DOG  WHISPERING

Chatting with Shelby 

What originally inspired you to become a dog trainer?

So I grew up with 3 dogs at a time and I thought it was normal to have 3 of them running around and after college I went into media sales and I wasn’t loving it and I got myself a pomeranian, who was  honestly a little bit of a pain in the butt, and so my husband at the time started taking some courses, you know for learning how to train her and so I started to take a coarse as well to learn how to do it on the side and I became really good at it and I loved it. So I quit my job and went full time.

What would you say you love most about being a dog trainer?

What do I love most? I really love it when whether it is days, or weeks, or months later I get an email about how much better the family is getting along with their dog or the dog themselves is doing much better and if their life is so much easier, so I really enjoy changing people’s feelings, relationships and interactions with their dogs to be more pleasant.

What would you see is the greatest advice you would give to someone training their dog?

Patience, patience is everything. Particularly if you want to do something too quickly or get a result too quickly, things will often not go as you wanted and you might get frustrated. I agree that it’s not happening the way you wanted it, it’s not going good, but being frustrated doesn’t help either, so being very calm, very patient, and really learning about your dog’s body language will really help. I think that’s the big one, really being able to understand you dog, rather than expecting it just understands you and does anything you tell them to do. I also think learning how to balance training with downtime and exercise is also something which can really determine how successful you at training your dog.

Since you mentioned communication, I read that there is very often miscommunication between a person and their dog, and what would you say causes this?

I think just a lack of knowledge. I mean, many owners are often very surprised when they find out what their dog is potentially saying or communicating through their body language and they’ll say like ‘Oh, I had no idea all the time, and I just kept going’. So, a lack of, I don’t know if it’s common knowledge or if it is just not out there, but people are miscommunicating by complete accident, they just have no idea what their dog is saying or communicating  to them.

Very often many owners will say that their dog has a special personality or is unique in some ways, and would you say that this is a true statement or not?

Definitely, dogs all have their own personalities and characteristics. I think a lot of it is their energy level and their quirkiness, a lot of dogs have very small little or weird habits that start to make up their personality and then there are some dogs who work very hard and some who are a little bit more “lazy”, but definitely there are many characteristics that make up a dog’s personality and they are all different one from the next.

Would you say that you ever had a specific dog who was very unique in their personality?

I probably had a lot of those type of dogs, but the one I would think off the top of my head, just because I meet them a lot is this little Frenchie named Olivia, and she can learn so quickly and there are moments when she seems to almost have human qualities, its hysterical. Not what you would describe as your typical Frenchie, I guess it's hard to really put into words, how she’s very quirky and very funny. I mean I really had to think here, but the more you get to know any dog, they are all unique.

What would you say is mostly what motivates a dog to be comfortable with an environment?

I don't really think it’s so much to do with motivation, I think being comfortable with their surrounding environment is what they are accustomed to based on their genetics and their general bond with their owner. I guess some dogs can be motivated by food, or treats, or play, but I think generally by being comfortable and their relationship with their owner and a good mess with downtime and exercise, physical simulations, mental stimulation is what determines everything.

Would you say that dogs are smarter than what most people think they are?

I think both, because there are some people who give their dog this really really high standard and so their dog is always disappointing them, and then there are some who assume their dog can’t learn this or can’t do that and so I think it goes both ways, really depending on both the dog and the owner.

Would you say that there ever was a dog who was exceptionally difficult to train?

I have had owners who were exceptionally difficult to train. But with dogs, I guess that there are some who are very hard to get motivated no matter what you try, but no one I can think of of hand.

What would you say a owner mostly misconcepts about their own dog?

I think  a lot of people think their own dog is misbehaving or doing a certain behaviour que out of spite and they take it a lot more personally than it really is. Like some people think their dog peeing on their  rug is because they are mad at them for leaving them or something, but the rag might smell a certain way, and it’s not the dog trying to come back at you or something.

Would you say that some people consider their dog to be almost like a human and would you say that this is something good or bad?

They shouldn’t treat their dog as a human, because they are a dog, and you should of course love and care for your dog as if their were a human, but they really need to learn to understand what your dog means and how they are.