The Mifflin County Dog Training Club

Training Buddies

Written by graydogs
Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Training with another person, or a group of people, is a lot more enjoyable than training alone.  That is one of the main reasons people like to enroll in classes, you get to see how other people work with their dogs and you tend to make friends along the way.  Few of us are motivated enough to train on our own, and even those of us that do can benefit from training with other people.

Which has me thinking, something that I love to do when I'm not training my dog (and generally I'm thinking of what I did or didn't do at my last training session, or how can I teach a certain behavior or perhaps "un-teach" a behavior).  For the human part of the equation our training buddies are folks we like to be with and feel comfortable with.  Generally we hang out at matches and shows together, giving encouragement and helping in the analysis of how the class went.  We also tend to feel more at ease (yes, we still do get butterflies but in most cases our nervousness isn't paralyzing) being around familiar people.  But what about our dogs?  Do they "feel" comfortable having their training buddies around and if so, is it possible that having those familiar dogs there makes it easier to cope with the stresses of the show environment and the show ring experience?  I personally think there is some merit to my theory and here is why.

Dodge has a group of human friends that he just likes having around.  Those of you that let him mooch treats from you at training know who you are.  He is comfortable in your company and I can leave him with you if I need to run out to the van or grab a piece of equipment to set up.  I can also ask those people to hold him at ringside and in the case of my breeder, her husband can even show him while I stand/sit outside the ring!  He's just that comfortable and I think that comes from the positive reinforcement as well as the socialization that he got as a puppy.  Anyway, doesn't it make sense that if those people are at the obedience ring, hanging out with us and cheering him on (because after all, he is the star!), he would feel more at ease when we both walk in to that ring?  Sure!  We are among friends and when you are with friends things don't seem as scary!

This is only the tip of the iceberg in my theory about training buddies.  We usually look at the human element when we talk about it but I think we should also consider the canines when we talk about "training buddies".