The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2018 | Page 20

FEATURE | DR. IAN DUNBAR
Whatever they called the methods, people were indeed interested
in this alternative to the more commonly used training practices at
the time. Dunbar was sympathetic to the “unsuspecting owners of
dogs who took their pets in for training only to discover they were
being told to jerk the dog, squeeze the paws, hang the dog,” he said.
“They knew what they were doing wasn’t right, but they didn’t know
another way.”
Trainers and breeders wanted Dunbar to lecture at their clubs.
He flew all over the country and the world giving talks about his
kinder, gentler and often faster methods of training. “After 15 years,
I determined this wasn’t a very efficient way to do this,” he admitted.
In 1986, he picked the 24 biggest cities in the country and did one-
day seminars, but even that became too much, flying in one city,
giving the talk and then flying to the next city. Then he tried two-
day seminars, and while that was better, he found his sweet-spot at
three-day seminars.
“It became easier on me and it was more productive,” Dunbar
explained. “I could get into detail.”
At the time, training was limited to adult dogs kept on leashes and
punished for failing to follow commands they didn’t understand yet.
Dunbar’s lure-reward training praised the dogs when they performed
the command after understanding what the command was.
“Everyone else was training dogs on leash, no instruction, just
give them a command and jerk them,” Dunbar said. “Yet at every
seminar, a few people in the audience were different and using lure-
reward training.”
Dunbar planned a series of conferences in 1993 for the like-minded
trainers. “I know all of these people all over the world who think
they are unique and lonely because no one is training like them,” he
explained. Three of those conferences were held in Canada, United
Kingdom and the United States. In the United States, the 1993
conference was at San Mateo, California. Seventy people were in
attendance.
“We formed the APDT at the 1993 San Mateo conference,” Dunbar
said. “We started getting memberships.” The motto: “Building
Better Trainers Through Education,” which still stands today.
In 1994, the U.S. conference was held in Orlando, Florida. “That
was the great coming together,” Dunbar said of the October
conference, with 370 in attendance. “I called it the Seven-Day
Doggie Extravaganza. We had five days of seminars, two days of
conference and 50 exhibitors. It was an exciting time.”
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Building Better Trainers Through Education
Dunbar and Kathleen Chin, the founder of Puppyworks Event
Planning, offered to organize the annual conferences through 1999.
“Kathleen was good at picking topics and finding people who were
different,” he said. “We had the very first raw food conference at
APDT.”
Dunbar remembers fondly some of those earlier conferences.
“In 1995, we had 1,100 in Chicago, and it was freezing, bitterly cold.
I could have made a fortune unlocking frozen locks in people’s cars,”
he said. “I would use my lighter to warm the key.”
The following year was Phoenix, which was “wonderful and warm,
so warm.” Then came Memphis in 1997.
“We had so much fun, music every night. It was cool,” Dunbar said.
Impromptu skits were a given, a nod to Dunbar’s sense of humor. At
Memphis, during his introductory address there were two women
hiding in the podium, he recalled. “Occasionally you’d see a hand
come out as I’m lecturing, and they’d start undressing me, first my
jacket, then my tie and eventually my pants, which no one could see.”
“I say ‘What’s going on here,’” then ducked under the podium and
popped back up wearing an Elvis wig. “We started the conference
with Hound Dogs. There’s no way to keep your brain alert without
a little fun and laughter.”