I AM my dogs trainer, regardless of whether I want to be or not. Every time I am within my dog's sight, smell or hearing he is learning something from ME. It is my responsibility to see that he learns "good things".
It is also my responsibility to become the very best trainer I can be. I cannot be Pat Miller, and I cannot be Cesar Milan. I can only be Chattiesmom. But I can learn from Pat, and Cesar, and from every single person who posts on this site. WOW! What a wonderful wealth of knowledge is stored in the 12,000+ members who belong to YT. I am also hoping to learn a plethora of good stuff from the obedience class I am taking Chizzie to beginning next Monday. I hope I can glean some techniques to share.
When we start putting professional trainers on a pedesal, we put ourselves in a box and limit what we are able to accomplish. Funny, I learned this from a very "famous" horse trainer. I spent an intense weekend at one of his seminars. He constantly reinforced that we are all trainers --some people make a earn an income from training and advising others HOW to train -- but most of us are just your regular Joe's struggling to find answers. John really classified himself as one of the regular Joes
-- he is absolutely incredible!
SO.... all of my fellow YT friends remember, I am learning from you, and I thank you for sharing your special techniques and ideas -- both the ones that work and the ones that DO NOT work.