Now this is a pet peeve of mine that I just can't stay away from any more.

I believe that statement was started by some Hobbyist or club trainer who spends eight hours a day at a desk or assembly line, four of those hours he/she, is dreaming of what they will write on the internet, and two more they are dreaming of quitting the job and becoming a real dog trainer.

For more than a few decades now I have been a full time "professional" dog trainer. I got to thinking about this "two agree only that three is wrong"
statement one day. I realised that in my years of working with trainers (not hobbyists) I didn't I couldn't remember a disagreement. I realised this when Kenneth Humphreys was showing an old video he had rediscovered of he and I training together. The date tag on the video was 1982 and we had been training together for a while at that point, neither one of us could remember a disagreement.

I then began thinking of all the trainers I have had the pleasure of knowing or working with over the years, professionals, not "weekend jute junkies", and realised that statement was just flat out wrong. No matter what style differences their may be, real trainers need and do learn from each other.

When you get into the business full time, if you are going to feed the family, you learn that learning is much more impportant than being right, or proving a point, or Pissing futher than someone that works at a desk and dreams of being where you are.

I know that Thomas Ravn, a young up and coming force in the dog world is a very positive professional with a postive way of producing amazing results with dogs. But Curtis Dalton, who is old enough to be his father, used a very compulsion based program to catapult him to the podium of the first K9PS trial and the USPCAs' detection dog trials time after time, and I know if the two got together today there would be a very good, and informative, time had by all.

Good dogmen like, say, Tony McCallum, are generally as good at reading people as they are dogs so they stay away from these Internet Experts (IEs') and talk with other pros', you see pissing contests don't put food on the table so he's busy training dogs.

So the next time you hear someone making that statement ask them what the "trainers" he's talking about do for a living, I'll bet you they'll be desk jockeys of some sorts, cause I have an awful lot of friends that are dogmen and after more than thirty years I can say we all still get along. In fact when we started the "Criticism with credentials only" program on the old board we seem to have lost all the IEs' in one day.

K9 PRO SPORTS will continue to be a positive only force for the education of dog owners and protection dog enthusiasts. We just get more done that way.

Whewww, now that feels better, so WELCOME to the new K9 PRO SPORTS message board, Ya'll come on back now, ya hear!!

Listen Well, Bite Hard
Butch Cappel

that is sooo true

Boy, Butch, you brought back a whole lot of memories with that one!!

I have been fortunate to have known a few good dog folk in my time and in thinking back on our training and talk time after training I have to agree with you. I can't remember any arguing or back stabbing going on. We were too damn busy getting down to business.

Thanks for the memories

Nellie


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Nellie Walter
Pendragon's Keepe Kennel
(352) 546-2435