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Dealing with less experienced animal professionals

7/5/2015

11 Comments

 
Picture
Here is a scenario that has happened to me when I started sharing animal training information and that I’ve encountered several times in the cybernetic space: a young animal trainer posts an article, shares a video or opinion on dog training and a more experienced trainer criticizes him/her, mentioning that it is too basic and that the person lacks experience. I consider criticism to be a bad idea and the wrong approach when interacting with another person (for more information on that topic please refer to my article “Gentle with animals, but harsh with people”), but let’s explore the situation from a different perspective.

 
To make this exercise easier, join me in an imaginary world where we can quantify knowledge (in this case, animal training knowledge). Imagine a scale from 0 to 10 in which 0 is a person that knows absolutely nothing about animal training and 10 is the person that knows everything there is to know on the topic. I can think of a few people that would be a 9 on this scale and many of them would be the influential trainers that have been showing the world that using a carrot is better than using a stick, backing it up with anecdotal and scientific data. In my opinion, the 10 is impossible to achieve because there is always stuff to be learned, but more on that later.


Going back to my opening sentence, imagine that the trainer posting the article or video is a level 3 trainer and gets the “correction” from a level 6 trainer. Probably, the level 6 trainer finds it very basic information and too irrelevant to be shared. Perhaps that specific community has many trainers that are at a higher level than the level 3 trainer. But here is the important piece of information: all the level 6 trainers were level 3 one day. Actually, there was a moment in which they were level 1 or 2 and knew less than this person does at the moment. More importantly, perhaps there are people in that group that are level 1 or 2 at the moment and that can learn from the content that the level 3 person shared.

 
Many fields related to the biological sciences have been evolving a lot and animal training is especially prone to new information. For many of us the evolution is constant and very fast paced. Let me give you an example in the first person: I offer a lot of free animal training videos on my Youtube channel. Many times, I shoot the video and by the time I start with the editing it has become obsolete in my view. I would change several things if I was to do it again. When I look back at videos that I have done a couple of years ago then my general thought is “what the heck was I thinking when I did that”? That is probably the case for many of my fellow friends and animal trainers. I do not believe however that this is a bad thing. It is evidence that we are trying to learn and evolve each and every day. It shows that a given trainer’s current approach is an improved one when compared with the one he/she was using in the past.

 
Why do we criticize the “already known” or “not ideal technique” then? Well, perhaps it is a hard wired behavior that evolved to make us survive, to get a competitive edge over others. It makes some intuitive sense that if we devalue someone else's work we might be valued instead. The problem is that we might discourage the level 3 trainer from becoming level 6 and who knows, perhaps one day becoming level 9. We do need force free trainers out there. We do need modern training techniques to be the mainstream information out there.

 
Some years ago I had a few younger colleagues starting to be given responsibilities that up until that point were only my responsibility or of some older, more experienced colleagues. When this happened, my first natural inclination was to find mistakes and criticize them. I had seen other people using this approach, so certainly that was the normal thing to do, right? Well, I was fortunate enough to follow the lead of some amazing people that would take on the success of younger colleagues and celebrate it as if it was their own success. More impressively, they would even try to learn from younger colleagues. Obviously, they would take most of their new knowledge from international references, but it was still remarkable that they would learn some bits with less experienced people.

 
Experience is important, but I believe that even more important than experience is a desire to hunt for new knowledge and ideas. I have met some very well experienced animal trainers that ended up stagnating their careers because they did not actively tried to acquire new knowledge. The best animal trainers in the word (the level 9 ones) are always trying to learn more stuff and sometimes they refer to “less knowledgeable people”. Let’s embrace new information even if it comes from newcomers and let’s make the world a more force free place.

 
Picture: http://www.morguefile.com
 

 

 


11 Comments
John
7/5/2015 05:55:20 pm

An interesting article and one with which I agree. Too often, I feel, we read trainers attacking others either because they do not feel the methods of the other person are correct or, as you point out, the method is not sufficiently advanced.

I too am constantly trying to learn and hold the opinion that you can never have too many methods available to you, as every dog is different and what works for one may not work for another. It does us good, I think, to look back at our own work and at those new to training and see what we did when at the stage they are at now. Unlike so many of the self styled "experts" I've made mistakes (and expect to make more in the future) but as long as I can learn from those mistakes I do not count them as negative experiences.

Let us remember we all started with less experience and knowledge than we have now and we do things the way we do them now because of what we have learned. Sadly, some of the "experts" among us only teach now and do not "waste their time" learning any more, as they already know it all (or so they think).

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Jane Gerard link
7/6/2015 07:09:37 am

The point about any of this is that if the trainer has actually understood and teaches how an animal learns i.e operant conditioning or creating an environment where the animal choses ( to learn), then how come they do not apply this to human animals, why are we so punitive and coercive in our judgement of others? I like Murray Sidman's book Coersion and its Fallout. I wish I had had some of this knowledge, ( now available) when I was a young trainer at level 1, ( 1980's) then I would not have taken the criticism so seriously, I would have understood why we, as a society punish first before we try to teach.

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mcgoo link
7/7/2015 03:17:38 pm

New approach from an experienced pet person, priceless. Share more and play more and the dog will respond accordingly to what you do.

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Randi Lass
7/8/2015 10:27:23 am

You are just the type of person that I would love to study training under. Happen to be anywhere in the vicinity of NYC?

There are so many people that hang a shingle out as a trainer (i.e. print a business card and pamphlet since we have few shingles here) thinking it an easy source of profit. They do a disservice to their clients, human and canine, and the industry as a whole. Very few clients know to ask if the "trainer" has any industry certifications (CPDT and such) or the nature of their experience (beyond references). Not to say that there are not people who are naturals but I don't think anything can replace a serious and studied knowledge base combined with experience. I've been working with dogs for a very long time but make sure to tell people that I am not a trainer. I have just not found/come across someone I would like to train under (actually I did find someone that I admired beyond belief but he moved from NY to Duluth to open a training center so studying under him is not feasible but I do believe he is talented, bright, a natural and the real deal).

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Anne Springer link
7/9/2015 12:24:43 am

I have a slightly more complicated take on this, regardless of what level you're at. Perhaps the onus also rests on any downline group of trainers to respect the upline as well. We should all try to be open to constructive suggestions from those who have attained a level of expertise beyond our own.

It pains me to see young trainers who have trained one dog, or a few, take a course, get "certified," hang out a shingle, and suddenly they are professional know it alls, versus what they are - beginning trainers. And, sadly, when they're in over their heads on a case, they search for zebras when they hear hoofbeats, instead of the horses that are more common. Unable to solve a problem, they go blithely in to "woo land" and drag clients along behind them. Every aggression problem needs a thyroid test, or the next guru's protocol, or, worse, homeopathy (now scientifically proven no better than placebo), rather than a simple intervention that a level 9 trainer would skillfully apply. They've not yet paid any dues with a mentor, or as an apprentice, or with a paid coach, and thus they struggle. They don't know how much they don't know and many don't want to be told what they don;t know. (Of course, experienced trainers should take the author of this blog to heart and be ready to help in nicer ways!)

Part of the problem that the force free movement is experiencing is a credibility gap. Traditional trainers may not be treating animals nicely, but their clientele perceives that they get results. If a positive trainer cannot get results, then the traditionalists don't bother criticizing that one trainer, they criticize all those "purely positive cookie pushers" who can't get Fido to do what the owner wants, and they "guarantee" that they can. If you, as a beginning trainer, accept dogs whose problems are beyond your expertise, you need to wake up. Instead, get a mentor, or refer up to a trainer who is more experienced. I guarantee if you do that, later on that trainer will be more likely to refer some easier cases or overflow biz to you - and that gets you a friend/mentor and more experience, NOT a competitor who has to correct your mistakes or yet another positive trainer who loses a client to a shock jock.

So, both upline and downline need to think more about how they treat one another...become allies not enemies, Develop humility. Learn the science, be a stickler about mechanics. If you put up video, expect constructive criticism and don't be defensive. If you critique a video, be sensitive how you do it and remember that some trainers who are inexperienced now may develop and surpass you!

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Karl link
7/18/2015 09:46:53 pm

I train zebras , but in an professional world , they would call me "amateur". I have no formal education. Where would you get it on zebras ? No one train zebras professionaly. "All" the professionals said that zebras can not be tamed and that they are very dangerous to handle. It's not dangerous if you know how to do. Zebras are friendly and contact seeking, even an older stallion. It is impossible, I have been told. Even so, I can perhaps say that I am an "8" on zebras now. I have learned of zebras with zebras, no book or text in the world can tell me more than the reality itself.
If I had listened to the experts, I had not even met a zebra today.

And by all means, read listen watch and learn from others.
You have to start somewhere in order to continue to develop.
But to think outside the box can provide so much more....

Very interesting reading, positive training is the only way to go, whatever animal you want to train.

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susan gotard
7/22/2015 05:30:30 am

~ I was a dog walker for one year in 2013. Yes, indeed there is much to know about the different breeds. They have different personallities for sure.

~ One question to ponder, do animals have emotions! Does research have proof about this question? I do believe that they do...

~ A hypothesis?

Susan Gotard

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Jose Gomes link
7/30/2015 07:09:54 pm

Thanks for all the constructive comments guys.

Randi, I am not on that side of the world. I am in Melbourne, Australia. Thanks though.

Susan, all the scientific evidence suggests that they do.

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    Jose Gomes is a certified dog behaviour consultant by the ABC of SA and currently applying the most updated humane techniques to the training of dogs and other pets

    Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own and do not represent the opinions of any other academic and professional organisations

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