Con Slobodchikoff: How I Got Started With Dogs

I have always loved animals. When I was a small child, my father would bring home a variety of animals that he would find, that were injured and needed help. Because my grandfather was a surgeon who also liked animals, he would patch up these animals and they would wander around the house briefly or sit in makeshift cages until they could be released again (there were no veterinarians where I was a small child).  I remember seeing a variety of birds and some larger animals such as rabbits and foxes. My father would also bring home a variety of insects for me to look at. I still have a scar on my thumb from a huge (for a 3-year-old child) Indonesian praying mantis that I unwisely grabbed and got my thumb slashed with the mantis’s front legs.

My parents had a small black dog, a toy English Spaniel, who was called “Little Fly” because she was marginally bigger than some of the flies that would occasionally invade our house. Little Fly hated children. At some point when I was too young to remember, one of the neighborhood children picked up Little Fly by her tail and injured her spine. Although her spine recovered after that experience, it cemented in her mind that little kids meant pain and trouble.

I loved Little Fly. My first practical exposure to applied dog behavior (as a 3 and 4 year-old) was to try to figure out a way to make Little Fly love me. This required a lot of patience and learning that when she would growl at me, I had to back off and let her see that I meant her no harm. Gradually, through approaching her slowly, offering her treats, and not pushing the issue until she was ready to trust me, I got her to like jumping into my lap and being stroked. She still hated kids in general, but I was an exception in her mind.

Little Fly died of old age when I was 10, and I went through a dogless period where I mostly played with my parents’ friends’ dogs. I seemed to have an intuitive feeling for what was bothering the dogs, and I always made suggestions to my parents’ friends about what they could do to improve their dogs’ lives. This was a time when people thought that training dogs had to be done with some brutality, and most of the time my suggestions of treating the dogs kindly, with love, affection, and treats fell on deaf ears. Occasionally someone would try my suggestions, and then would marvel to friends what a changed animal their dog had become.

My formal exposure to the world of training dogs occurred when I was in my mid-20s. I had just received a Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where one of my fields of study was animal behavior, and got a job in another state. Although I had been living in Berkeley for a number of years, my parents lived in San Francisco and were used to my dropping by for dinner on a weekly basis. To lessen their separation anxiety, I got them a Miniature Poodle puppy. My mother immediately immersed herself into training the puppy, taking classes in dog training, having training sessions with friends, and showing the dog at dog shows. When I visited my parents, which was fairly often, I would go along to the training sessions and the shows to watch what was happening.  I was particularly impressed that many of the people that I watched seemed to love their dogs, but also treated them without a shred of kindness, yelling at them, jerking their leashes, and often treating them as objects rather than as sentient beings. The priority at dog shows often seemed to be that the dogs should win a ribbon, rather than that the dogs were happy.

This experience caused me to study all of the dog behavior and dog training books that I could get my hands on. I was already well-versed in animal behavior and learning theory from my undergraduate and graduate studies, and I tried to find out how people were applying learning theory on a practical basis. I could see the parallels between the animal behavior that I learned in my coursework and the practical manifestation of that in the behavior of the dogs that I was observing. However, I was amazed at the variety of advice that was provided in the dog training books, and how some of the advice was completely contrary to what people were finding with the behavior of other animals.  The more I studied the dog books and the literature on dog behavior, behavior problems, and behavior solutions, the more I realized that opinions varied all over the map and that the situation must be horribly confusing to people who want to do the right thing but don’t know where to go to find good information.

I started Animal Communications, Ltd. in 1993 as a consulting company with the goal of providing people with sound advice about the behavioral problems of their companion pets, based on my knowledge of animal behavior and on my practical experience with animals. Because even as a child I had been interested in communication, I found that I could always intuitively understand the body language of animals. Later when I was studying animal behavior, I found that there were solid principles behind my understanding. I applied this understanding to consulting with people about their companion animals, reading the body language of their pets to assess what might be the problem. Often I found that the people I talked to had a completely different perception of the problem than what I was able to assess. Once they understood the real problem, they could take the appropriate measures to ensure that they and their animals moved into living in harmony.

Along the way, I realized that many of the behavioral problems that I was seeing were the result of incorrect training methods. So I started offering dog training classes, based on the concepts of positive reinforcement, no punishment, and information about dog behavior. Because I thought that it was important for dogs to socialize, I always had several minutes of dog-mixers, both before and after class, where the dogs and the people could socialize. This created a friendly environment among both the dogs and the people, and everyone had a great time. Dogs and people always looked forward to class.

Now I am often asked by people how they can get into the field of applied dog behavior. My answer is for them to learn as much as they can about animal behavior, dog behavior, dog communication, and learning theory, and then work with dogs in practical settings where they can get experience solving problems. All dogs have a set of behaviors that are unique to dogs, and another set of behaviors that are found in common with other animal species, which is why it is important to study both animal behavior and dog behavior. However, within that set of behaviors, every dog is different according to his or her personality, and every dog has his or her own challenges. I believe that the more experience and knowledge people have, the more they will realize that a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all formula doesn’t work across the board for all dogs, and that practical solutions have to be tailored to the personality of each dog and the circumstances in which the dog lives. Above all, however, I feel that an important feature is that people who get into this field should like dogs, respect them as individual beings, and like the animals that they work with. Love and rewards go a much longer way than hate, distrust, and punishment.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Comments

[Denise]

I wish I could find a trainer like you in my area. I have a reactive/aggressive dog that I need help with but all the trainers in my area want to use what I consider to be outdated methods such as putting a choke chain on him to jerk him into submission and show him who's boss. I have been through countless books and videos searching for a humane way to help my dog and can assure you that the situation is "horribly confusing".

[Randall Johnson]

Thanks for sharing another great background story. Intuition, or “intuitive feel’, is critical to many professions, especially those related to caring for people and animals. However, those who don’t have it with animals may have it in another area. We all have our 'calling' in life.

[Cam Buchan]

I have a 7 month old Golden Retriever and a 3ish year old mastiff cross. We love them both and enjoy watching them together. I've taken several classes and always wonder why is it that trainers spend so much time talking while the dogs (and owners!) try to sit still for it. Perhaps they love the sound of their own voice. Keep up the interesting articles... I've love it when you emails arrive.

Cheers and Merry Christmas