"THIS PROGRAM IS EASY TO UNDERSTAND FOR THE EVERYDAY TRAINER AS WELL AS GIVING SOME HELPFUL HINTS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL."
JoAnn Spencer
Arizona Humane Society
Dennis Hill's“One Dog At A Time” training program teaches people how to build a better relationship with your dog.
Mr. Hill first talks about choosing the right breed of dog. He talks about different breeds and what they are bred to do. “Don’t fault your dog for what it is.” states Mr. Hill.
It is my opinion that herding dogs were bred to herd, retrievers were bred to retrieve these are innate behaviors that are not to be trained out of a particular breed, but to be used to their advantage.
Various training equipment was demonstrated with the explanation that these items are used to control the dogs rather than open up a line of communication to the dog to choose what the right behavior is without using force.
In my opinion the gentle leader that he had spoken about is the bridge to communication with the dog in the interim of learning to walk nicely on leash.
His training is a “non-dominance based”. He teaches the dogs the meaning of “No” in two different contexts: one being you are never to do what you are doing, and the other being sometimes you are not allowed to be doing what you are doing at that moment. The “never” version of “no” receives an immediate leash correction, and the “sometimes” “no” receives a warning before the leash correction. The dog then is given the opportunity to choose the right behavior and is praised and rewarded for doing so.
Dennis Hill’s approach to training gives the dogs a chance to make the right choice.
“Dogs can’t learn if they are not allowed to choose the right behavior, the dogs are given a choice. Choice not force” he states. This method lets the dog be right and builds confidence in training. The point is that you must replace any bad behavior with the correct replacement behavior.
Dennis Hill demonstrates the use of his methods with dogs from the audience. Within minutes he teaches the dogs the meaning of the word “no”. The examples used were placing food on a coffee table in front of dogs who are not allowed to have it. The example there is to never take food off of the table, the correction here was an immediate leash correction. The next example was to place the food on the floor. This example demonstrated that sometimes you can take food off the floor with the warning being just before the leash correction in an attempt to take the food off of the floor. Within minutes the dogs were looking back at the food on the table and then looking back to the trainer for their just rewards. “They got it.”
It is my opinion that the dog does not differentiate between “never” and “sometimes” but does understand the meaning of the word “no” as the no reward marker in training.
Mr. Hill teaches clients his method of training in real life situations at their homes and in their neighborhoods.
There were two question and answer periods with some great tips on separation anxiety, aggression to people and other dogs, crate training, begging at the dinner table, door dashing and many others.
I agree with the concept of no force training and letting the dogs make the correct choices for success. It is so much more fascinating to see the participation and excitement of the dogs when they get it “right”. It makes for a much stronger bond between human and dog companions.
This program is easy to understand for the everyday dog trainer as well as giving some helpful hints for the professionals as well.
I give it “three paws” out of “four paws”.
One Dog at a Time with Dennis Hill airs Saturday, June 4, 2005 at 9 a.m. on Channel 8.
