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Post by suziriot on Feb 7, 2010 22:05:43 GMT -5
Has anyone heard of Eva Bertilsson? She's a very well respected agility trainer from Sweden and is one of the speakers at this year's Karen Pryor Clicker Expo. Well she was in Chicago this week and was observing my trainer Laura's work. She had heard about Dharma and really wanted to come to her training session. I just have to share how amazingly cool Eva is. She had wonderful insights about Dharma and her training. I really appreciated that even though she doesn't work with pit bulls, she wanted to hear all about Dharma's story and the big MO bust. She had no prejudices or preconceived ideas about a fight bust dog being trained to do therapy work with children. It was awesome. Eva has a book coming out very soon, but you can read a little more about her at the Karen Pryor website. www.clickertraining.com/clickerexpo/?loaditem=bios
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Post by RealPitBull on Feb 8, 2010 8:43:57 GMT -5
I never heard of her, but she sounds cool! It is so nice to hear about trainers who hold no prejudices towards the breed. Sounds like it was a wonderful experience meeting her. I love this snippet from her bio and to me spells out so clearly what positive training is about:
"...very much appreciated for their systematic, and well-planned approach that focuses on joy and success for both dog and handler..."
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Post by RealPitBull on Feb 8, 2010 8:44:43 GMT -5
How is Dharma doing with her training, btw?
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Post by suziriot on Feb 8, 2010 20:17:07 GMT -5
Mary, that little snippet really does perfectly summarize everything that Eva talked about with us. It also perfectly describes everything we're doing in Dharma's training. She is progressing so well and I am incredibly proud of her. The past few months we've primarily been focusing on getting over any fear and/or trust issues that she had from her former life. I don't really know how to describe it, but all of our training really is about Dharma just being allowed to be happy and relaxed and comfortable in her environment, no matter what may be going on around her. The training is not so much about placing demands on her, but showing her that she has a choice in everything she does and when she makes choices we like, she gets really good things. But if she makes a choice that we don't want, NOTHING BAD HAPPENS TO HER. Positively reinforcing the behaviors we want, ignoring the behaviors we don't. She makes the choice to love people and want to snuggle them. She makes the choice to be so trusting and relaxed with tons of new people walking around her. She makes the choice to ignore the rude dog that is invading her space. She does all of these things because we allow her to be the sweet loving girl she was born to be. Dharma is going to be an awesome children's therapy dog, because she chooses to love people. That's a really long answer to your question, Mary! Sorry, but I am just so amazed that this terrified little girl who came from such terrible abuse is now a truly joyous dog that loves people more than almost any other dog I have ever known. She's my little bringer of joy! ;D
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Post by valliesong on Feb 9, 2010 2:00:48 GMT -5
She sounds like a wonderful dog. I can't wait until she makes her debut!
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Post by RealPitBull on Feb 12, 2010 9:09:20 GMT -5
What a wonderful answer to my question! ;D I wish all dogs could receive training like this - it makes the dog an important part of the process; it is about dogs and humans as a TEAM, not human-as-a-domineering-controller-imposing-his-will-on-a-helpless-animal. You pointed out two things key in Dharma's training: CHOICE and NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. It bothers me when trainers talk about a dog's choice to 'make the wrong decision' and if they make the wrong decision they must accept the negative consequences (read: physical punishment). Meanwhile if a dog is choosing to do a behavior, to the dog, that IS the right decision. It's all she knows! Since humans are (supopsedly ) smarter, we have to teach the dog that there is a BETTER choice. But it is so wrong to punish a dog for doing what she thinks, in that moment, is the only (best in her mind) choice, even if to a human, it's not the 'correct' behavior.
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