A Note From Jean

Dear Dog Owner and Friend,

I would like to personally thank you for downloading my eBook. I can remember a not-so-distant past when I was in the same shoes as you are, trying to make sense of all the different training philosophies on the Internet.

No matter where I turned, or whose work I studied, there was always a conflict in the different approaches to training a dog. Some experts were strong advocates of being the “pack leader,” others believed in “corrections,” and some even in “bribery.” It was hard to know which training method was the best, and which one I should train my dog with.

In the beginning, I trained the way that the experts told me to. They all seemed to have such well-behaved dogs, so I listened and did as they said because I wanted to have the same results.

But it didn’t take too long before I found myself “correcting” my dog with pops on the leash (pulling sharply on the leash, which jolts the dog’s neck) anytime my dog broke a stay position or pulled on the leash. Then, to make matters worse, I had adopted the belief that my dog was trying to dominate me by jumping up or walking through the doorway before I did.

Long story short, the end result was a very obedient dog. But the obedience came at the cost of having a dog who was living in constant fear: my dog didn’t want to get “corrected” or be “dominated.”

Then, I asked myself this very fundamental question: “If I were a dog … how would I like to be trained?”

My answer was a painful pill to swallow, which was that I wouldn’t want to be trained the way that I had been training my dog. So I knew that I had to make a change—and started reading dog training books and attending seminars. What I discovered changed my life: my dog stopped living in fear and I was finally able to communicate with my dog without the use of force or corrections.

What really got me thinking outside the box was reading about animal trainers that were training their dogs by using only positive reinforcements. And I mean they were the best of the best, world agility champions and movie-set dog trainers.

This was a massive eye-opener for me because I had always been taught to punish my dog whenever she “did something wrong.” But positive reinforcement training is the complete opposite! I learned that, instead, I needed to reward the good behaviors and choices. So I tried it—and it worked!

I fell in love with this method of training. After a few weeks of training with positive reinforcements, I noticed a difference in my dog’s behavior and how she interacted with me. Her tail would start wagging and I could tell that she was having so much fun with this type of training.

Since then, my focus has been to use this new way of training to strategically teach my dog to do all sorts of neat tricks. She now can clean up her toys, fetch, play chess, jump over objects, and much more!

Then I started training and competing in dog agility, and we were very successful. We’ve even won several 1^st place finishes.

So my goal with this eBook is to invite you to have the same experience and transformation with your dog. I’ve written this eBook to be very easy to follow and understand. Please give it a try with your dog and practice the exercises given. They will work with dogs of any breed, size or temperament.

If you have any questions, concerns, or need clarification on anything that is in this eBook, you can find me on the www.dogtrickacademy.com discussion forum.