The Construction of a Training Manual

The training manual is coming along at a snail's pace at the moment. I am hoping writing about it might open up the flood gates.

One thing is that I don't offer mix and match training sessions (in other words "let's just go over this in three sessions"). You get the full picture or no picture at all if you are taking a private lesson training plan here. There is no "manners class". I didn't think this was great business at first. What happens when I loose all those people that only want to come to one or two classes? A scary thought in these times where the economy is tightening everyone's financial belt. And a reason why a training manual should really cover the cost of not training your dog to be reliable. Loss of your companion for one, veterinary bills, law suits for injuries intended or just due to good natured fun. Those are all short term consequences by the way, the long term consequences are the anti dog owner and dog laws that are cropping up, well around the world, and most recently all over the United States!! While this should be able to be transferred to the competitive obedience ring, the real passion at Mannerly Mutts if for real life training.

Non of the following classes can be found here:
Reactive Rover
Bully Obedience
Heeling Class
Rapid Recall

Instead what we offer is Basic Obedience, Advanced and Intermediate Obedience. In that order by the way, you could "CLEP" out but you need to pass graduation for the previous level in order to advance. There also needs to be graduates of private lessons in any group to have practice group classes.

So what did happen when I started selling only six lesson packages? More customers and more hours training dogs. Effectively, an output of a better product in better and more reliable training per dogs coming in and out. Did some people say no thanks? Sure. I even sent them to other places. Some people I told no thanks to. In the end though, the result was better than I imagined. I might be pushing it, but this year I am trying to sell the whole 12 week package. About seventy percent of my students this year did go onto the training beyond the positions that comes along in the last six weeks. I also only charge 35.00 per session, well below the average 60-75 charged for private lessons in the area. So cost can not be a reason to do a reasonable amount of training preparation with your dog. But is that for my training package, or just my sales spiel LOL?

On the other hand, why you train, how you train, what you train, and how that all helps you in the end is not readily apparent to students. "I just want my dog to stop jumping on me" is a frequent complaint. Plus they really don't mean they just want their dog to stop jumping on them, they mean they don't want Mr Dog to be jumping on grandma either. Or running to the edge of the road when the dump truck comes or stealing the pot roast off the counter right next to them. Additionally, if Mr Dog could actually come when called, that would be nice. Assuming we do teach just a few commands to do this, you still need to build up realiability during distractions. This does not happen in a day, and you don't just go to the end of the exercise. There are successive steps that make this happen. You can't just hammer this home, especially if you are teaching the dog and the human, and creating this language/communication between them.

So okay, the hows and whys of training need to be explained. Additionally how commands are used in order to affect change in behavior (wildly hyper out of control dog to calm and content dog) and how they are used to make life a bit easier for everyone involved.

Next, why is equipment and equipment handling important? Now that I know more, sloppy equipment handling makes me more crazy than I ever thought it would. There is a reason for proper leash position when working a dog. Traction is very important in the six foot leashes, and this is why I always insist on a good quality leather lead. Then there should be a training collar (not harness unless the dog has back or neck problems). I don't use Gentle Leaders or Haltis, as they are more management equipment than training equipment. My goal is to get the dog to be able to be off equipment a fair amount of time, by the training we do. There needs to be an explanation of equipment however, and also an explanation of some of the more controversial equipment. I wouldn't be too excited about training loose leash walking to a six month old active Great Dane puppy on their flat collar, for instance. Not saying there aren't some that it might be completely possible to do, just saying I have had a bit of experience with the Great Dane puppies LOL.

Either you need to have two manuals for Basic Obedience puppy vs adult OR you need to have places where the two may diverge. Puppies in general while lacking the maturity of an adult, often very easily comply with what you want. There comes a time later where you will want to remember your training, and will need to revisit it as this maturing pup becomes a bit more bold and adventurous. All in all, it's a very good idea to train while young, because even if you need to revisit it later, it's going to be so much easier for you than starting from scratch at a year or a year and a half. Plus, you will already have done much of the work already, and just need to do a bit of maintenance on the problem areas.

When we begin, I don't mind questions. I do mind the insistance of not cocentrating from the beginning on the basics of the exercise. Why not do it right from the beginning? The only thing you do by not holding the leash right, not having hand position, is create an atmosphere in which training does not flourish from the beginning. It's not only the dog, and how well do I know that after my first year competing!! My scores are saying "you can do better" right now, and that is my goal next year. I am working toward that now, and what I want to do is have my clients do it right the first time.

My husband recently asked me, "do you think our training (13 years ago) Ken would have graduated us (if he had graduations)?" "God I'd hope not" I said. Yet I see dogs graduationg that I wouldn't consider for having completed the first lesson, never mind the six or twelve week course. Much of the problem is the handling being exhibited by the owner. They have trained the exercise wrong, and are giving the dogs conflicting signals. "Are you starting or stopping" the dog is thinking or "what the heck was that?" Or in my newest client's case, "ouch!! I am down here you know.". This isn't just so the exercise looks pretty, but the waltz together makes for training magic that forms a partnership.

Still even before I get to exercises, discussions on rewards, corrections, dog rules, consistency et all need to be gone over. Frequency of homework and the consequences for not doing homework also need to be discussed. After all the session is to update the owner on the techniques of the homework required, and allow for PRACTICE of the exercises while you are there to guide the owner to the correct execution.

So there is all that documentation, and THEN the exercises. Daunting. Plus all those misc dog questions that come up. How do I stop my dog from barking? How do I get my dog to stop chewing? Housebreaking, a specialty for the pup training manual, by the way (which means a crate training session that is inclusive of the adult dogs). That has to be included as well as the way to train an alert that pup or dog needs to go out.

Well, I guess there is my start right there.