b'When Purely Positive Doesnt Work, What Then?by Julie MadisonIhavebeeninlovewithdogsforever. We adopted Porkchop who was sixandprotection),andmyMastersin Growing up I couldnt tell you where themonths old. When I brought him home,Service Dog placement. I fell so in love other kids on the block lived, but I knewmost of my time was spent training withwith the program that it was something every dog. Jake, the mutt acrossI wanted to bring to other peo-thestreet,wasreplacedwithple and their dogs.MollytheGermanShepherdOver the years, equipment afterhisownermoved.Rocky,inthedogworldhasbecome the Husky, used to break off hishighlypoliticized,oftentimes chain next door and visit at leastmisunderstoodandmisapplied. once a month. I begged my fam- During my time at various res-ily for my very own dog. When IcuesIhaveusedeverything, was 14 my mom took us to oureventuallylearningthatwhat local animal shelter to just look,most people are doing is danger-and Ralph entered our lives.ous to both dogs and owners. ItsRalph was a beautiful two- nottheirfaultthattheydont year-old German Shepherd/Sharknowwhattheydontknow. Pei mix. We got him in October,This is why I continue to spread andduetotheNewEnglandawarenessofthefactthatthe weather, he mostly kept to ourprongcollaristhesafestand generous yard till spring. As thefairest equipment on the market. weatherturnedwarmerweHere is an overview of the wanted to be able to take himTop Tier K9 Program and how for walks.we build relationships and com- My mom took him on hermunication. First and foremost, own to her first obedience classPorkchop Madison dog training should always start and came back with horror sto- offpurelypositive. Whendogs ries. The rest of us laughed. Howenter the program for the first hard could it be? Apparently very, very,him,allpurelypositive. Theworldwasweek,ourgoalisworkingon very hard. My dad took him the follow- shutdown,sohebecamemyworld.eyecontact,properpositioning,and ing week. He made it through the entireDespite the training, Porkchop was Ralphrelationship building. hour but came back drenched in sweat.alloveragain.Hewasgooduntilhe Duringthesecondweek,we He and Ralph crashed on the couch. wasnt, and I just couldnt figure it out.introduce corrections for commands in aWewentbackonceortwice,butEventually I got desperate and found Toplow distraction environment. Commands ultimately dropped out. Ralph would notTier K9s program online. I thought thereshould never be given if you arent able to and could not focus while he was there.was nothing their basic pet trainer coursecorrect them. We use the prong collar as Hebecameextremelyreactiveondogcouldteachme.Icouldnthavebeenopposedtoflatcollars,harnesses,and walks as well. Life with Ralph was great,more mistaken. gentleleadersbecauseitisthesafest untilitwasnt. Asa15-year-old,Iwas The program was clear, concise, andandfairestequipmentonthemarket. allowed to volunteer at our local animaleverything made sense. More importantly,Flat collars are unable to evenly distribute shelter. And even after over 300 hours ofitcompletelytransformedmyrelation- pressure.Gentleleaderstwisttheneck volunteer work, I never learned enoughship with Porkchop. I graduated with myandcancausewhiplash.Harnessescan to help him. certificationsfromTopTierK9input extreme stress on the joints.Fastforwardto2020,whenmyBasicPetTraining,DangerousDogs, One of the hardest parts of our job ex-husband and I lost three of our dogsFoundation Dogs (training 8 to 20-week- istrainingtheownershowtousethe over a six month period. It was time foroldpuppiesinageappropriatescentprongcollarcorrectlyandtoissuethe new family members. detection, tracking, advanced obedience,correction at the right time. 62THE NEW BARKERwww.TheNewBarker.com'