Robert Forto

peak performance training coaching

Influential Dog Trainers and Their Contributions-Part 4

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Influential Dog Trainers and their Contributions-Part 4

Over the past several weeks I have posted articles on those individuals that contributed to the dog training world in one way or another and shaped this industry into what it is today. While there are many different “styles” of dog training, much of the principles and techniques can be traced back to these individuals. I would love to hear who you think are influential in the world of dog training. You can contact me by leaving an comment below or sending an email to live@dogdoctorradio.com

Dunbar and Pryor

In the mid to late 1980’s dog trainers began to move away from training procedures that were based primarily on negative reinforcement and punishment methods.  Positive reinforcement became the centerpiece of many training philosophies.  Dr. Ian Dunbar, a veterinarian, and animal behaviorist, was vividly aware that many people were uncomfortable, and even dead set against, the use of aversive corrections.  In response, Dunbar developed a positive motivational training procedure that revolved around the use of food rewards; “Treat Training” had arrived.  Dunbar was also instrumental in the formation of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (A.D.PT.) in 1997.

Karen Pryor’s contributions to the dog-training world could very well fill an entire book, and a large one at that!  Pryor is a scientist, animal trainer, seminar leader, and writer that bridged the chasm between scientific conditioning principles and mainstream application with real world situations that the average person could identify with.

In her 1984 best-selling book, Don’t Shoot the Dog, she explained the principles of operant conditioning that she had learned while working with marine animals in a language that the average pet owner could understand, and more importantly, apply.  Her seminars showed how these same principles could provide a training method that was more friendly and positive. Pryor’s “Clicker Game” was a stroke of genius in conveying the concept of a secondary, or conditioned reinforcer to trainers and pet owners alike.

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Dr. Robert Forto is the training director for Denver Dog Works and the host of the popular radio program, The Dog Dog Doctor Radio Show

The Power of Your Mind in Dog Training

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By Robert Forto

Next  week we will have an encore airing of one of most popular shows, Mind-Body Dog Training on the Dog Works radio. If you want to change the way your dog performs this is something you will not want to miss.

Think about it, you are about to head into the ring for a big obedience match or a conformation show. Of course you are nervous. You have worked so hard for this big day. Up until now you and your dog have been in perfect synchronicity. Haven’t you? You have done your pre-game prep and you are up next.

Then something catches your dogs eye and your whole dog training world comes crumbling down. Your dog gets spooked, you tense up and your dog pulls away. Your run in the ring ends in chaos and you are disqualified. Something you have worked so hard on for the past two years: all of those individual lessons with your private trainer, the perfect pick of the litter puppy, all that money, gone in an instant!

What if you could change that just by harnessing the power of your mind? No, I am not talking about some freakish mind over matter, late night TV infomercial garbage. I am talking about a centuries old process known as Neuro Linguistic Programing (NLP). In a sense it is a model of how we communicate and our personality. While this process has been around for centuries, the NLP model was developed in the 1970’s by Richard Bandler, John Grinder and others. This model explains how we process the information that comes from our outside world. Their belief is “the map is not the territory.” And so the internal representations that we make about an outside event are not necessarily the event itself.

Makes sense doesn’t it? Even in dog training we can use this process to make you and your dog the the best team in the world. Even if you don’t compete and just have a “lazy mutt” that likes to play fetch in the back yard.

You see, Dr. Robert Forto is a practitioner of NLP, and his training school, Denver Dog Works has a motto: We have the best and train the best. By employing the processes of NLP in our training programs we too can make your dog one of the best too. This is cutting edge training in the dog training world. Nobody does this and that is why they can not hold claim to our title.

Do you want to see how it works? Here’s how. Typically what happen is that there is an external event (your dog getting spooked in the ring) an we then run that event though our internal processing. We then make an Internal Representation (I/R) of that event. That I/R of the event combines with a physiology and that creates a state. “State” refers to our emotional state–a happy state, a sad state, a motivated state, or in our case with our dog in the ring, and anxious state. Our I/R includes our internal pictures, sounds and dialogue and our feelings (for example, whether we feel anxious and challenged in our dog’s training and performance). A given state is the result of the combination of an internal representations and a physiology. So what happens is that an event comes through our sensory input channels which I can teach you in NLP training and training your dog to be the best.

After the event becomes an I/R it is how our mind processes this information and the outcome that is achieved. We use filters in our mind to accomplish this and this is where the real power of NLP comes into play. For example I am just going to talk about one: Beliefs. Beliefs are generalizations about how our world is. One of the important elements in the NLP model is to find out a persons beliefs about a particular behavior we are trying to model. Richard Bandler says “Beliefs are those things we can’t get around.” Beliefs are the presuppositions that we have about the way of the world us that we either create or deny personal power to us. So beliefs are essentially our on/off switch for our ability to do anything in the world. In our dog training example. Make you and your dog the best dog team ever! Wouldn’t that be great? Go into the ring and get a qualifying score every time? Heck yes it would!

So if you would like to find out more about mind-body dog training, I highly encourage you to give us a call. We truly to have the best and train the rest. Do you want to win too? Yes you do!

Citation: The Accelerated NLP Practitioner Certification Training Manual

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Robert Forto is the host of The Dog Works Radio Show and is the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Robert Forto can be reached through his website at www.alaskadogworks.com

Who Dat?

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Who DAT? NLP in Canine Training

By Robert Forto

Many times I am asked at my training school, Denver Dog Works, are you a coach or a trainer? I tell them that I am more of a coach. I work with clients and their dogs in a way that is like no other canine training center in the country. I employ a technique called Neuro-Linguistics or NLP. By using this cutting edge way of training it allows my clients to achieve their goals much quicker. Whether that be basic obedience for their new puppy or competing in a sport such as competition obedience or skijoring. You see, NLP is all about taking charge of your thinking– finding out about your own thinking patterns and noticing when they become barriers to your success. When you know how you are blocking your own success, you can use your new insights to start to make changes. As most of you know, canine behavior problems often have a root cause of the owner doing (or not doing) something. Whether it be allowing your pup to jump on your friends when they come over or in competition obedience not getting that change of pace just right.

Taking charge is not just about taking charge of your thinking; NLP gives you the chance to take charge of your life. The notion is a revelation to many people when they think about canine training, especially canine sports. The days of dog training at your local big-box store for canine sports are long gone. People increasingly experience not all canine trainers are created equal and many trainers at the local pet department store is just not equipped to train you and your dog to reach your full potential.

Think about it. What if you could learn how to work in harmony with your dog and each of you work in perfect tandem together. Whether it be a simple sit when you meet and greet a stranger or that absolutely fluid movement you have seen the champions do in the obedience ring? Do you want that? Yes, you do!

By incorporating NLP into your training routine it will give you a clear sign that you can be the best and your dog will be one of the best trained dogs in the world. It will take some time to notice that you are putting up obstacles for yourself (and your dog) thats where I can help. But as soon as you are aware of how you are thinking, you are on the road to change and on the road to that championship you have always dreamed of.

Now is the time to take charge of your canine training and destiny. NLP, partnered with canine training, gives you all the help you need.

If you would like to schedule a consult with me on how we can coach you to peak performance, give us a call at 303-578-9881.

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Robert Forto is the training director for Dog Works Training Centers and is the host of a weekly radio program, The Dog Doctor Radio Show which can be heard every Saturday at 9:30 am in the Rocky Mountain West  or downloaded any time. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

Knowing What You Want

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By Robert Forto

As a practitioner of Neuro-Linguistics (NLP) I am constantly asked, “Mr. Forto, how do I know what I want?”  I tell my clients when you set an outcome you are programing your mind to achieve that goal. Consciously or unconsciously, you that to notice opportunities and possibilities around you that can help you reach your goal. So getting the program absolutely right from the very beginning is an important step. Otherwise you do not achieve your outcome–and you may actually get something you don’t want.

The starting point for any outcome is to make sure that you express it positively–what do you want to have. Consider the difference between these two outcomes

I do not want to feel trapped in my boring job any longer,

I want to face new challenges in my job every day.

Although the first example does not include any overtly negative words such as no or not, the statement expresses what you don’t want. Even more importantly the first statement does not give any indication of what you need to replace the current situation.

The difficulty with focusing on what you don’t want is that in order to think about not having something, you need to think about that very thing. This puts your attention on what you don’t want rather than what you do want.

Some examples of focus on what they don’t want are below:

  1. I want to stop smoking.
  2. I want to stop being short tempered at work
  3. I want to cut out sweet and fatty foods to lose weight.

To change these desires into positive outcomes you must concentrate on what you want rather than what you need to stop doing and give up. To make the shift ask yourself this instead: What do I want instead?

When you honestly answer this question your outcomes shift to things like this:

  1. I want to live a healthy lifestyle.
  2. I want to be more patient at work.
  3. I want to be slim.

Look over your outcomes and look for words like should, must, and try.

If you would like to be the best at what you do or your want to reach your peak in performance, give me a call and we can talk about it.

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Robert Forto is the host of The Dog Works Radio Show and is the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Robert Forto can be reached through his website at www.alaskadogworks.com

Early Dog Sledding Innovations

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Early Dog Sledding Innovations

Lead Dog RevengeThe hitching of several dogs to a whalebone or wood toboggan was a significant advancement.  The whalebone toboggan of the Bering Sea regions and the narrow wooden toboggan of the Athabascan Indians of the Interior were still in use up until the beginning of the twentieth century.  Even today, in the Barter Island region of the Arctic Ocean, one can find Eskimos with primitive toboggans—though they now use modern dog harnesses and the tandem hitch, introduced by the Russians in the middle of the eighteenth century.  Up to that time, Eskimos and Indians alike used the ancient, but more natural, fan hitch.

Another introduction by the Russians was the lead dog—or as it was known until recent times, the foregoer.  Traditionally, both Indians and Eskimos had run snowshoes ahead of their dogs with the team following.  They believed that they could communicate better with the dogs this way.  The modern system of guiding dogs by voice command was also innovated by the Russians.

In the early history of mushing it was considered a disgrace for a dog driver to ride the sled.  Although the modern handlebars and foot brake were developed some seventy years ago, the dog driver always stayed just ahead of the sled, while his “swamper” or passenger rode the brake.  The dogs were hitched to a long towline, leaving some six to eight feet between the bow of the sled and the wheel dogs.  The driver traveled astride the line.

On the right or “gee” side of the sled was the “gee pole”.  The gee pole was six or seven feet long and was securely fastened to the sled in a manner that it extended upward and forward, so the driver could rest his right hand on it.  Whether running afoot, on snowshoes or on a small toboggan called a “ouija board,” the dog driver stayed in position directly ahead of the sled, steering it down the trail with the aid of the gee pole.  The driver used the pole’s leverage to not only steer the sled, but to help keep it upright on slanted trails, break the sled loose when it was frozen in and to hold it back when descending small hills.

Since he had to carry his gear and food for not only himself, but the dogs as well, many drivers in the early days had two or three sleds hooked in tandem.  Ben Downing, one the great dog drivers of history, used as many as twenty dogs to pull three sleds.  He ran ahead of the lead sled while his “swamper” or dog handler rode the brake on the back sled.  Another great dog puncher of the early days, Arthur Walden, carried the mail from Dawson to Nome and ran as many as twenty-seven dogs and three sleds.

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Dr. Robert Forto is the Dog Sledding Examiner, a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the Mush! You Huskies Radio Show