{"id":10036,"date":"2013-10-08T22:52:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T05:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/?p=10036"},"modified":"2013-10-08T22:52:13","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T05:52:13","slug":"where-to-get-dog-training-and-dog-behavior-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/where-to-get-dog-training-and-dog-behavior-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to Get Dog Training and Dog Behavior Information"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody’s an expert when armchair-training someone else’s dog, just like everybody’s an expert when armchair-parenting someone else’s child.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I first got my Shiba Inu (Sephy), I had a difficult time with him. Shibas are stubborn, independent, bold, and energetic – I was unprepared for such a dog. Naturally, friends, neighbors, and even strangers, had lots of unsolicited advice about what I should be doing. <\/p>\n

“Just slap him on the muzzle”, “Show him who is boss”, “Say no bite and hold on to his muzzle”, “Wrestle him to the ground and growl at him”, “Use a choke chain”, “Pinch his ear”, and on and on it went. <\/p>\n

Much of the information was wrong, some of it was risky and dangerous, and none of it considered matters from the dog’s perspective. <\/p>\n

\"Shiba
Shiba Inu Sephy in his cute and adorable disguise.<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n

I went online to look for more information, and it was more of the same. “Discussions” had a lot of conflicting information, a lot of personal attacks, and it was difficult to separate what was fact, from what was fiction.<\/p>\n

Here are a few things that helped me.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

1. Get Information from Multiple Sources<\/h2>\n
\"Husky
Get Dog Training Information from Multiple Sources<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n

In the beginning, I made many dog training mistakes with Sephy<\/a> because I was unprepared. However, one of the first things that I did right, was to get information from multiple different, but reputable sources. I called up many different trainers in my area, talked to them about problems with my dogs, asked them a lot of questions about their philosophy on training, asked them for book or article suggestions, and more. <\/p>\n

Once I had an overview of the different positions, I could better decide which of those sources are rooted in scientific fact, which are conjecture, and which are complete rubbish. <\/p>\n

Some places that I currently visit for dog training information-<\/p>\n

a) Scientific studies and articles from schools with a strong animal behavior program.<\/h4>\n

We can start by looking at the top veterinarian schools in the country.<\/a> Then, we can further narrow things down by looking at websites and articles to see if they have a strong behavioral program. <\/p>\n

In addition, we may refer to this great article by Patricia McConnell<\/a> on what it means to be an animal behaviorist, and which schools have good animal behavior programs.<\/p>\n

UC Davis appears high-up in both of these lists, therefore, if I were interested in dog dominance<\/em>, I may do a search on “dog dominance ucdavis” or “dog dominance upenn”.<\/p>\n

Below are several well-known dog behaviorists, with strong practical experience as well as theoretical backgrounds. Their websites and blogs have many good articles on dog training and dog behavior. <\/p>\n