Fenzi Food For Thought

In my last live, some people misunderstood the realities of single incident learning and superstitious learning. You don’t control these realities…the learner does. You want to know what they are so that you can minimize harm to your training when they show up.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

All three of my dogs learned about electric fencing - the hard way. This live is about their different reactions… And how that might impact them into the future, especially if I were a trainer who chose to use electric collars.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Learning may well be a function of reinforcers and punishers. But behavior over time? Reliability? Habit and relationship should be the end goal. That’s what I talk about here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I sat down with a guy at a party and we talked about his reactive dog. What happened next? If you want to have intelligent dialogues with people that potentially change behavior, you might find this live interesting. Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I talk about genetics and how dogs turn out as adults.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

About those words… Punishment, consequence, choice, structure, reinforce, strengthen… All of these words have different meanings depending on your background, training, and where you’re coming from. Just because a word has a scientifically defined meaning doesn’t mean that it is the “right” definition; it depends who you’re talking to. A lay person definition is equally valid! look words up in the dictionary… That should clarify things for you. Words have multiple meanings. The goal of language is to communicate and be understood. If your goal is to be understood rather than to be right, it’s critically important to know the different ways that these words are used. Not only their definitions, but their connotations. If you have that understanding, you’ll have sensible conversations. If you don’t, you might be right all day long, but you won’t be understood.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Do balanced trainers train (fix) dogs and positive reinforcement based trainers manage them? No. Not not at all. That’s a problem with words and definitions, not actual outcomes. Do balanced trainers show their work and positive reinforcement trainers not? No. You don’t know where to look. If you want to see really good positive reinforcement trainers doing cool things, you have to look in their circles. That’s what I talk about here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Can dogs be willful? Can they actively choose to disobey, while understanding what you want? Yes they can. Now what?   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Time. Priorities. Dog welfare. Human welfare. Guilt.  Dog trainers on social media seem out of touch with real world people and their priorities. Are we even doing our job if we don’t prioritize our human clients as much as their animals? Those are things I covered here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

No fetch? Chase but no return? No tug? Tugs but doesn’t let go? Understand what motivates your dog makes training and problem-solving a lot easier. Taken further, it will set how you train each individual dog, which may be radically different than how you approached similar issues with the last dog. By comparing my Border Collie Ice and my Belgian Xen, both showing similar issues but with very different resolutions, I hope to illustrate these points in this live.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy