Abundant Life Dog Training

Allows Dogs To Enjoy Life, Empowers Them To Be Their Best

Champion Hawk du Josar

'Thunder Paws'

Abundant Life Dog Training empowers dogs to be their best as companions as well as competitive partners.  With my training methods dogs are always emotionally balanced allowing them to learn quickly and perform accurately.

Dogs have always a big part of my life.  I never knew competitive dog sports existed until I went to my first dog training class in 1983.  Because my instructor was a member of a Schutzhund club, I joined it as well as a local Obedience club.  They both used compulsion based training.   This was not for me.  I was determined to find a better way.   

Playing Canine Russian Roulette

If you use traditional training methods (compulsion-based) every time you give your dog a cue, he is playing Russian roulette.  If his response is not what you want, BANG!  He gets a correction.  Now, you have put him into a position where he must play a guessing game.

What was that for?

What did I do?

Was it because I was startled and looked to see if I was safe?

Was it because I moved my right foot?

I dropped my head to get up, was that it?

Was it because I moved because I was uncomfortable?

Was my sit too slow?  

Was my down too fast?

Understanding How To Communicate With Your Dog

By learning as much as I could about what is behind the beautiful eyes of dogs, discovering and implementing the laws of learning, and studying the science behind training, I developed a unique dog training program that is extremely effective, and I have been using it with my dogs and teaching it to my student's for almost 38 years.  We have all had amazing results Since there is a language barrier between me and my dog, I create a new and distinct one that we learn together.  And because we can understand each other, my dog stays emotionally balanced instead of getting frustrated because he cannot figure out the information I give him.  Skills are taught with hand signals first.  This eliminates all social pressure on the dog.  Verbal cues are added only when my dog is responding reliably and meets my criteria for the targeted response.

Giving The Dog His Freedom

I do not correct my dog and I do not have a conditioned aversive.  And because of this, my dog is free to offer any response he thinks is correct and will earn reinforcement.  By refining my criteria, he refines his responses until we have the targeted response.  

My dog’s response to a verbal, signal, or object cue is solely based on my abilities to:

• Effectively teach him the desired response.
• Allow him to rehearse it until it has become habit.
• Proof it so he is confident of what to do under many circumstances. 
• Be consistent and reliable when presenting the signal or verbal cue. 

If I have not done all of that, how can he respond correctly?  He would be punished because of my poor teaching.  And if after all of that, he still doesn't offer the desired response, then I go back to the drawing board and figure out a better way to explain it to him.  

How my dog responds to my questions provides me with extremely valuable information. If he offers a behavior other than what I am looking for, that behavior often has a stronger positive reinforcement history. Since he is only performing a behavior that he thinks will earn reinforcement, the onus is on me to figure out what I did that caused him to answer my question that way.  I need to figure out a better way to ask the question, so he is correct the next time.

Having a dog that does not respond at all is very different than offering the incorrect response. Two of the reasons why a dog does not respond are:

1.  Something in the environment is affecting their emotional balance.  They are in survival mode.
2. They are so distracted by something in the environment that the signal/cue was not salient?

They offer incorrect responses because:

1. They really do not know what response to offer to that signal/cue.
2. They are confused in what we are asking them to do.
3. We have mutated the signal/cue so much they no longer sees it as a signal/cue.
4. They have not been given enough opportunities to rehearse the response until it has become habit.
5. The response has not been proofed.  
6. They are not confident what to offer around distracting circumstances.

And the list goes on and on.

ETIR Training Program

What is ETIR?  ETIR stands for Environmentally Triggered Impulse Response.  I took my first dog training class in 1983, it was very obvious that the dogs were either overly excited or suppressed with their environment.  For over 35 years I have been helping dogs that exceed their emotional threshold, through no fault of their own.  I categorize their energies as being Dynamic or Reserved.  These energies can be broken down into multiple elements.  By discovering the triggers, creating a unique communication system, working with the energy the dog is exhibiting at the moment, and using science to my advantage, I have been able to help thousands of dogs understand and live in the stimulating world around them.

Wildland's Indiana Jones

Earning her Canadian TDX

My dogs and I have competed and earned numerous titles in:

• Agility - AAC, USDAA, NADAC (Masters)
• Conformation - AKC/CKC (Champion, Multiple Best Of Breeds)

• Herding - AKC/CKC (Herding Started)
• Obedience - AKC/CKC/UKC/WKC (Utility Dog, Multiple HITs)
• Rally - AKC/CKC/WRCL (Rally Excellent)
• Schutzhund (BH, SCHh1)
• Tracking - CKC/AKC (TDX, FH)
• Trick Dog - AKC (Trick Dog Advanced)