Here are some of Kaye’s favourite sayings about dogs.
“There is much to learn about dogs. There is also much about people to be learned by studying dogs.” Clarence Pfaffenberger, 1963
“I would like to say, before I begin, that although husbands, parents, children, lovers and friends are all very well, they are not dogs.” Elizabeth von Arnim
Konrad Lorenz had this to say about training animals: “Art and science aren’t enough, patience is the basic stuff.”
“The laws of learning, like the laws of gravity, are always in effect. We as trainers just have to learn to use them.”
And these are some of Kaye’s own sayings
“It’s not about obedience. I’m not interested in a dog who can do a perfect stand-stay or stand-for-examination, and all the while her body language is saying I really don’t want to be here! I want a dog who wants to be here. I don’t care if she moves a paw.”
“No behaviour is sometimes good behaviour.”
“How come you’ve been training for five years and your dog still doesn’t know what sit means? Have you been told that dogs learn by repetition? Dogs can learn a new cue or a new behaviour from just one instance – you just have to make it relevant. Your dog figures out how to open the fridge and get last night’s casserole – she’s got it in one, and for ever.”
“Dogs are so predictable. It’s very endearing really.”
“These training methods work – but only if you use them.”
“I can read dogs’ minds. I can say, when a guy releases his male dog in my training centre, ‘you might want to call your dog back, he’s about to… oops! Too late!’ and the dog has just peed on the wall. And the guy is saying, ‘Huh? What? What did he do?’ I know before it happens, and he can’t even see it when it happens in front of his very eyes.”
“If I ask people in a group class to take the lead in their right hand, one third will take it in their right hand, one third will take it in their left hand and the other third will mill around looking confused.”
“An instructor asks the handlers to do something, and many of them don’t do it. They are not stupid. They are not being defiant. They want to be here, in fact they have paid good money to be here. They are not trying to get up your nose. They just haven’t learnt to do it yet. It’s the same for dogs.“
“There’s a part of the brain that processes spoken language. There’s another part of the brain that processes motor functions – like actions or movements. There just isn’t a connection yet between hearing an instruction and carrying it out.”
“People speak in words, and are mostly unaware of their body language. Dogs speak body language. For them, our words are over-shadowed by our body language, which often contradicts what we say. We are at cross purposes. This is an inter-species communication problem. It’s a miracle dogs learn our language at all.”
For more information
call Kaye on 9489 5095 or 0477 975 012
e-mail waggingschool@netspace.net.au
Wagging School Dog Training 