There Is No Substitute...

Here at The British Institute of Canine Science we are deeply passionate about dogs and understanding precisely what makes them tick. There is a fascinating relationship between dogs and humans that dates back somewhere in the realm of twenty thousand years or more, depending who you ask. We are no historians here but we will dive into some studies around the early domestication of dogs because it is nothing short of fascinating.

Our relationship with dogs is like no other relationship we share with any animal on earth, other than our fellow humans. In fact, in many ways, our relationship with dogs is even more fascinating and magical than our relationship with man, but perhaps that is our bias coming through a little.

Canine Research is an immensely important aspect of our understanding of dogs, but is it the most important piece of the puzzle? Well, again it would depend who you asked. People deeply involved in research, pioneering understanding, and swallowed up by the obsession of understanding every crack that exists... Yes it's very important. But even as people obsessed with research and understanding, we are something before being a research team. We are dog people.

There has been and never will be a substitute for being with your dog. Observing how they behave, working out what makes them tick, watching them piece together the puzzle of life in front of our eyes. You can read every single piece of academia and research that exists in every country all over the world, but there is an unspoken, unmeasurable, almost invisible aspect to training and understanding dogs, that has to be nothing short of ignored in academic circles.

Feel.

If you have worked with a dog in any capacity, whether it be performing a task such as a guide dog, therapy dog, cancer detection dog, or even just training your own family pet, you will know there is an artistic side to dog training. There is something intangible that we can't quite explain. If you watch the best trainers on the planet, and you watch a first time dog owner training the same dog to do the same thing, you can see a world of difference. This is the hidden art behind our relationship with dogs, and at this point we can't think of a way to study this well so if you have any suggestions do let us know!

So how do you develop this artistic flare? How do you develop into the type of owner that can psychologically dance alongside their dog with a true, deep understanding of the other end of the lead?

There is certainly an argument that God given talent plays a role in a handlers ability to flow and understand training from a dogs perspective, but after training with thousands of dog owners from all over the world, the biggest factors are practice and consistency and there's not a doubt about it.

Absolutely, read every paper and look into every piece of research you can, but also get outside with your dog and train, engage, play, understand. The academic paper will never substitute real life handling and interaction with a dog. Go and develop your artistic side of dog training by practicing and become consistent in this practice.

Learning on paper is a brilliant resource and absolutely an important part of the process to having a successful journey with your dog, but dog training and improving your dogs behaviour is a physical venture and you need to get your body connected with your brain to succeed out in the real world.

Take the things you learn on paper and go and apply them in the real world, whether that be obedience methods, behavioural methods or applications of psychological learning theory, there is always a real world method that you can use and apply. This is one of our main focuses on our research analysis posts that we send to our members. Reading studies is one thing, but finding the real world application of the study is far more important.

We wish you every success and if you need any help, don't hesitate to contact us and one of the team will be more than happy to help in any way we can!