Denouncing the Dominance Theory

Get your ear plugs - or more appropriately, your blind folds out. I am on my soap box.

I managed to have two great walks with Fly today and get lots and lots of training in. From loose lead walking, keeping his attention, basic commands and even teaching him that he 'can' stop to sniff the environment, so long as it is on my command and on my terms.. thus becoming a partner in his fun experiences as opposed to the one who always drags him away from something interesting by the neck!

So what is my point? Training method is my point. I decided from the get go to use Positive Training to teach Fly what I expect of him from manners to skills & tricks.
Last time we did this, last time we had a puppy, we failed dismally to train her up to any great standard and we whole heartedly believed it was because she was a wolfdog type and was extremely pack orientated as opposed to most breeds who work well for food. This is probably true for the most part but the difference was that I completely bought into the Dominance Theory. I believed all of those trainers who repeated the same old 'pack rules' and had you believe that you should treat a domestic dog like a wolf and become its 'leader'.

For the purposes of training Fly - seeing as the dominance theory sure did not work for me first time around, I have thrown the entire concept out of the window and simply used the clicker training, reward based method. Undesirable behaviours are simply ignored. No attempts made to assert dominance or any of that crap. I am Fly's partner, not his leader and guess what? IT WORKS. It really does. I am thoroughly pleased with his progress in the short time I have worked with him so far.
He can already perform the following, not yet with 100% accuracy and consistency but he can repeat all of this in public with distractions which, for his age, I am very impressed with.
* Sit
* Down
* Watch Me (Focussed attention)
* Leave It
* High Five
* Here (come)
* Off
* Spin
* Wait
* Go Sniff
* Carry
* Outside (for toileting/house training)
* On Your Bed
* Choose A Toy

also doing well with the following:
* No Jumping Up (getting good at this when meeting people)
* Loose Lead Walking
* No Biting/Nipping
* Avoiding Food Aggression/ Possessiveness
* No Chasing Small Animals


As you can see, so far so good! Fly is only 3 months old so will keep posting updates now and then about how his training is going and whether this method turns out to be as good as it appears to be.

Down with the dominance theory! lol

ok, I'll put my soap box away for a while :o)