#susan garrett

[folkdogs]

“Prong, choke and shock collars were specifically designed to instill pain. That is the principle upon which they work – the addition of discomfort in order to stop unwanted behavior. This isn’t my opinion. This is simply a matter of fact. There isn’t room for disagreement or debate. It’s reality. It’s truth.

[...]

The other issue is one of ethics. Obviously, that isn’t up for debate. My ethics are mine and yours are yours. But for those who continue to defend the use of such devices, I do have a question: What is the “proper” way to inflict pain upon your companion?

Do it higher up on the neck?

Throw your friend a cookie in between bouts of restricting his breathing?

Only hurt your friend when you’re up against “distractions” (more aptly known as competing motivators)?

I can’t think of a single scenario, outside of a training context, in which any decent human being would knowingly inflict pain on his or her dog. So why do we make excuses when it’s “in the name of training”? Abuse is abuse, right?”

- ‘What is the “Proper” Way to Hurt a Dog?’ by Kelly Duggan for Your Pit Bull and You.

[securityunit-ese]

ItsYerChoice Summit

It's Yer Choice is a great game that teaches impulse control and the idea that dogs can get what they want by doing what we want first.

You have to sign up with an email, but after you sign up you get access to a bunch of free videos that break down multiple steps and uses of the “It’s your choice” training game!

There’s also some PDF books.

The concept of the game is simple: teach a dog that in order to get what he wants, first he must do what you want.

From a more scientific standpoint, it’s using the Premack Principle (the idea that a dog will perform a less desirable behavior for the chance to do a more desirable behavior) as a game.

Your dog is (probably) going to start picking the game up in a couple of minutes, it’s a great exercise for building impulse control!

[twobigears]

Any of the mistakes that we have in agility, it's because either we didn't train the dog to the fluency we thought we did, or we didn't execute at the level we should be capable of achieving. If I use a non-reward marker, for me it might be three or four times in a row, it's a neon light that either the arousal state is too high for the level of difficulty I've asked of the dog at this time, or my dog's skills aren't at the proficiency I thought they were. So abandon mission, go back and do some dog training.

Susan Garrett, Agility Nation workshop on the use of markers and non-reward markers in agility

[securityunit-ese]

The Recallers annual subscription is pricey but for the next 2 weeks there is free access to what looks will be 4 videos and associated PDFs! I've heard many many good things about this course from trainers I highly respect for the amazing work they do with their dogs. I appreciate the chance to have a taste test.

[securityunit-ese]

I’m not enjoying Susan Garrett’s Recallers VIP pass AT ALL

[twobigears]

As much as I give flack to Susan Garrett and her never-ending marketing, she really is a great trainer and I’ve been learning quite a bit from her. Even just from her free Facebook videos, the latest being about ItsYerChoice and more detail in growing it from the first few steps that she has shared many times. I just love the way she is brilliant at and promotes breaking down learning in tiny steps instead of giant leaps. Not a new concept but I think she’s one of the best at it.

[twobigears]

We also got the "waiting is part of life" lecture released in BH360, and it's basically teaching your dog to station/wait on a raised bed or platform. Coincidentally I watched Susan Garrett's video on training multiple dogs today, and they're basically the same thing so I'm not surprised. How long have I been hearing about training this but haven't actually done it?? I don't have raised beds though or anything similar, so we'll need those. I did start reworking waiting in an open crate with Chandra, since for Susan's training she starts it with crate games of course. Sidenote, interesting observation that I never realized that Susan is a big fan of non-reward markers and failures in training, which is contrary to a lot of other non-aversive/force-free/whatever-you-call-it trainers. In the foot targets videos, she specifically wants failures, to teach the dog what is incorrect as well as what is correct. In the video on training multiple dogs she also uses a lot of negative punishment. Of course a lot of it was for demo purposes showing how to work through the issues and she does say that if the dog is failing so much, it doesn't have enough value yet for the correct behavior. I just find this interesting.

[twobigears]

Ok it makes me feel a bit slimy to think of giving Susan Garrett money, but I'm really considering signing up for 1-2 months of her Agility Nation membership just for the running contact info. 😩