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A POSITIVE APPROACH TO DOG TRAINING Local dog trainer, Tiffany Jourdain, uses positive reinforce in a board and train setting
A Positive Approach to Dog Training
by Kelly Oden
Google “COVID Puppy” and you’ll get a slew of results with titles like “Our Pandemic Puppy was a terrible idea” and “When Your Pandemic
Puppy Doesn’t Work Out.” The idea that a puppy would help to alleviate the loneness and boredom of the pandemic, particularly during lockdown, was a popular one. Record numbers of puppies and dogs were rescued from shelters with some areas even seeing a rise in dognapping due to the lower availability of canine companions. For many new adopters, however, the reality of bringing a new pet into the home was a bit different than the fantasy.
Admittedly, I am one of those pandemic adopters. In the fall of 2020, my daughter and I were on the brink of insanity. We had lost my mother earlier in the year and we were still reeling from the grief. My daughter was struggling with remote learning while I did my best to work from home in between the calls for “Mooooom” from the other room. We were sad and lonely and frustrated, like so many others around the world. So, when my daughter sent me a link for a cute little puppy up for adoption at a nearby shelter, I caved. I knew it was bad timing and a bad idea in the grand scheme of things, but I also knew it would make her happy. Plus, we already had a dog, two cats, two chickens, a bearded dragon and three goldfish. How hard could one more pet be? A lot harder, it turns out. I’ve always had well-behaved girl dogs that believed they were people rather than dogs. This little cutie was all boy and all dog. Potty training was difficult, he chewed and got into everything, he didn’t listen, he was nippy, he chased our cats and our chickens, he was playfully over aggressive with our other dog and he ate absolutely anything he could get his mouth on—anything. His only saving graces were that he was pretty dang cute and really sweet at heart. He was just a puppy—a boy puppy.
After about six months of constant puppy chaos, my ever-resourceful daughter sent me a link to a dog trainer with the message, “We need to do this.” She was right. We needed to take control of the situation. We are the type of family that believes when you adopt an animal, it’s forever. So, rehoming wasn’t an option—yet. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it.
The link my daughter sent me was for Positive Splash Dog Training. In particular, she wanted us to do their board and train program. This program has you drop off your dog for a few days, or a few weeks, while the trainers work with them. The dogs live with the trainer and receive multiple training sessions a day. Owner and certified trainer, Tiffany Jourdain, explained their positive reinforcement training method to me over the phone.
Tiffany Jourdain of Positive Splash Dog Training works with one of her furry students.
“We believe training is about communication. It is scientifically proven that reinforcement drives behavior. Animals learn faster and retain more when behavior is reinforced,” Jourdain said. “We use reinforcers to encourage correct behaviors to continue. Reinforcement comes in many forms—food, toys, treats, love, play, exercise and access to exciting things. When you are using a dog’s senses to train them, dogs respond best to scent, then to sights and then to sounds. Food is often our first primary reinforcer when teaching new behaviors. The smell of the food keeps the dog’s attention, and it is easy to quickly reward good behavior.”
Jourdain also notes that they work on a wide variety of behaviors including polite manners with other dogs, boundaries with dogs and people, how to handle overexcitement and basic obedience commands like stay, down, leave it, place, come, nose touch and leash walking. “We incorporate distractions like walking past dogs, kids playing and coming when called from far away,” Jourdain explained. “While they are with me we also continuously work on polite house skills like appropriate chewing, puppy mouthing, settling in the home and general good behavior.”
Jourdain also makes a point to say that positive reinforcement training isn’t just for puppies. “Any dog of any age can learn,” she said. “We often have older dogs or ‘last chance’ dogs come in and they do really well. Getting to see a dog like that transform is so fun. That’s really where my passion is.”
We were planning on going out of town to see family, so I figured, ‘Why not give it a try?’ We packed up both pups and headed out to Milton. Jourdain did a thorough intake for both dogs—asking about behaviors, habits and the details of our home and everyday life. About 30 minutes later, we gave the dogs a hug and went on our merry way.
Cut to two weeks later and we were excited to see what our rambunctious puppy had learned. The first thing Jourdain did was show us videos of both dogs’ training and showing off what they learned. We weren’t too surprised by the progress of our collie, Scout—she’s a good listener, she’s smart and she generally wants to please. Our little pandemic puppy, however, was another story entirely. In Jourdain’s training videos, Kona was a completely different dog. He listened. He didn’t devour the purposefully dropped food, although you could tell he really wanted to. He didn’t chase the nearby chickens, which had been a big problem at our house. He sat calmly in the living room, with Scout, while Jourdain quietly read a book on the couch. At our house, he would have been eating something inappropriate or aggressively pulling Scout around by her long collie hair. We were speechless.
Jourdain gave us a folder with specific, detailed instructions and training words for each dog. These instructions were loaded with personal observations about each dog’s personality and motivation needs. She also included the schedule they used during training and encouraged us to keep to it as much as possible.
So, what happened when we got Kona home? Did he magically transform into the world’s best-behaved dog? No, he didn’t, but he was markedly improved, and with further training using Jourdain’s notes, he is becoming the dog we always knew he could be. Before training, he could not roam the house freely—something would get destroyed if he did. Now, he can roam about on his own as long as we keep temptations out of reach and supply plenty of appropriate puppy toys. Before training, if he managed to escape the yard, we would have to chase him down, sometimes for many blocks, and essentially trap him. He wouldn’t come to us. If we didn’t bring a leash, I would have to carry the 65-pound beast home. Now, if he escapes, we run outside frantically calling his name, and he is usually hanging out right in the front yard. He comes right in when we open the door. If he does manage to get a block or two away, he comes running towards us as soon as he sees us. Progress.
Kona really likes learning, which is neat to see. We’ve always known he was a smart boy, but having a direction to focus that energy has been great for both people and pup. We still have some work to do. In all fairness, our schedule (okay, and our laziness) hasn’t allowed us to do the followup training at home as thoroughly as we should, but we are moving forward one small puppy step at a time. The board and train program gave us a solid foundation to work from, and for that, we are grateful.
For more information on Positive Splash Dog Training’s services, visit positivesplashdogtraining.com. •
