Raina

This wonderful snowy Saturday brings us post number 3 in our series this week of Positive training, Pitbulls and Pride.

I chose pride for a few reasons, mostly because of my past experiences and observations of other trainers and handlers and after analyzing myself and the areas i could improve upon as a trainer, owner, and K9 handler.

The definition of pride is as follows

a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.

Don’t get me wrong, pride has a place everywhere in life, and defiantly in dog training. I hold tons of pride for my dogs and what they have achieved. The big difference is, i try not to be prideful. I try to accept what i know and can teach others, and always keep in mind that i can learn something from EVERYONE and from every interaction i have. I cannot tell you how many times my kids at Allynwood Academy have taught me something about my training, or my dogs even when they have only been in my class for a few days! I also make sure that i do not place pride into my interactions, that i deliver the information and the suggestions or advice i have in the most direct, emotionally free way i can as factual information based on what i have seen, done, or experienced.

You see pride tends to scope people into the I AM RIGHT AND YOU ARE WRONG till death niche. What I mean is you become so prideful in what you just stated that you push it to the end extreme very frequently making a mountain out of a mole hill and causing undue stress on dog or worst yet if your a trainer a client, family, and dog! We have opposition reflex’s too!!

So in tying together positive training, pit bulls, and pride we see that the mountain that has been made about aggressive pit bulls and the rift between “positive only” and “bad negative trainers” is really a result of to much pride.

Meet my dogs and i for 15 minutes and ill spend 2 telling you about their and my accomplishments, and 13 about our faults, and for that I am becoming a better trainer, handler, and dog owner! 🙂