Real Life Group Classes 2012
James O’Heare, CABC, CDBC, PABC
© 2012 James O’Heare. All rights reserved
In 2003 I published an article called “Real Life Group Classes” in the APDT’s Chronicle of the Dog, imploring more trainers to design group classes that taught behaviors more relevant family pet dogs in environments more like family homes. In the 9 years since that article, this has become much more common. When asked to provide permission to reprint the article here, I was worried that it be less relevant given that it was imploring something that was then very uncommon and is now more common. I decided a quick rewrite would be more appropriate. In this very brief article I would like to outline a few points that I hope will encourage more trainers to design their curriculums and training environments to be more relevant to the family pet. This will not be a comprehensive guide but rather a few points worth considering when formulating curriculums.
The first thing to do is clearly decide on your objectives for the training class. If you are training for formal obedience or for a specific sport then the environment and behaviors will be determined by this objective. If on the other hand your clients are families with dogs they wish to have fit into family life then this too will inform how you design your classes. These clients need to learn how to teach their dog live within the bounds of human society. They need to learn how to help their dog adjust to and live in the real world home and community. They also need to be motivated to continue training their dog outside of the class. By starting with clarity in your target audience and their needs and designing the curriculum that will satisfy those needs you will be more successful.
The less setting generalization required from training classes to use of these behaviors afterward, the more efficient and effective will be the training. Therefore, training halls that look like school auditoriums rather than homes may not be as efficient a way to train family pet dogs in the group class environment. Making the training hall look more like a home that includes the various items required to training behaviors related to them will be much more effective. For instance, If you will be training dogs real-life behaviors like sitting to greet at doorways or sitting while doors are opened rather than rushing out, then you will need a safe doorway for this. If you will be training dogs to get onto and off of couches then you will need a couch (or two). It might even be worth considering field trips so that some outdoor behaviors like walking on loose leash or recall can be trained in environments similar to that which the behavior will be performed in.
If we can implement more behaviors and environments in training classes that are relevant to the future needs of the family dog in real life, I believe the training will be more successful.
I have one further suggestion and that is to make training more fun. Achieving training tasks with games and incentives for the trainers can promote the family carrying training over from the class to real life. Musical chairs for instance can be used to train “sit” on cue. When any game is implemented, just be careful that there are no losers as this can backfire in terms of motivation. The point is to work training behaviors into games that will make training fun. Don’t forget to treat clients like dogs—set them up for success in performing the behaviors you want and then reinforce that behavior.