Adventures With Makai: Our Puppy Training Journey
It’s been almost two months now with Makai! He’s about 4 ½ months old, his adult teeth are coming in, and he’s already bigger than Roxi! He’s settling into the family nicely after the rocky first few weeks we had and we’ve made a lot of progress with puppy training through positive reinforcement training techniques.
Based on his age, his development level and his individual personality, here’s what we’ve been concentrating most of our attention on…
What Being a Positive Reinforcement Dog Trainer Means to Me
I proudly call myself a reward-based dog trainer. Sometimes I refer to myself as a positive-reinforcement dog trainer, a force-free dog trainer or a fear-free dog trainer. There are several names I (and my like-minded colleagues) go by because to be honest, none of these terms fit quite right. The science jargon and the layman’s terms don’t align, so I haven’t found the perfect “title.” Until I do, the name I call myself may fluctuate, but in almost 15 years in the animal training field, my values have never once wavered, nor will they ever.