When concepts are new, people oftentimes may have difficulty in suspending disbelief to truly listen to the recommendation long enough to hear and to comprehend the reasons for it. They may not be ready for it.

We certainly would not want them to try it unless their consciences told them it was okay to do so. Remember, studies have shown how very easily people may be persuaded to do something merely by peer pressure. Well, we have peer pressure in class. But it would not be in an individual's best interest to be pressured by fellow classmates to conform.

Just imagine, if you will, that such a person were attending a  <name purposefully withheld> seminar about using the shock collar. Yikes. Don't we truly wish that anyone would think the matter through very carefully before applying a shock collar to a dog's neck? Don't we wish anyone attending would ask the seminar speaker, "What does research indicate about the long term effects of shocks applied to an animal?"

When I first began in dog training classes, we learned to use the choke training collar with our dogs.

About 20 years ago, I applied a choke chain training collar to my own wrist and then to my ankle to see if I was capable of giving a mild leash correction. By then, I did know how to give a very mild leash correction. I'm glad that I did that personal experiment for I learned that the choke training collar hurt me like the Dickens. That was sufficient evidence for me not to use it anymore nor recommend it anymore.

Please do not be dismayed if some students may not readily move forward in class lessons.We each learn at different rates.

Again, a confession from my past. I was very slow to learn in dog-training classes. I started attending training classes in 1981. That first instructor was excellent, but we moved to another state, so I began again in 1982. It took me considerable time to find a new trainer who I felt knew how to teach his students. Some I met were instructing in local recreation department dog-training classes. These group class instructors hadn't yet accomplished any training objectives competitively. But they did know how to handle a leash. They were kind, caring, and definitely helped their students a wee bit. But they didn't have high expectations for their own instruction, never mind having high expectations for their students' accomplishments.

Finally, I found a class instructor who was superb. I believe: "When the student is ready, the instructor will appear."

I was excrutiatingly attentive in class. I studied the handout sheets. I practiced diligently. But I was not particularly effective at teaching my dogs, yet. That took me more time to learn. More practice with additional dogs, too. More observing really good dog handlers before I was ready to overcome my own teaching errors, my own handling errors sufficient to help my dog to succeed. Only then was I ready compete to earn a CD with my first dog.

You see, for a while, I hadn't yet figured out how to present a lesson to my dog in an effective manner. I do not blame my instructors for that at all. I think it just takes a while for a student to grasp some concepts, such as how to observe one's dog objectively. And it takes a while as a dog handler to develop some good timing and facility with leash handling and treat delivery. At the time, I thought each lesson required many many more repetitions than it did, so I probably bored my dogs somewhat with all of those repetitions. The collies and the Sheltie I'd been teaching were smarter, quicker learners than I recognized at the time.

I attended a trainer seminar. I was interested in the subject, and I may have been able to learn a great deal from the presenter, but I was so turned off by her uppity attitude and her completely dismissive attitude toward attendees who had paid a considerable fee to attend, that I could not learn from her. In fact, it was such a horrible experience that I remember feeling the skin on my neck start heating up. It really did while I attempted to suppress my hostility during that seminar.

Yet I was one attempting with all my might to suspend disbelief long enough to attempt to hear/ really listen and attend to what the presenter was trying to teach. Maybe I just wasn't ready for the material she was presenting in the way that she did, as if everything we'd learned before had to be discarded immediately. Other people seemed to think she was a superb trainer; that's why they paid to attend the seminar.

How readily students may 'accept' what someone else is teaching is a complex topic, very complex indeed. There truly is a concept called readiness.

© January 29, 2009   Barbara D. Brill, North Chili, NY. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without express written consent from the author.  Email address:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it