The call came in from a woman who adopted an approximately 1
year old Shih Tzu. She and her hubby
already had another Shih Tzu that they purchased and trained as a puppy and now
they wanted their newest family member to have his education as well – great! I described my group class and curriculum and
informed them that I did still have room in the weekend class they wanted to
join. Knowing that some folks have
concerns, however unfounded, about Pitbulls, I “cautioned” them that the class
already had a couple of larger dogs in it, specifically a couple of bully
mixes. Fortunately, they were not at all bothered by this, in fact, they felt it
was good to have a mix of breeds/sizes in a class. It came out that they had attended a group
class with their puppy that included large and small dogs and they had a
wonderful experience. I, of course,
asked them why they didn’t return to where they had such a great experience and
was informed that the training center had moved farther East, making the trip
to and from much too long. Well, that
worked out nicely for me - yay! The
woman thanked me for my time and said she needed to speak with her hubby and
would get back to me.
A few days later the woman called back to tell me they were
very interested in the class (awesome) and she asked how large my group classes
were. I informed her that I keep my
classes small – no more than 6 and 8, only if I have an assistant. I explained that in a larger class it would
be impossible to give everyone some personalized attention and larger classes
can easily become out-of-hand with barking and other issues. (lol, another blog for another day – some of
my group classes “gone wild”) She
promptly disagreed with me, saying in the classes she attended, there were 10
and 12 dogs and it was fabulous experience.
I asked how many trainers ran the class or if the trainer had any
assistants and she told me no, just him.
Rather than argue with her that a 10 to 1 ratio is not the best idea and
that she may have gotten “lucky” with the class she was in, I simply said, “He
must have been a wonderful trainer” and let it go at that. At this point I informed her that the class
was filling quickly and that if she wanted to take the class, she needed to
send in the registration and deposit.
She said she would.
Another few days passed and the woman calls me yet
again. She apologized for not sending in
the registration right away but was putting it in the mail today with a deposit
check. (Yes, I still have old-fashioned
mail-in registration forms. I know, I
know, I need to update my website for online registrations. Hey, don’t bug me, I’ve been busy!) She just wanted to double-check the address and
she wanted to know what she would need for class. I informed her that as soon as I received the
registration, I would email her a confirmation along with the class info email - “Group Class, What to Expect & What to
Bring.” To which she replied, “Great,
I’ll be looking forward to it. But, I
guess I’ll need a training collar, right?”
Uh-oh
At this point, I go thru a series of ritualized aggression
moves. (yes, I definitely empathize with dogs a bit too much. I am the very opposite of anthropomorphizing)
I freeze up, I begin to speak very softly and slowly and (thank dog she couldn’t
see me!) my lip began to curl into a snarl.
I very quietly asked, “What do you mean by a training collar?” As many of us trainers know, “training
collar” is a euphemism for “choke chain” but I couldn’t be sure what she meant,
hence the question. She hesitated and
said, “You know, a training collar.” So
now I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m an idiot of a trainer to not know what a
training collar is so I said, “Well there are various types of ‘training
collars’, do you mean a choke chain, a prong collar or an electronic
collar?” She said, “Oh no, not a prong
or shock collar, I would never do that to my dog. But I was told that calling
it a choke chain is inaccurate because that is not the purpose of the collar,
it just gets the dog’s attention.” (Really?
Well, I guess it is at least in part true. Put a choke chain on me… you’ll have my
undivided attention, that’s for sure.
Ahhh, but take it off and I will not only ignore you, I’ll run like the
wind away from you.) I said, “I don’t use those collars at all. My method is to get the dog’s attention
through motivation. I prefer class
participants to use a regular flat-buckle collar or, even better, a
harness.” To which she replied,
“Alrighty then. Thank you,
goodbye.” There was a definite tone to
that ‘alrighty then’, a mix of condescending sarcasm blended with ‘I’m humoring
you.’
Another few days elapsed and no registration showed up so I
called her to check in to see if she had sent it. She informed me that they had changed their
minds. Since they had such a good experience the first time, they decided to
make the trip to the other training center.
I wished her luck and success and hung up feeling so depressed.
I couldn’t figure what went wrong. It certainly seemed to coincide with the
“training collar” discussion. I was very
careful to not say anything negative about her having used one before. I just told
her that I don’t use them and that I have a different method. We had talked about positive reinforcement and
rewards-based training in a previous conversation and she seemed to be on board
with it. So what the $@%&
happened?! My brain can’t wrap itself
around the possibility that someone would object to NOT using a choke
chain. I certainly can’t get my head or
heart around putting any dog on a choke chain but I do ‘get’ how folks with
large or strong dogs THINK they need one.
But, seriously, a choke chain on a Shih Tzu?
Is that why she didn’t join my class? Because I wouldn’t let her put a choke chain
on her 12-pound Shih Tzu? It certainly
seemed that way to me but I’ll never know for sure. It still bugs the you-know-what
out of me. I sincerely hope that Shih
Tzu is none the worse for wear. As for
my class – it was a great group and they all graduated with flying colors last
month. And the strong Pitbull with the
petite human, he wears a harness, he doesn’t pull and he can’t take his eyes
off his human. I’d say she earned his attention,
not to mention his willingness to comply, because he thinks the sun rises and
sets on her and that’s a beautiful thing to see.
Chuck the Choke
Pass up the ProngSkip the Shock
and
MOTIVATE instead of Dictate!
Happy Tails J
No comments:
Post a Comment