Happy New Years – Welcome to 2018!
We’re back from our break and hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and was able to spend it with family and friends! I thought we’d start this year off strong by highlighting some of the wonderful dog trainers on the internet. These are folks I look to in order to see all the amazing work positive trainers are doing in the community and how they utilize some of the latest techniques available to teach our “old dogs” new tricks!
Emily Larlham
First up, we have a lovely women named Emily Larlham. She focuses on behavior modification and utilizes clicker training to teach her dogs. She has a number of training video to help teach your dog new tricks utilizing many of the same methods Underdog’s does.
In this video, Emily teaches the “collar grab” a fantastic way to teach your dog to associate you grabbing his or her collar with something super awesome. That way if a situation arises and you need to quickly grab your dog’s collar, he or she won’t dart away or snap at you suddenly grabbing at them:
Kristin Crestejo
Kristin has a great selection of various videos on youtube. She got her start a lot like I did. In that she was very disappointed in the amount of abuse that was deemed “necessary” to train dogs. Older methods utilized jerks on the collar to force the dog to “obey” and do what you want them to do. Kristin, much like Underdog’s, uses natural motivators to help the dog’s make the correct choices and get the outcome you desire. You might remember her from our previous blog post on body language – https://www.underdogstriumph.org/improve-your-dog-reading-skills-part-1/ and the sequel https://www.underdogstriumph.org/improve-your-dog-reading-skills-part-2/
John McGuigan
John is one of the more recent trainers that I’ve found. John is located in the UK and in addition to having an awesome accent, he does a lot to promote all the principles of a good dog trainer. From his website: “I promote a relationship with your dog which is based on mutual respect and trust. Your dog looks on you to provide everything it needs including consistent, appropriate training, a safe environment and emotional welfare. In return your dog will provide you with years of loyal companionship, will be safe and reliable to have around and will also be welcome in the wider community.”
One thing I really like about him is that he includes videos of some of his clients on youtube. This I think is very useful for newbie (and oldbie) dog trainers because they get to see real people make mistakes, get feedback and eventually do things correctly. I think it really goes to show that people and dogs aren’t alone in their issues. There are others out there with the same issues you have who struggle with the same things you do. And that sometimes can go a long way to getting you the motivation you need!
Here’s a great video on him working with one of his clients on reactivity (a very common behavior problem) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnNHX7sWdkk
I wish you all the best in 2018 and we thank you for joining us on our journey!