Author: tylermuto1
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All the Wrong Questions
The day after I posted the video that it included in the post, I started getting Instagram ads from a company proclaiming they would teach you the “best way to train your reactive dog.” As a young dog trainer, I remember finding myself on the grail quest to find this…
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There is No Missing Technique
And there’s no magical “method.” When I look back at the time I have spent over the past year coaching professional dog trainers, there is one thing that stands out above the rest. Trainers come to me from many different backgrounds and many different experience levels. While some trainers are…
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How to Feel More Confident in Private Lessons
Dog trainers often come to me for help with their private lessons. Commonly, a dog trainer will say, “I have this client coming in in a few days, Their dog is (name the behavior problem of choice), I know the owner needs more foundation, but I’m not totally sure what…
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How to Stop Dog Owners from Sabotaging Their Progress.
One of our biggest challenges as dog trainers is keeping our clients from standing in their own way. There are a hundred variations of how this can manifest, and in this post, I will be discussing two recent situations that were brought to me by trainers that I coach. The…
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The Home Page Hack
There is one thing thousands of dog trainers have in common: They do not like sales and marketing. The good news is that all of us, even those who work alone, have at our fingertips a salesperson who has the potential to be highly effective. That salesperson is your website. …
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How to 10X Your Board & Train Success Rate
Here’s the scenario: You had a dog in your board and train for 4 weeks. Today’s the day for the go-home lesson with the family. The dog has been spot-on, hitting every command for you, and you are feeling great. Then the time comes for you to have the owner…
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Natural/Unnatural
The essential task of the modern dog trainer Teach the dog how to behave naturally In an unnatural environment Master this The rest is easy
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Is Negative Punishment Really More Positive?
I am the proud father of two. A daughter whose age at the time of this writing is measured in weeks, and a son who is roughly two and a half. Like most toddlers, my son experiments with many different behaviors, often to see what he can get away with.…
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Counter Conditioning, Causal Relevance, and the Implications for Humane Dog Training
In 1972, Michael Domjam and Nancy Wilson tested an interesting hypothesis: When creating a conditioned association between two events, do the types of events matter? To help illustrate this question more clearly, let’s take an example: You go out for dinner at a new restaurant. You eat a large meal…
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Cognitive Dissonance
I wish I could be a reward-only trainer. I don’t enjoy correcting dogs or putting any “pressure” on them. I love dogs. That’s why I chose this career. Unfortunately, because I specialize in helping dog owners to achieve success in real world situations, some amount of pressure/correction/punishment is often necessary.…