I’ve mentioned in many previous posts that my dogs are demo dogs for me at Kindred Spirits Dog Training so I thought I would talk a little bit about what they do. After all, not all trainers use demo dogs in their classes or training.
After I had been teaching dog training classes for a few years, I re-enrolled in college and began taking some classes. They were not in animal behavior, but human behavior. I specifically wanted to know how to teach adults, so I focused on adult education. One of my professors made a huge impression on me. He was a great teacher, and he said that to teach, the instructor needs to impact people in a way they can’t forget. They need to hear the material being taught, see it, and practice it. The material, no matter what the subject matter, needs to make an impression.
So we try to do that at Kindred Spirits, and one way we can do this is by using our dogs. I know that the dogs make a big impression on people, because most of our returning students will mention what dog I had in class. Recently a woman said, “I took my first class with you 18 years ago. Ursa was your demo dog and she was awesome. Then when we got another dog, we came back to you and you had Dax in class. Now we have a new dog.”
Our demo dogs’ first job is to show what each exercise is. I have my dogs (and my instructors’ dogs) demonstrate the steps of each exercise as it is being taught. They demonstrate it step by step, then we show the finished exercise. When the dogs show off the finished exercise, I then explain how this can be used at home to make life easier with the dog or safer for the dog. When I talk about the finished exercise, I also let Bashir show off. When he’s working off leash in front of the class, he makes a huge impression because to work off leash, he’s ignoring all of the class dogs, as well as all of the other trainer’s dogs. He’s focusing on me and what I’m asking him to do. When he heels off leash, watching me, and ignoring all the distractions, there’s a huge ‘Wow!’ from the class.
Another wow-worthy exercise is the come. When we teach the come, we demonstrate the various steps, explain our philosophy, and then tell the class that their ultimate goal is for their dog to come to them the first time they call, every time they call, no matter what the distractions. We then have six, eight, or ten of the trainers’ dogs sit and wait in front of the class. The trainers then walk about thirty or forty yards away. At a signal, the trainers call their dogs who run past the front of the class (ignoring the class) to go to their owners. It’s always impressive.
I also use our dogs to help establish the students’ expectations. At KS we don’t teach competition. We once did, but found that our joy came in training family dogs. We want to create well behaved pets who will spend their lifetime in their homes. What I ran in to while doing this was that competition owners had high expectations, but pet owners did not. Therefore, by providing some demonstrations with our dogs we could raise those expectations. We’re saying, in so many words, “yes, your dog CAN do this!” Not all dogs like being a demo dog, though. Kate’s Rottweiler, Gina, has never been happy as a demo dog; she appeared uncomfortable having everyone stare at her. So even though she was praised and rewarded for working in front of the class, when she made it clear she didn’t like it, she wasn’t asked to do it any more. Some dogs love it, though. My Aussies all enjoy it and will vie with each other as to who gets to demo a specific exercise. In fact, they get so good at it I’ve often told classes we could go get coffee and just let the dogs teach the class.
Photos: Top: The Kindred Spirits’ trainers’ dogs. Bottom: Jeff Gross and his German Shepherd, Storm. Photos by Becca Siminou.
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