Tips, Articles, & Thoughts From Dog Agility Coach And Competitor Daisy Peel
Why signaling a correction, even in a simple game like It’s Your Choice, matters more than most handlers realize, and what the science says.
There’s some REALLY misleading content floating around out there on the internet regarding this procedure, SOME of it from folks with a pretty broad audience who pass off their information as gospel truth when the reality is…it’s NOT!
Good dog training is doing the same thing over and over with the same enthusiasm you had the first time, and the 100,000th time, with small bits of progress along the way.
If you don’t have a helper for restrained recalls, here’s how I do it solo! I’m using a Biothane long line — no handle, slippery, nothing for it to snag on — and threading it through the leg of my dog walk. The dog walk’s sturdy, so I know it’s not moving. Toy in one hand, line in the other, and before I walk off I make sure Alice is lined up so the tension pulls straight back, not twisting her in the harness.
If somebody’s definition of “reinforcement-based” excludes anyone who also uses corrections, that’s a strawman – they’re distorting what balanced trainers actually do to keep you in their marketing sphere. That’s not curiosity and they’re not describing training. They’re drawing a line in the sand so they can stand on their self-appointed high ground.
Prong collars and ‘tools’ get a bad rap — usually from people who are naive to their introduction and use. Here’s why I put one on Alice long before I ever plan to actually use it, and why ‘aversives as a last resort’ isn’t as fair to dogs as it sounds.
Most puppy owners get socialization wrong. Learn why quality matters more than quantity, and how to build a confident dog through low-pressure, intentional experiences.