Packworks is not a typical obedience training business. Although we employ what might be considered traditional obedience work, usually we are focused on the promotion of leadership-derived obedience as a means of solving "real life" problems with aggressive dogs or dogs that are otherwise giving their owners a difficult time. By the time most of our clients come to us seeking help, they have been through at
least a couple (some many) obedience classes in which various approaches were applied - most often, click and treat or, the other extreme, compulsive-based obedience. Their problems remained.
Where we differ from most trainers/approaches is that we focus on teaching the dog to control its drives as opposed to focusing on desensitization. This isn't to say that, at the end of the day, we don't get desensitization where it is helpful/necessary; rather, it means that we get desensitization as a byproduct of obedience - which
is another way of saying that we get it through leadership. Obedience is the language of leadership--FIRST must come leadership which is derived from a proper relationship between the dog and handler.
If you think along the lines of *standard*/traditional obedience with distractions, it is important to consider the canine drives that are brought into play by the distraction. When it comes to prey drives, we train the dog *in-drive* and teach it to obtain its objectives by working through its handler. We recognize that in situations involving prey drive, the dog must have the ability to control its drives before it can be obedient.
Generally speaking, the same applies when it comes to defense drive; however, the situation is quite different when insecurity (defense) is the issue because you cannot get the dog to understand that it hasn't *won* whenever it reacts contrary to your wishes (defensively). With defense, there is no distraction - the *distraction* IS the issue. We understand this, and it seems to us that the vast majority of pet dog
trainers don't.
We understand that leadership is the key to success when it come to defensive behavior and we know that the necessary leadership status cannot be obtained by shoveling treats to the dog - an approach which seems to be all the rage these days - nor can it be compelled through the application of aversives. Leadership requires that the dog see its
handler as competent to lead IN THE DOGS VIEW OF THE WORLD. (Buying the dog food, Paying the visa bill, and driving the car don't cut it:)
It is interesting to note that almost all of our clients that have
come to us with problems involving defense had made their problems worse by priour training that involved the extensive use of treats.
