and non painful methods, the other bought a Choker Chain and train secretly by himself, after looking at other training somewhere in the North - East side. Without knowing how to use and train with it, both started to consult me during one lesson.
Ans.: Gentle Leader (Halter), during purchased he was not taught how to put it on and adjust the halter correctly. Secondly Gentle Leader (Halter) training method is totally different from many others training tools. As I need to consider about the owner whether they are suitable before I start to advise them on how to use it to train their dog although it is the most humane and effective training aid in all expects. (In 2002, a new setup pet shop had requested the RC chairman to invite me to start a class for them, I went down to discuss further and saw a Dobermann’s muzzle bleeding. Out of curiousity, I asked why? His comment is, this dog takes a long time to “Sit”, so he uses a Gentle Leader to train it ???? Finally the shop owner requested me to use Choker Chain for training if we were to work together, as he wished to sell more Choker Chains. I have rejected this offer as it is against my principle. For Choker Chain, the owner had bought the wrong size and put it wrongly what he saw from others continue tugging ... of their dog / puppy and he just followed the same way. I showed him the difference between Normal collar and Choker Chain training method (robotics style - competition) and also explained why a puppy below 6 months is not suitable for Choker Chain. From what he saw and understand. After that he actually commented that using Choker Chain will cause his dog the blood shock eye and also noticed that his dog’s tail wagged very little or not at all. You can buy any training aids in the pet shop (selling is very easy), it is important to know:- How, When & Why you use it? (Is it necessary)
