The Guild of Dog Trainers is endeavouring to ease some of the anxiety that surrounds dog training and ownership, and hopes to help owners (via their trainers), to bring balance to their relationship with their dog.

Lez Graham (Education and Development Officer for the Guild) said ‘The trend in dog training has become so centred on reward-only and positive-only that people have become scared to tell their dogs ‘no’ or enforce any discipline, and this creates unruly dogs who are difficult to live with.’

The Guild believes there is an obvious parallel with raising children. Good parents set firm boundaries and nurture their children within those, whilst children who have no boundaries set for them often run out of control.

The Balanced, Intelligent Dog Training system aims to encourage owners to train their dogs to be well mannered members of our society, using rewards when appropriate and applying discipline when necessary.

Lez explains ‘Saying ‘no’ is not necessarily a bad thing to do; it will teach your dog boundaries and keep him safe. Owning a dog should be a joy and once you establish a balanced relationship with your dog the joy of living with a contented canine becomes one of the greatest pleasures life can give.’

As with everything that the Guild of Dog Trainers is involved with, this campaign starts with common sense.

The majority of dog trainers in Great Britain are sensible, practical and highly skilled trainers who live and train in the real world. They believe in, and use, reward based training techniques.

That doesn’t mean that they wave bits of chicken around desperately trying to get wayward dogs to prefer food to fulfilling their own, natural drives. Rather they use common sense training for the owner’s lifestyle and environment which means rewarding when appropriate but applying discipline when necessary.

This is the same common sense that parents were applying successfully to raise well balanced children that knew how to exercise self control and be polite and well mannered members of society.

We believe that the same sensationalistic headlines that caused parents to be scared to tell their children off in public; that caused confusion between setting normal boundaries with being tyrants; and confused encouraging children to be independent thinkers and problem solvers to allowing them to run out of control, are now being applied to the dog owning public, and, like with parents, is causing confusion in relation to raising and training our pet dogs.

By setting out some common sense principles and guidelines, The Guild of Dog Trainers is endeavouring to ease some of the fear that is now surrounding dog training and ownership, and hopes to help dog owners (via their trainers), both new and old, bring balance to their relationship with their dog.

I - Intelligent balanced dog training: say no as well as yes, make training fun, have time together and time apart and most importantly enjoy your dog

L - Leadership: every relationship has someone that leads, the same is true for our relationship with our dog; that doesn’t mean being a bully or employing harsh handling, just applying a bit of common sense leadership skills within your relationship will keep your dog safe and happy

D - Do spend time to train your dog the basics: loose lead walking, sit, down, come and stay, and if you want to please your vet... stand.

To find a Guild Trainer in your area see: www.godt.org.uk.