My initial exposure to professional dog training was in 1979 with Vashka. Training methods at that time were not much fun for the dog. This didn’t seem logical to me. As a pianist, I began studying with Adele Marcus of the Julliard School at age sixteen and finished graduate school with Donald Walker at Northern Illinois University. I taught piano from university to pre-school aged students and knew that happily motivated students progressed furthest. Past generations who underwent their knuckles being whapped with rulers by their piano teachers retold these stories not with memories of endearment but as survival of their piano lessons much like a soldier retells war stories. Why should learning be any different for dogs, I wondered?

Watching my shepherd mothers with their litters taught me much, too. Mothers give a lot of leeway to their pups, encouraging them to explore, play and interact – leading them in games and setting up learning opportunities. Corrections were few, fair and fast, followed with a wash or a quick lick or invitation to play. No anger. No vengeance. No hard feelings. Lesson learned and life merrily continued.

Using food, toys, play and affection motivates dogs to want to interact, learn and try new challenges. When a dog is tuned in and trying, rarely do they decide to ‘just be bad’. Most often, they are reacting to confusing cues, distractions that overwhelm them or are just not ready for the particular task. As I began to see dogs as partners in learning, their learning improved. (And so did my teaching!)

In the mid 1980’s, a rare event occurred. I went to a hair salon to have my hair cut and styled! As serendipity would have it, another person who rarely had her hair styled was seated next to me. She was a veterinarian and as we chatted about dogs and training, she asked if I would be interested in teaching obedience to her patients. She, like me, did not like harsh and adversarial training methods. My career in training and behavioral counseling had begun in earnest! I built my practice by networking with veterinarians so they referred their patients for obedience classes before problem behavior took hold.

In 1987, a husband and wife team of veterinarians and I were among the first in central Ohio to offer classes for puppies as young as 8 weeks of age. The classes were held in their clinic for their patients. The results were gratifying. Pups and their owners built strong relationships and good manners easily and quickly. The starting point for training pups is fun and games. As pups invest themselves in the play/training, obedience behaviors like sit, down, come can be introduced effortlessly and disobedient deeds avoided. Puppies are learning magnets – they will learn ‘something’ whether we consciously teach them or not. I use this knowledge with our litters so they are well grounded with crates, coming when called, walking on leash, riding in cars, having ears and nails handled, house-training and generally being good canine citizens.

In my training practice, I noted that many of the training and behavior problems people had with their dogs were based on two main issues: 1) Puppies mismatched with their families, 2) puppies unprepared for ‘life after the litter’. Puppies who were unfamiliar with stairs, crates, leashes, car rides, the commotion of kids and hubbub of towns – basically, unprepared for their future lives in human society. Families were baffled. Reactions piling up on reactions until humans and dogs felt overwhelmed. Our program of rearing litters greatly reduced these worries so families could get on with training and building strong bonds.

As far as monitoring pups, we developed a survey of health, medical and behavior assessments that families filled out, many sending the medical records as well. I knew the best way to screen what we were producing was to actually collect as much information on progeny as possible. This is why we eventually required x-raying of joints and providing us with on-going updates with the survey as part of our contract. It was effort and expense by our adoptive families and something we are very grateful for.

Our breeding program was better for it and I could utilize real and comprehensive data for future litters and adoptive families. Health screenings on parents are just one piece of the breeding puzzle. What is actually produced is of critical importance.