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What My Dog Training Education Actually Taught Me
When you look at a dog trainer's education, it is easy to see a list of courses, certificates, workshops and professional development. But a certificate hanging on a wall isn't the important part. The important part is what you learned from it, and how that knowledge changes what you do when there is an actual dog standing in front of you.
Throughout my career as a professional dog trainer, I have continued my education in canine behaviour, learning theory, puppy development, fear, aggression, cognition, animal welfare and reward-based training.
Some of that education gave me new skills. Some challenged things I previously believed. And some gave me a scientific explanation for things I had already begun noticing through experience.
Most importantly, it taught me that good dog training is rarely about simply getting a dog to perform a behaviour.
It is about understanding why the behaviour is happening in the first place.
Here are some of the professional courses, programs and continuing education that have had an impact on the way I understand and train dogs today.
SIRIUS Dog Trainer Academy for Professional Dog Trainers - Dr. Ian Dunbar
Dr. Ian Dunbar's work had a significant influence on how I think about puppies and the prevention of behaviour problems. One of the biggest lessons I took from this education was that puppy training isn't simply about teaching sit, down and come. There is an enormous opportunity during puppyhood to teach a dog how to live successfully in a human world.
That means socialization, bite inhibition, handling, frustration tolerance, settling, confidence and learning how to interact appropriately with people and other dogs.
It also reinforced something that has become increasingly important in my own work:
Prevention is often far easier than rehabilitation.
Teaching a puppy appropriate behaviour before unwanted behaviours become rehearsed can change the trajectory of that dog's life.
This education helped shape the way I approach puppy training today. I am much less interested in creating a puppy who can perform ten impressive commands than I am in developing a puppy who can think, recover from frustration, communicate appropriately and feel safe navigating the world.
Treatment & Prevention of Dog Aggression: Biting and Fighting - Dr. Ian Dunbar
Aggression is one of the areas of dog training where oversimplification can become dangerous. A growl isn't a diagnosis. A bite doesn't tell you the entire story.
And calling a dog "aggressive" tells us very little about why the behaviour occurred.
This education strengthened my understanding of assessing aggressive behaviour in context.
What happened before the incident?
How serious was the bite?
Was there inhibition?
Was the dog attempting to increase distance?
Was fear involved?
Was the dog guarding something?
Was another dog involved?
Has the behaviour been escalating?
What warnings happened before the bite?
Those questions matter.
One of the biggest things I have learned through both education and experience is that we should never punish a dog simply for communicating discomfort. If we suppress growling without addressing why the dog felt the need to growl, we may remove an important warning without changing the underlying emotion.
My job isn't simply to make the warning disappear.
My job is to understand what the dog is trying to tell us.
Growl Class Workshop - Dr. Ian Dunbar
This workshop further influenced the way I think about dogs who growl, lunge, bark or behave aggressively around other dogs. When a dog is exploding at the end of a leash, it is very tempting to focus exclusively on stopping the explosion. But behaviour doesn't begin with the explosion. There are often much quieter signs first: changes in posture, staring, freezing, avoidance, displacement behaviours, increased arousal or attempts to create distance.
Learning to recognize those earlier moments give us an opportunity to intervene before the dog becomes overwhelmed. That has become a major part of how I work with reactive dogs.
Rather than continually putting dogs into situations where they fail and correcting the reaction afterward, I want to work at a level where the dog can still think, learn and make choices.
Accredited Puppy Trainer - PetSmart
My early professional puppy training education through PetSmart gave me practical experience teaching both dogs and their people.
And that second part is important.
Being a dog trainer means you also must become very good at teaching humans.
You can teach a dog beautifully, but if the owner doesn't understand why the training works, how reinforcement changes behaviour, or how to continue the training at home, the results may not last.
Working with puppies also taught me just how different individual dogs can be.
Two eight-week-old puppies can walk into a class and have completely different needs.
One may charge into everything without hesitation. Another may need time to observe before participating. One may be extremely food motivated. Another may be more interested in the environment. Good training requires adapting the lesson to the learner rather than forcing every learner through exactly the same process. That principle still guides my training today.
Animal Behaviour Science Symposium - BC SPCA
The BC SPCA Animal Behaviour Science Symposium strengthened something that has become foundational to my training philosophy:
Behaviour and welfare cannot be separated.
We cannot look only at whether a training technique produces the behaviour we want.
We also need to ask what that experience is like for the animal.
Is the dog frightened?
Confused?
Frustrated?
Overwhelmed?
In pain?
Does the dog understand how to succeed?
Is the environment making learning harder?
Those questions changed the way I evaluate training.
A method can suppress behaviour and still fail the dog.
My goal is not simply obedience. I want dogs to understand what we are asking, feel safe enough to learn and develop skills that allow them to function successfully in everyday life.
Getting Behaviour: The Foundations of Animal Training - Karolina Westlund, PhD
This education took me deeper into the science behind how animals learn.
Reinforcement, motivation, antecedents, consequences and behaviour acquisition can sound very academic on paper.
But understanding them makes an enormous difference in practical training.
One lesson I continually come back to is this:
Behaviour makes sense when you understand what is reinforcing it.
If a dog repeatedly jumps on visitors, pulls toward another dog, barks out the window or steals something from the counter, there is usually a reason that behaviour continues.
Instead of asking:
"How do I stop this?"
I learned to ask:
"What is maintaining this behaviour, and what would I like the dog to do instead?"
That question changes training from constantly correcting mistakes into deliberately teaching better alternatives.
It also made me much more thoughtful about training environments.
Sometimes the dog isn't failing. Sometimes we have simply made the lesson too difficult.
Guide to Living With and Training a Fearful Dog - Debbie Jacobs, CPDT-KA, CAP2
Fearful dogs have probably influenced me as a trainer more than almost any other group of dogs. They taught me patience. They taught me how much communication happens before a dog ever growls. And they taught me that forcing a dog through fear is not the same thing as helping a dog overcome it. Debbie Jacobs' work reinforced the importance of choice, safety, management, desensitization, counterconditioning and understanding the emotional state behind behaviour.
Fearful dogs cannot simply be told that something isn't scary.
They need experiences that gradually change what that thing predicts.
This is also where I became increasingly skeptical of the idea that every dog needs to be pushed into every situation.
Sometimes progress is stepping closer.
Sometimes progress is choosing to investigate.
Sometimes progress is recovering faster.
And sometimes progress is simply realizing:
"I can leave."
Giving a fearful dog appropriate choices can actually create confidence.
Advanced Dog Behaviour - Langara College, Dr. Rebecca Ledger
My studies through Langara College with Dr. Rebecca Ledger brought several important areas of dog behaviour together.
Advanced Dog Behaviour
This strengthened my ability to look beyond the behaviour we see and consider the biological, emotional, environmental and learning factors underneath it.
The more dogs I work with, the less interested I become in labels such as "stubborn," "dominant," "bad" or "untrainable."
Those words often stop investigation rather than encourage it.
I would rather ask:
What is causing this dog to behave this way?
That question is much more useful.
Typical Dog Behaviour
Understanding what is actually normal for dogs is surprisingly important.
Dogs dig.
Dogs chew.
Dogs sniff.
Dogs bark.
Dogs chase things.
Dogs explore with their mouths.
Dogs sometimes become frustrated.
Dogs communicate with their bodies in ways humans frequently misunderstand.
Training shouldn't be about removing everything that makes a dog a dog.
Our responsibility is to provide appropriate outlets for normal behaviour while teaching the skills dogs need to live safely in our homes and communities.
Difficult Dog Behaviour
This education reinforced the importance of looking at the whole dog when behaviour becomes challenging.
Not every behaviour problem is purely a training problem.
Pain can affect behaviour.
Fear can affect behaviour.
Chronic stress can affect behaviour.
The environment can affect behaviour.
Genetics can affect behaviour.
Development can affect behaviour.
Medical conditions can affect behaviour.
Sometimes the most responsible thing a trainer can say is:
"I think we need your veterinarian involved."
Training cannot fix pain, neurological disease or an untreated medical condition.
Knowing the limits of training is part of being a responsible trainer.
Keeping Dogs Safe
Safety is not separate from training.
Management matters.
Leashes matter.
Gates matter.
Crates and pens can matter.
Understanding dog interactions matters.
Recognizing early warning signs matters.
Preventing a dog from rehearsing dangerous behaviour matters.
Good management is sometimes dismissed as "not training."
I disagree.
Management creates the conditions in which successful training can actually happen.
Cooperative Dog Training
Cooperative care has become an important part of the way I work with dogs.
Handling shouldn't always mean physically restraining a dog until something is finished.
Dogs can learn to participate in nail care, grooming, veterinary handling, examinations and other procedures.
Teaching cooperation can reduce fear while giving the dog clearer expectations about what is happening.
It is another example of something I value enormously in training:
communication rather than confrontation.
Dog First Aid
Working professionally with dogs means accepting responsibility for their physical safety as well as their behaviour. First-aid education helped me become better prepared to recognize emergencies, respond appropriately and understand when a dog needs veterinary attention rather than training. When dogs are entrusted to my care, knowing how to teach them isn't enough. I also need to know how to keep them safe.
What Years of Working With Dogs Added to the Education
Courses can teach you learning theory.
They can teach you behaviour science.
They can teach you protocols, terminology and techniques.
But dogs teach you something else.
They teach you humility.
Because eventually a dog comes along who doesn't respond the way the textbook suggested. That is when experience becomes incredibly important.
Over the years I have worked with puppies, adolescents, fearful dogs, reactive dogs, dogs struggling with impulse control, dogs who have learned unwanted behaviours extremely well and dogs whose behaviour was influenced by circumstances far beyond simple obedience.
They have taught me to slow down and observe.
They have taught me not to assume.
They have taught me that behaviour can be information.
They have taught me that the same training plan does not belong on every dog.
And they have taught me that sometimes the best thing I can do as a trainer is change my plan, rather than demand that the dog change faster.
Education Should Change How You Train
I don't pursue continuing education because I want a longer list of certificates underneath my name. I do it because I don't believe a dog trainer should ever decide they have learned enough. Behaviour science continues to evolve. Our understanding of animal welfare continues to evolve. And every dog we work with has the potential to expose something we don't yet understand.
My education has given me a foundation in learning theory, behaviour, fear, aggression, puppy development, cognition, welfare and reward-based training.
My experience has taught me how complicated the individual dog standing in front of me can be.
Together, those things have shaped the trainer I am today.
I don't want a dog who simply learns to avoid making mistakes.
I want to teach dogs what works.
I want them to understand how to succeed.
I want fearful dogs to discover that they have choices.
I want excitable dogs to learn that calm behaviour can work.
I want puppies to develop skills before problems become habits.
And I want owners to understand their dogs well enough that they don't need to spend the rest of the dog's life correcting them.
Because ultimately, good dog training isn't about controlling dogs.
It's about understanding behaviour well enough that we can teach them.
Carey
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