JOEL'S TECHNIQUE

The first thing that I want to tell you is that my training technique and my ideas are no big secret. Most animal trainers that I know that have had success in the field of dog training pretty much will agree with my technique. Sure, people will vary with some of their training philosophies, but for the most part we are pretty much on the same page.

One of the first things I think all pet owners need to do is develop a great relationship with their pet. If you have not created that bond, my suggestion is to go back to the ABOUT COMPANIONS FOR LIFE™ page. This will show you how to establish that relationship and why it is so important.

If you have taken the time to create that bond, I want to congratulate you on taking the first steps that will help you lay a great foundation for the training of your dog. This will also ensuring a long lasting awesome relationship too. Remember that in the past 30 days as you have created this bond, you’ve learned a lot of things about your dog. The most important things you’ve done are identified the things your dog likes and things your dog does not like.

For the past 30 years, I’ve really gotten a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction out of having the opportunity to help to teach literally thousands of people about dog training and responsible pet ownership. Whether a person has seen my TV series, purchased a dog training video, or seen me as a spokesperson on a morning show, nothing is better than having someone come up and say, “thank you for making training easy and fun.” But in recent years, I’ve been looking for new ways to make the training and care of your dog even easier and even more enjoyable for the average dog owner.

The first thing that I’ve always tried to focus on was teaching people that they need to develop a relationship with their dog before they start training him. A foundation so to speak. And the second thing I’ve tried to focus on was making people aware of the fact that dogs are very much like people in that they are all different and have such a wide variety in personalities. Since they all have such different personalities, they should be trained according to their individual personality. These messages have been communicated over and over again over the past 20 years whether you look back at all my dog training videos or TV series. These were also referred to in my very first dog training video that was produced nearly 20 years ago.

In my opinion, there are many misconceptions that are quite prevalent among dog trainers and dog owners when it comes to dog training. One of the biggest ones that a large amount of new dog owners and dog trainers make is training all dogs the same way. If new pet owners would have the opportunity and take the time and just look at their dog and understand what type of dog they are dealing with, and train their dog based upon that personality, I am convinced more dogs would end up being trained. Instead, unfortunately many dogs never even get the chance to be trained due to the fact that the dog was not trained according to his or her personality. The results of this happening are a large number of dogs are returned back the animal shelter or humane society.

Another misconception that many dog owners believe is that they could take a dog from an animal shelter, humane society, or a breeder, and train the dog immediately without developing a relationship first. When this takes place, the animal is often forced into something he is uncomfortable with, and quite often the animal never gets trained and ends up having a very good chance of getting returned back to the animal shelter, humane society, or breeder.

So the two things you want to think about are:

1. Establishing the relationship and bond

2. Training your dog based on his individual personality

For great training information go to the TRAINING INDEX PAGE