Idealism vs. Pragmatism in Canine Training: Behavioral Science with Dr. Stewart Hilliard

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw and Dr. Stewart Hilliard discuss:

• Why your dog training should be based on theory, pragmatic results, and experience.

• Theoretical vs intuitive dog training.

• How is idealist training different from pragmatic training?

• Why you should not be removing all stressors from your dog training.

• Control and learned helplessness.

Key Takeaways:

• Dog training is a long series of lonely decisions. You are a team of one training your dog, and even if you have a coach, in the moment, you are the one making each decision based on the problem facing you in the moment.

• Technical training is great, but you do need to be able to generalize the training for different locations and situations for the best results.

• If, in the course of doing its job, your dog will face adversity, then having a background in overcoming some adversity in training is going to stand the dog in good stead.

• There is considerable discussion and data that speak to the point that the ideal state for an animal to develop in is not necessarily one that is free of stress.

• Aversive control can be used without producing bad welfare for the subjects of the training. On the flip side, excellent positive reinforcement technicians also produce really good results in dog training.

• Animals in avoidance are not running from something; they are running to something safe.

"If you want to engage with dogs intellectually, they're a very rich topic for intellectual engagement, because they're super interesting. And you can look at them at any level you want; you can look at dog training at any level you want. And for some people, the pathway to getting really good is becoming theoretically very, very strong." — Dr. Stewart Hilliard

Episode References:

• Go to Kynology.org now and start an account to stay up to date on Kynology events, upcoming resources, and products!

Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Stewart:

Website: https://www.caninetrainingsystems.com/

Book: Schutzhund, Theory and Training Methods - A Book by Susan Barwig and Stewart Hilliard, Ph.D. - https://www.amazon.com/Schutzhund-Theory-Training-Methods-Reference/dp/0876057318

Contact Jerry:

Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com

Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com

Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com

YouTube: tarheelcanine

Twitter: @tarheelcanine

Instagram: @tarheelk9

Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining

Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org

Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine

Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/

Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/

Sponsors:

ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com

PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org

Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com

The Drive Company: thedriveco.com

The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co

Dog Armour: dogarmour.com

Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro

Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com

Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.