FEATURE
From Horses to Hounds
A Trainer’ s Journey to Tackling Challenging Dog Behaviors
By Peggy Swager
SUMMARY A question I hear from many dog trainers beginning their careers, and from some who are looking for ways to improve their skills, is where can they find solutions to more challenging dog behavior issues. I learned the answer to this question when working with horse behavior issues while in college. I was working on my degree in biology and took many psychology courses. During the years I worked with horses, I had access to seasoned horsemen and was mentored by a veterinarian. This gave me an advantage when I transitioned to working with dogs who were showing undesirable behaviors. This article talks about my journey while sharing key information I’ ve learned from other professional trainers who have helped me find potential resolutions for more challenging dog behavior problems.
NAVIGATING YOUR DOG TRAINING CAREER I began my animal behavioral work with horses when I was in college earning my degree in biology and taking extra psychology classes. I was fortunate, in those days, to have mentoring from horsemen and a veterinarian. My transition to dogs began in the 1990s when I joined an obedience club where I learned from accomplished trainers and listened to guest lectures. As time went on, I did extensive reading of dog training books, viewed DVDs, and attended seminars and conferences. However, resolutions to more challenging behavioral issues were often found when I interviewed experienced dog trainers.
This article shares what helped with my journey and includes some of the key interviews with other trainers that helped me to support more challenging dogs.
Pikes Peak Obedience Club( PPOC) was a great resource for my canine training education. The Colorado Springs club contained skilled trainers who competed in the top levels of obedience. The club also offered lessons to the public and guest lecturers. Back in the 1990s, the trainers teaching classes were a mixture of people who used choke collars, and some who were beginning to use treats. I sidestepped using a choke collar and was fortunate to be trained to teach the puppy classes by a positive reinforcement trainer.
Many of the PPOC trainers who competed in obedience had a favorite breed to train. This enlightened me to the idea that some breeds not only trained more readily, but some individuals within the breed could be more cooperative with the trainer’ s efforts. That concept was driven home for me when my daughter and I decided to get Jack Russell Terriers, aka Parson Russell Terriers. I did so much research on Jack Russell Terriers, I ended up co-authoring a book on them with my dog’ s breeder. Many of the trainers at PPOC felt that in general, terriers were more of a challenge to train. As for the idea that some dogs within a breed could vary in trainability, our two Jack Russell proved that theory. My daughter’ s dog, Alexis, was very cooperative when it came to training and loved to work for treats. My dog, Cookie, learned just as quickly,
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