As one of the board members of our dog training club began reading the club rules pertaining to dog abuse, the attending members at our monthly meeting were wondering who this guy witnessed abusing their dogs. After reading the club rules he said he had seen one trainer whip his dog repeatedly, another burn his dog with an e-collar, and another kick his dog into the water. Although I wasn’t at the start of the meeting, when I did get there, everyone was talking about it It just so happens I train with this person, and after hearing about the statement, I to began to wonder what abuse he had seen.

The man reading the statement is not much of an advanced "trainer" or "teacher of dogs", but he does have great respect for his dogs, and does teach them the basics of obedience and easy single retrieves. On occasion he hunts but decides not to teach the dogs difficult hunting tasks. His dogs obey better than the average house dog, make him happy, and live good lives, but again they couldn’t even do a fifty yard blind retrieve.

The way we teach dogs is through repetition. Doing things over and over while slowly making the task more and more challenging. After the dog has totally learned the task, from time to time we will be helping the dog as he either forgets how to do it, or begins testing us. It’s our job as good trainers to decide when the dog is fully trained for a task. Confused or testing us is another matter. We as trainers must know the difference.

One example would be if an older mature dog was taught not to shoreline run (cheat) but instead go in a straight line. The dog one day decides to run the shoreline, he is stopped with the whistle and casted away from shore, the dog continues to cheat and not go in the desired straight line, the trainer then instructs the bird boy to give a "hey hey"(calling the dog in the proper line), the dog still cheats, the handler now instructs the bird boy to throw another dummy to try and turn the dog, the dog now knows where the bird is, has been handled to the proper direction and still continues to cheat. This dog is almost seven years old is a AKC senior hunter, has won numerous events, and completely trained in handling, multiple marks, blinds, honoring, poison birds, retired guns, diversions, and a slew of other retriever tasks and drills. The handler now stops the dog with the whistle, burns the dog with the e-collar and casts the dog to the bird. The dog returns to the straight line to the bird and accomplishes the double mark.

Force is a type of correction or punishment given to a dog that has learned the task at hand through repetition and attrition, and is either testing his handler (much like a child does) or is simply being disobedient because of a distraction. That distraction could be a shore line run, a cross wind, or piece of cover. After the handler has decided this very important view, now he must decide what type of correction (punishment) to give. Obviously the punishment should fit the crime. A lot of factors are considered in the thought process. How old is the dog, has this dog been thou rally schooled on this task, does the dog understand what he is to do, and most important, how much correction do we need to get the point across and to get him to understand what it is you want him to do. After trying to communicate to the dog on what he is to do, and you are sure he understands, then and only then is correction needed. Many times we teach through attrition (making it easier or communicating to the dog). But there are also times when punishment is warranted.

Much like a child learning to look both ways before he crosses the street, at some point the child will forget. It may be the ice cream truck coming down the road or a ball rolling across it. Sooner or later the child will test you or simply just not do what he is told.

Force is applied in many different ways. Some dogs are quite concerned when you raise your voice, others are either used to it or it means very little. Some dogs require just a tap with a whip while others won’t respond until their hit fairly hard.

Dogs also get used to corrections and force. When we force train a dog to retrieve by the pinch of an ear, he learns to turn off the correction by performing the proper task. When we accomplish force to the pile, the dog learns to turn off the correction by going to the pile. And when done properly these training tactics build a huge foundation for our retrievers. Is it force or abuse?

Another example would be if a handler forgot his e-collar at home but of coarse continued to train with his group. On the way to the first set-up the dog feels the collar isn’t on his neck and decides to heel poorly. The handler has his whip with him and taps the dog in the chest repeating the command "heel". Instead of getting on his dog harder and nipping the problem in the bud, he chooses to repeat the command often. I feel that letting the dog know right away that he is doing wrong, and letting him have it pretty hard, stops the problem quicker and its much longer down the road before it happens again, rather then nagging him into it. If I tell a dog to "sit", and he doesn’t sit, but has been thou rally trained at the command he gets a good whack on the rump. The handler continues the command "heel", "heel", and now the whip is used a little harder. One thing we must remember; if one day we let the dog heel three feet in front of us and the next day we correct him for heeling an inch in front of us, than certainly were not being fair to the dog. That’s why we must be consistent in our training. Keep a high standard throughout your training. The dog will then always know where he stands with you. After about three or four whacks by the whip the dog now knows, even though he doesn’t have the e-collar on, he is being corrected for not heeling and accepts the punishment by turning the pressure off and now is heeling properly.

When we start off using the e-collar we should use a dummy collar for a couple of months to get him used to it. Then go through a collar conditioning program. This is a program designed to condition the dog to the stimulation given by the collar. When done properly the dog simply learns very quickly to turn off the collar by performing the task correctly. The commands have already been taught to the dog.

Sit, stay, heel, come, and fetch are all commands we collar condition to. The dog has now been conditioned to the collar (correction). A soft dog is a dog that requires much less correction. He will be much more concerned with your displeasure than a hard charging dog that will require more sturdy correction. We must learn to read our dog. We accomplish these same tasks with the whip also. We lightly tap a pup on the rump when told to sit. We threaten a dog with the whip if he doesn’t stay when told and we tap him in the chest for poor heeling. We tap him on the rump during stick fetch, a training method that is taught to a dog before an e-collar is used for back to a pile. This is normally done after the forced retrieve is accomplished with the ear pinch.

All of these things are done to our dogs for good reason. Safety being the utmost importance. If a dog isn’t solid in a duck boat, he could certainly capsize us. If he doesn’t come when called he could get hit by a car. If he runs a shoreline he could get in a muskrat trap, and a slew of other safety issues. We need are dogs to be obedient so as to disturb as little cover as possible and to run straight lines to the bird and back.

The last example I’ll give is a three year old dog though rally trained on shoreline running. The handler sees the dog starting to cheat towards the shoreline (not coming back in a straight line), blows the stop whistle and handles the dog back towards the water in a straight line; the dog only wants to come back to accomplish the second retrieve of a double. The dog is in a hurry to get back to be sent out for the other bird (the distraction) and decides to blow off the command. The handler try’s several attempts to stop the dog and cast him towards the water, the dog lands on shore and the handler stops the dog takes the bird and tosses back in the water (in the straight line), the dog goes out gets the bird and you guessed it cheats again. Now the handler pushes the dog off the bank with his foot back into the water on the straight line not letting the dog come in, until he gets on line. The dog responds, gets out of the water on the proper line and completes the retrieve.

Although from a distance this may have looked like kicking the dog, the punishment in the handler’s eyes was warranted. This dog had been through the swim by drill (a water drill taught to a dog to handle with a bird in his mouth); many different handling drills and is doing AKC qualifying tests (typically triples and blinds).

We certainly want to use as little force as necessary to get the point across to a dog to not be disobedient. In the last twenty plus years I have seen trainers use many different methods of force including actually shooting at their dogs with bird shot, using cattle prods, and literally beating the hell out of their dogs. Today’s methods of repetition, attrition and e-collar training are by far the most humane correction tactics we can use.

The gentleman at the club meeting giving his view on abuse witnessed the exact three examples I have just given. I respect this man greatly as a human being. I have known him for years and know him to be a good man. I also know the people committing the abuse. I’m one of them. As a trainer with almost thirty years experience all I can say is I have never abused a dog, my dogs love to train, and to learn, and I respect them as they respect me. I train for my dog’s confidence. And all I can say to that poorly informed gentleman is,,,,,,,,, sometimes our kids need a spanking.