Dog training: Which way is your way?

Locally, dog owners have been copying some televised pop-dog-training psychology, to the discomfort of a few local dog trainers and more than a few canines.

The negative, in the view of the trainers interviewed, is that television programs like Cesar Milan's "Dog Whisperer" program on the National Geographic Channel have been encouraging dog owners to put choke collars on their dogs to yank them into obedience.

"You don't need to put a choke collar on and jerk them and jerk them," said Nancy Banask of HiTop Dog Training of Hurley. "It's a very old-fashioned method."

The positive is that Milan's work - and that of other humane pet activists on television - has people considering the consequences of how they care for their animals.

Jan Kopelman, the shelter manager at Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption in Kerhonkson, said this aspect of Milan's work should be applauded.

"I think he's brought a lot of awareness to training, which is a good thing," said Kopelman. "So many people now are aware of the need to train their dogs, the need to exercise their dogs. That's never a bad thing."

She agrees with Banask, however, that tugging on choke collars can, over time, be damaging.

Fran Breitkopf, a Woodstock resident and the head of the Ulster Dog Training Club, has also said choke-collar based training methods are old fashioned and fading quickly.

"What we have now is a more progressive method," she said.

A plain round collar works fine if dog owners put in the time to connect with their dogs, Breitkopf said. "There's almost no reason that we find to use anything more than that."

Dogs won't pull if their owners learn some of the "softer" methods of redirecting the dog's energy, she said. "If you can keep the dog's attention and talk to the dog, the dog will watch you and the dog will walk with you. You don't have to jerk it and pull it back."

On Milan's program, which debuted in 2004, he frequently uses dominance techniques to overwhelm dogs who he considers to be too aggressive. This technique earned Milan criticism even before his first episode aired.

Before the program first aired, National Geographic sent advance copies of "The Dog Whisperer" to Andrew Luescher, an animal behavior expert at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University. Luescher begged them to cancel the program. He called one of Milan's techniques "flooding," akin to putting someone deathly afraid of spiders in a closet filled with hundreds of the eight-legged creatures.

"The person might be cured by that, but also might be severely disturbed and would have gone through an excessive amount of stress," he said.

Dominating a willful dog may be appropriate on some occasions, Kopelman said, but not as a rule of thumb.

"You have to say that dogs are different from each other, just as people are," she said. "I do not embrace a one-size fits all philosophy of dog training. I don't think all dogs should be on dominance programs. I don't think that's necessarily what's at the root of everyone's problem with their dog."

Milan's emphasis on exercise, choke collar and all, has won him tempered applause from trainers. Almost every episode has Milan pulling dog owners and their charges into the street to practice walking. Even owners who have palatial estates where dogs run free are scolded for not regularly walking their dogs.

"I do think that there's a huge problem with dogs being under-exercised and their minds kind of underdeveloped, if you will," Kopelman said.

Milan spends a lot of time on his program talking about not nurturing dogs when they are acting neurotic. If a dog is comforted - or rewarded - for acting up in any way they will assume that is the behavior that is desired, he tells viewers.

Banask agrees, to a point. She also agrees with Milan's belief that dog owners need to exude leadership qualities when working with their animals. "You want to act like you're in charge and in control and not be fearful yourself. If you project strength and confidence, the dog's going to follow you."

Kopelman, Banask and Breitkopf hope that at the very least, dog owners with obedience and behavior problems will follow Milan's advice to sign up for dog training classes. Kopelman said she and Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption founder Sue Sternberg have even set up a "Training Wheels" program that tours the Hudson Valley to offer low-cost dog training. To learn more about "Training Wheels," call (845) 687-7619.

Breitkopf's organization, the Ulster Dog Training Club, is all about economical and convivial training, with a range of classes and group activities. They meet at the St. John's Episcopal Church on Albany Avenue in Kingston and the K9Crazy facility on Route 28 in Kingston.

Banask, who operates out of Hurley, also visits homes and leads group classes around the area. For more information about her work, call (845) 339-3173.
Source: Kingston Daily Freeman