Vicki Hearne, the well known dog trainer and author of Adam’s Task, taught me much of what I know about dog training. She consistently refused to work with any dog that was on psycho-tropic drugs. While I’ve not been quite the purist that she was when it comes to this, I think she had a point. My recent experience with a shepherd mix named Lance comes to mind.

Lance is a very fearful dog and this fearfulness translated to aggression whenever he was confronted with a person or dog that made him feel threatened. When his owner started working with me he was on 40 mg. of Prozac a day. Fortunately, not too far into the training his owner left him for a few days with her close friend who is very knowledgeable about dogs. The friend took Lance off the Prozac, and it was beginning at that point that he really began to progress in his training.

The problem is that when a dog is on drugs, he just isn’t himself. I don’t know all the science behind it. Maybe his synapses aren’t firing correctly or something, but in any case, it can severely hinder the training process. In addition it’s difficult to tell whether the drugs or the training is causing the observed changes in behavior. Even those who advocate the use of such drugs will tell you that in order for there to be a lasting benefit, training or behavior modification needs to be part of the regimen.

I’m not willing to say that drugs should never be part of the solution to a behavior issue, but I do think that as a general rule, if you can skip the dope, you’re better off.

Perhaps being dogmatic about syntax seems like it should be out of bounds for dog trainers but I don’t seem to be able to help myself. Maybe it’s my Dutch heritage but I’m a stickler for certain conventions in dog training. One is putting the dog’s name before any command. My reason is that, since dogs don’t understand everything we say, they tend to tune us out sometimes. Saying their name prior to the command helps them to tune back in and avoid missing our command. Sounds logical, right?

Over the years I have noticed however that certain people seem to be congenitally unable to follow this simple rule regardless of how many times they are reminded or have it explained to them. They always say the command first and follow up with the name or often omit the dog’s name all together.  I’ve discovered that it’s not that they are stupid or obstinate; they simply don’t think that way. Before I figured this out, I had some very frustrating moments and I’m sure my clients did as well.

The light dawned one winter day while working with a very intelligent woman and her dog. In addition to always saying the command first, she also was not a visual learner. Since teaching by show and tell is my default mode, I was having to be very careful to put my emphasis on clear verbal instructions since the visual part was virtually meaningless to her. Just prior to pulling my hair out, it came to me. This woman was an accomplished musician. In fact, she played in the symphony. I began to wonder if musical people simply processed information differently.

I began to keep track of this phenomenon and asked everyone who was predisposed to say the verb before the noun if they were musically or mathematically inclined. Almost to a man or woman, the answer was “yes!” I haven’t been able to find any practical application for this little tidbit of knowledge but at least it helps me not to beat up on clients. I remind them gently a few times and if they just can’t do it my way, so be it.