Tired of feeling overwhelmed by your pup? Tired of the burden of controlling the behavior of your dog, but don’t know where to start or who to turn to for help? Bright Animals is here for you. We’ve created an easy-to-use program for dog training that will help you identify and tackle the most common problems experienced when training your dog.
Meet the best trainer in the world, YOU!
That’s right, you are the best person to train your own dog and the Bright Animals training system is all about helping you become a better trainer for your own dog.
How it works
The system is built around lessons and homework as we work with you and your dog as a team.
Depending on your individual goals, training might require a single session, a few sessions, or become an ongoing process.
Why not a training school?
How can we help?
- Potty training and dog care
- Play biting and energy management
- Basic obedience and general training
- Advanced Training
- Behavioral assessment
- Behavioral change
Can’t find what you need? Contact us
Smarter training for your dog
The Bright Animals method’s prime goal is to create a positive bond between you and your dog. A dog should be motivated to respond and not do so out of fear. Unlike traditional training that focuses on the use of coercion and punishment, our method produces a happier and most importantly smarter dog.
Traditional techniques involve pain
Traditional training relies on the use of choke chains, prong collars and electronic collars (or e collars for short). These tools can be dangerous because the constant jerking of the leash and the resulting pain can put the dog in a state of anxiety that can quickly render a dog unpredictable.
Physiological dangers include
- Esophagus damage
- Leg paralysis
- Tracheal damage
- Fainting
- Intervertebral disc protrusion
- Skin lesions
- Neck injury
From a behavioral perspective
Studies have shown that dogs trained using electronic collars show more signs of anxiety compared to dogs that have not received electric stimulation. These signs of stress include yawning more frequently, head-turning, a stiff body posture as well as avoiding social interaction. These facts are disturbing when considering the fact that dogs are social animals that crave interaction with humans and other dogs. The behavioral problems often result from the fact that anything and anyone present in the environment can be associated with the pain or discomfort caused by the choke chain, prong collar, or electric stimuli. Imagine for a second a dog walking down the street with his human. He sees a kid across the street and starts pulling to go play with him. The human not knowing any better applies what he learned from a traditional trainer and jerks the leash. The dog feels the discomfort around his neck and stops pulling. Victory you might think? Well, think again! This situation is very common and the outcome might seem great at first sight however the real problem lies in the fact that sometimes, a dog might quickly associate the sight of the kid, or the interest in the kid with pain! This will cause the dog to start disliking kids. Over time, this might also result in aggression or excessive shyness. Biting without warning To make things worse, traditional trainers often misinterpret a dog’s fear-aggression as dominance-related. They often ask the human to punish the dog (again by jerking the leash) every time he barks). For a dog that has already associated the environment with anxiety or pain, this makes things really worse. Choke chains in that sense can destroy the relationship a dog has with people and other animals he meets.
There are 2 direct effects of punishing a fear aggressive dog
- It confirms the association and makes the dog even more fearful.
- It teaches the dog that barking or lunging will result in pain.
Since dogs do not like confrontations, they are genetically programmed to send warnings (barking, lunging) before engaging in a real fight. This helps them avoid injury which might prevent them from hunting. When a dog is punished when barking out of fear, this warning system goes again and this results in a dog that bites without warning.
The alternative?
A proper approach would consist of teaching the dog not to pull rather than not liking the person or situation in front of him. How is it done? Let’s take a very similar example! Most people teach their dogs to sit for a treat. An untrained dog would normally want to jump up and grab the treat from your hand. Yet, with very little training, any person can teach a dog to sit in order to get the treat. The dog learns that it is useless to jump and that the easier and fastest way to get to the treat is to sit! Similarly, if training a dog to sit for a treat is possible, it is equally possible to teach a dog to walk nicely in order to get to play with strangers, to sit for attention, etc… It is all about teaching the dog what he should do instead of teaching him what he should not do! It is all about the art of saying yes. Think about it!
