April 19th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
Woke up around 5:00AM the other day and heard a very interesting story on the radio.
A junior high school principal was having a difficult time with the girls in her school.
Every day, the girls in school would go into the bathroom, put on lipstick and then kiss the mirror leaving lip prints behind to get cleaned.
The janitor was getting fed up with it and approached the principal. The principal politely asked the girls in the school to stop kissing the mirror after applying fresh lipstick.
The next day – lip prints all over the mirror.
Again, the principal politely asked the girls to stop.
More lipstick prints.
Then the janitor came up with a brilliant idea.
The principal called the girls into the bathroom and explained how difficult it was for the janitor to clean the mirror everyday with the lip prints all over it.
To show them how hard the janitor worked at getting them off the mirror, the principal asked the janitor to clean the mirror for them to see. The janitor took his squeegee and plunked it into the toilet. He then took the toilet water soaked squeegee and washed the mirror.
No more lipstick prints on the mirror.
Listening to that story made me think of dog training.
You see, when it comes to dog training there are some trainers who preach that never, under any circumstances, are we to use any form of negative to train. Believe me, I am ALL about positive training and am EXTREMELY cautious when it comes to using any type of negative during a training session.
BUT…
…there is no denying that done correctly, negative consequences for certain behaviors can greatly speed up the process just as the story above illustrates.
I understand why trainers have developed such strong feelings against using any type of negative. Anyone who started training dogs before the 90′s has seen first-hand the brutal methods that were used on a lot of poor dogs.
A lot of dogs suffered greatly all in the name of ”training.”
I have just put up a new video on aggressive behavior on my Facebook page. It explains how a lot of the methods and equipment used actually develop aggressive behavior.
You can check it out here:
Amazing Dog Training Man Facebook Page
All the best,
Eric
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States and has been training dogs for over 20 years, teaching regular, average, every-day owners all over the world how to get the training results they want as fast as possible. Eric is also the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States. For more than 20 years, he has been developing dog training "hacks" that have worked for dog owners all over the world. Eric operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling and draws on his experience and passion for dog training to show others how to develop a dog that is truly “Man’s Best Friend”.
Eric is the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Hack Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
