Over a beautifully sunny and cool weekend of 28-29 June 20 people - TopicsExpress

Over a beautifully sunny and cool weekend of 28-29 June 20 people from Townsville, Cairns, Atherton and Gladstone gathered to hear Debra Millikan speak about the differences between traditional dog obedience lessons and pet dog training. Debra freely admits that for the first 25 years of her life in training and competing she used aversive techniques, and was known as a “hanging” judge in the trial ring. A five year stint in Europe opened her eyes to a much more positive and force free method of training, and on returning to Australia set up the Canine Behavioural School (CBS) in Adelaide, a not-for-profit group with volunteer trainers, created a new program of training for pet dog owners and adopted the American Canine Life and Social Skills (C.L.A.S.S) upgrading system for those who wanted to advance further in training. Debra told us how only 38% of dogs have a home for life, and the average age of dogs in Australia is just 3 years. Why? Because the average pet owner who comes to obedience classes is not receiving the training they want as pet dog owners. Today’s obedience clubs are still teaching the same exercises taught 20 years ago that focused more on getting handlers into the trial ring rather than teaching pet dog skills. As a result clubs around Australia are experiencing high dropout rates to the detriment of many dogs being branded as “uncontrollable” or “bad” and given away or dumped in an animal shelter, and more often than not are euthanised. A mix of theory and practical sessions demonstrated new and different methods to increase pet dogs remaining in a forever home – loose leash walking as opposed to heeling; teaching stays in a different manner, recalls for real-life situations; getting the dogs accustomed to having their ears, mouth, feet, and body touched for easier vet visits; teaching “leave it”, the polite greeting, to go on their mat as their own personal space and learn to be calm, and absence tolerance – all things that the average pet dog owner wants. The demonstrations also included fun things like walking to music and musical chairs to liven up our heelwork. CBS Instructors and aspiring (new) instructors are provided with a good support network through regular monthly meetings and review of teaching methods, and each year an instructor is selected to attend a national workshop or conference partly subsidised by the club. On Sunday Debra explained how the exercises above can be transitioned into the trial ring if handlers do want to become involved in competitions – vet handling techniques transition to stand for examination – easy!; stays - strong and steady; recalls where dogs don’t pre-empt by putting both the come and finish together; loose leash walking transitions to heelwork. The last session for the day was group discussion on what as a club we wanted : do nothing; instigate partial or the complete programme, what challenges and obstacles did we face in doing so, and what benefits would be gained for both handlers and clubs. This program has led to an average 70% retention rate of handlers at CBS completing their classes, which is very impressive given the dropout rates across Australia for traditional clubs. We all thoroughly enjoyed and learned a great deal from this workshop. I’d like to give a big thankyou to handlers who volunteered their time and brought their dogs down for the demonstrations each day. I hope you enjoyed it and picked up some advice to help you with your training.