Different Dog Trainers

Let’s chat about three different dog trainers and their preferred dog obedience training styles. I will include my training style too and, I will admit, I feel a bit intimidated comparing my training style to both of these pioneers in dog training. So, here it goes!

Dog Trainer: Karen Pryor

Karen was instrumental in educating the dog obedience world about clicker training, as she was a dolphin trainer. Not only did Karen Pryor bring clicker training to the masses, she was also the driving force behind scientific research on training new behaviors. Clicker training means to mark a behavior with a click. The click means two things: I like what you did and you earned a treat. Karen does not use food to lure a dog into a behavior. She is more hands-off and will shape (reward small steps toward a final behavior like teaching a dog to walk politely on leash) and capture (click and treat when a finished behavior is offered like a dog laying down). The absence of a click means the dog did not perform the behavior correctly. Dogs quickly learn to work for the click.

Dog Trainer: Zak George

Zak George has taken social media by storm with his dog training videos on YouTube. Also, Zak has starred on SuperFetch, which airs on Animal Planet and CBBC’s “Who Let the Dogs Out.” He shows no signs of stopping, appearing on numerous prime time TV shows, getting the message out that positive reinforcement dog training methods work! His energy is fabulous, and his videos are on point so pop in and watch his YouTube channel at Zak George’s Dog Training Evolution!

Dog Trainer: Fanna Easter

About 90% of the time, while teaching classes, I recommend a clicker to mark behaviors, as dogs learn so fast using this method. I do use lures mostly when instructing pet parents how to teach their dogs to lie down as a first step to loose leash walking or when a dog becomes confused. When training my dogs, I use a clicker 99.9% of the time. When teaching people how to train their dogs, I find people will move and fiddle around when they become stressed so I recommend food lures to redirect their nervous energy. Having a dog follow a food lure will redirect the dog (decreasing the dog’s stress) while providing a moving outlet, decreasing the pet owner’s stress — a win-win! Once the fiddling around stress has successfully stopped, we go back to using the clicker.

Tell us about your dog obedience training style in the comment section below!

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