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Trainers Andrea Holsinger (l) and Kass Goulding with 3 personal dogs Retriever Field Training Seminars Bertschire Flat-coated Retrievers Pet Care Products, Non-Toxic Cleaning Products and more
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Our Unique HandlerCentric Program The training your dog will undergo at Pacesetter Training Kennel is first and foremost to benefit your dog! The benefits you will enjoy include an enhanced relationship with your pet, making him or her a more integral part of your family, and enjoying more freedom both while at home and when traveling. Communication will deepen, and you will find yourself quietly directing your dog while he responds positively and promptly. We begin by teaching your dog that he is responsible for his behavior! You will direct and channel his energy, but your dog will demonstrate respect and cooperation with any given handler. By letting your dog make his own choices, he will rapidly learn what actions will earn him praise and play, and what actions will result in an unpleasant consequence. If that sounds familiar to you, it's because that is how real life works! Think about how proud you felt when you solved a difficult problem - dogs feel that same sense of pride and accomplishment and will work to repeat that feeling, just people do! The beginning stages of training start with the dog on a walk while wearing his remote collar and a long rope. Each dog will approach this walk differently. Some will sniff intensely and explore with their noses. Some will spin around the handler, leaping and twisting trying to get the handler to pay close attention to THEM. Others will try dragging the handler, convinced that they can outpull anyone. The handler remains calm and neutral, giving no information to the dog. The handler waits patiently until the dog is distracted (this will come sooner to some dogs), at which point a collar "stim" will be applied while pressing a button on the collar. The dog's reaction dictates the next step, but at this point the handler is trying to determine the optimal sensitivity level of the individual dog. When the dog shows the slightest indication that he feels the stim (head shake, a pause in motion, ear flick, etc), the handler will guide the dog toward the handler and release the stim as soon as the dog is facing the handler. As soon as the dog turns, the handler will praise excitedly, and most dogs will react by running happily to the handler. The handler becomes neutral once the dog has come back and received some physical and verbal praise, again allowing the dog to wander off or become otherwise distracted. The process is repeated several times in that first session, and 99% of the dogs will quickly understand that giving positive attention to the handler is extremely pleasant and will begin to follow the handler hoping to get some praise. Of course the handler does praise all of the dog's efforts, and that session ends with a dog who is actively seeking to please the handler right up until the end. As training progresses, the handler positively reinforces all appropriate responses and negatively reinforces those behaviors that are undesirable (jumping up, chasing other animals, etc). This results in a happy dog and a happy handler! As you might guess, this technique develops what we call "handlercentric" attention and it is the first secret to our training success. All subsequent sessions will simply develop and shape the dog's eagerness to please, while introducing distractions and moving rapidly to off-leash control. While we begin all training using continuous low-level stim, most dogs will go home working on a momentary stim, which is very much like being able to tap someone's shoulder to get their attention.
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