@westcoastflea1:
who is the ultimate judge of a good training method and a bad training method?
)
Well, science, and the dog. We judge training methods by how effective they are. Does the training method work? Does it harm the dog in any way? Does it harm the human? Does it TRAIN the dog? Meaning, does it teach the dog what we wa nt taught? Or does it intimidate the dog so that bad behavior is somehwat suppressed but not necessarily changed?
Good training is simple, effective, and teaches what we want taught. Bad training is confusing or intimidating, teaches things other than we want taught. A good example of this might be:
Your dog tries to eat your cat all the time. You are at your wit's end. So you go out and buy a remote control shock collar. Every time the dog so much as looks at the cat, you shock the heck out of him. The dog changes hgis behaviour. He begins snarling aggressively at your child who happened to be in the vicinity when he was shocked for looking at the cat. He has 'learned' that your child triggers the scary shocks. He is no longer looking at the cat. He doesn't try to chase the cat. Instead he growls, shows fear of your child and concentrates on that.
So is the training method good or bad? You say above, "Who is to judge?" Well, I will. The training method is bad. The dog has indeed stopped trying to eat the cat but he has not LEARNED to not eat the cat. He has reacted to an aversive and has changed his focus. He is confused. He has learned the wrong thing.
Cesar Milan is admired by many people who are ignorant of dog training and animal behavior. He appears to get results. But I ask, what exactly do you want to teach your dog?
There are clear and correct methods for training animals. Aversives and punishment are not as useful or clear as positive training methods. Period. That is not opinion. That is science.
It is good that you have learned SOMEthing from Cesar. Learning to read dog's body language is very important. As is setting your parameters for behavior. Other than that, though, I would urge you to read up on animal behavior and dog training. Educate yourself, esp as a BRAT foster home, and you will be much much more equipped to deal with the idiosyncrasies of dogs in general.
Best of luck.
