“You train a muscle, you teach a mind.”
My name is Kelly Malone. I started in the “dog business” in 1980 when I was 18 and had just graduated high school. I needed to pay my tuition for college and didn’t want to wait tables so I paged through the Yellow Pages. None of the stables were hiring, so I turned to kennels. I found a job as a pooper-scooper. Much better than waiting tables, right?
To make a long story short, I found that I liked the dog business more than continuing my education. I moved my way through the industry learning to be a bather-dryer, a full groomer, kennel manager for a full service boarding/grooming kennel that included a nationally ranked handler’s show kennel, manager for a full service boarding/grooming kennel that specialized in training dogs for obedience, manners, behavioral issues and also worked with Police K-9s and trained private protection dogs. I was the Animal Operations Manager for a Humane Society and then moved on to owning my own business.
Each job and business has given me invaluable insight and knowledge regarding dog psychology and people’s psychology regarding their dogs. I have hands on experience with over three-fourths of the breeds on AKC’s list as well as countless mixed breeds. I’ve worked with puppies from the moment they are born and I’ve been there at the ending of many of an old dog’s life. I’ve worked with and been responsible for $60,000 show dogs and dogs that were literally thrown away as garbage. I have a pretty deep well of experience and I’m still seeking to learn more. The moment an instructor says, “I’ve got it. I know what I need to know” they are no longer worth listening to.
As you surf around my website you will see that a lot of my business and life is taken up with the sport and job of herding. Herding’s unique requirements colors and shapes all the work that I do with dogs. My herding dog is my partner. I need him/her to understand the job and have the work ethic, self-control, understanding and joy to do the job while I am doing my job all while being sometimes hundreds of feet away, off-lead, controlling distracting, exciting prey animals. You may be thinking, “I don’t care about herding…I have a Chihuahua…I need help with his non-existent manners!”
Before you dismiss this type of training I would point out to you that regardless of venue a herding dog/trial dog needs to be able to work independently OFF lead without any shock collar or device, travel in the car for hours, be able to get out of the car without freaking out and be ready to work, be around tens to thousands of people and dogs and do all of this AND work to a precise standard to achieve the title/prize/get the job done. Pretty useful skills for any dog. These are the skills I teach to all the dogs that come to me.
Dogs are a pack animal that need to do a job in order to be sound in mind and body. To use more people terms, dogs need a family and a job in order to be fulfilled and happy. When I say that a dog needs a job I don’t mean that you have to enter dog trials or take up extreme hiking. I simply mean that a dog needs to know what his place and responsibilities are within the family. “Your job is to understand that there’s Mom, Dad, the kids and then you on the totem pole (the cat refuses to come anywhere near the totem pole so deal with it). You need to be respectful of the house, greet visitors with manners and respond to commands. Our job is to be a good leader, play ball, play a little hide-n-seek and love you.”
The biggest hot button issue in the obedience world is what kind of techniques and reinforcements an instructor advocates. I am what’s called a balance instructor. I use both positive and negative reinforcements when I work with dogs. The words “Yes” and “No” are information. The story that I use to illustrate this is: I am walking down a hall lined with doors with my dog. My dog starts to enter a doorway. I tell him “Yes!” “That is a great door. That room has play equipment.” He then starts to walk toward another door. If I believe that I should not ever be negative with my dog I will not be able to tell him, “No.” He walks through the door and is eaten by the tiger that I knew waited within. “No” might have been useful information for him!
Reinforcements, both positive and negative, should seek to strengthen a dog’s desire to follow the teacher’s desired path. Since I want my dog to follow the path of obedience and manners I am going to administer positive reinforcements to help encourage my dog to keep choosing that path and negative reinforcements whenever he tries to stray from that path.
A reinforcement is deemed successful if it keeps the dog on the right path. If a positive reinforcement is too strong, the dog will get distracted from the job. If the reinforcement is not strong enough the dog won’t notice it. Example, if I break out a Mardi Gras band every time my dog responds to a sit command he’ll get so excited that he’ll forget all about the sit. By the same token, if I offer him a quarter as a reward that is not much encouragement to keep responding to commands.
Negative reinforcements follow the same rules. If I throw a refrigerator at my dog as a negative reinforcement he is going to be so scared that he totally forgets what the infraction was. By the same token, if I whine, “Please don’t” to a dog that is lunging and snarling at another dog, I’m probably not going to get a positive response! A reinforcement should bring about a change of behavior or demeanor. In other words, if I hand my dog a hotdog I should get a happy wagging tail and if I pop the dog’s collar I should get a sheepish look that says, “Oh, yeah, Mom. Sorry I forgot.”
What positive reinforcements do I use and advocate? Because a dog’s primary languages are energetic and physical that is always what I start with:
Kind hands giving pets and scratches, a game of tug or fetch, hotdogs, treats, words of praise in a kind voice.
What negative reinforcements do I use and advocate?
A firm tap on the skull with the tips of my fingers, grabbing a couple of hairs and giving a tug, a collar pop. In herding I will throw an 18” pvc pipe between the dog and the stock to break the dog off of coming in on the sheep. For some extreme barking issues I will advocate a dog controlled bark collar. What do I mean by dog controlled? If the dog barks, depending on the type of collar used, the collar emits a shock or nasty scent (at least to dogs. The scent used is citrus) to the dog. If the dog doesn’t bark, no shock/scent is administered. NO person is responsible for anything. The dog has control of the collar based on his actions.
Huge, hard physical corrections come about because of two things: 1.the dog has been put in a situation beyond his skill set and he is hysterical or 2. Bad training has caused the dog to be insensitive to physical sensation. 3. The person is frustrated and doesn’t know what else to do. Proper teaching techniques will solve these problems.
If you go to the Current Dogs pages on my website you will get a chance to be introduced to the other members of my family. The tribute pages are past family members who taught me a lot of what I will be teaching you.
My name is Kelly Malone. I started in the “dog business” in 1980 when I was 18 and had just graduated high school. I needed to pay my tuition for college and didn’t want to wait tables so I paged through the Yellow Pages. None of the stables were hiring, so I turned to kennels. I found a job as a pooper-scooper. Much better than waiting tables, right?
To make a long story short, I found that I liked the dog business more than continuing my education. I moved my way through the industry learning to be a bather-dryer, a full groomer, kennel manager for a full service boarding/grooming kennel that included a nationally ranked handler’s show kennel, manager for a full service boarding/grooming kennel that specialized in training dogs for obedience, manners, behavioral issues and also worked with Police K-9s and trained private protection dogs. I was the Animal Operations Manager for a Humane Society and then moved on to owning my own business.
Each job and business has given me invaluable insight and knowledge regarding dog psychology and people’s psychology regarding their dogs. I have hands on experience with over three-fourths of the breeds on AKC’s list as well as countless mixed breeds. I’ve worked with puppies from the moment they are born and I’ve been there at the ending of many of an old dog’s life. I’ve worked with and been responsible for $60,000 show dogs and dogs that were literally thrown away as garbage. I have a pretty deep well of experience and I’m still seeking to learn more. The moment an instructor says, “I’ve got it. I know what I need to know” they are no longer worth listening to.
As you surf around my website you will see that a lot of my business and life is taken up with the sport and job of herding. Herding’s unique requirements colors and shapes all the work that I do with dogs. My herding dog is my partner. I need him/her to understand the job and have the work ethic, self-control, understanding and joy to do the job while I am doing my job all while being sometimes hundreds of feet away, off-lead, controlling distracting, exciting prey animals. You may be thinking, “I don’t care about herding…I have a Chihuahua…I need help with his non-existent manners!”
Before you dismiss this type of training I would point out to you that regardless of venue a herding dog/trial dog needs to be able to work independently OFF lead without any shock collar or device, travel in the car for hours, be able to get out of the car without freaking out and be ready to work, be around tens to thousands of people and dogs and do all of this AND work to a precise standard to achieve the title/prize/get the job done. Pretty useful skills for any dog. These are the skills I teach to all the dogs that come to me.
Dogs are a pack animal that need to do a job in order to be sound in mind and body. To use more people terms, dogs need a family and a job in order to be fulfilled and happy. When I say that a dog needs a job I don’t mean that you have to enter dog trials or take up extreme hiking. I simply mean that a dog needs to know what his place and responsibilities are within the family. “Your job is to understand that there’s Mom, Dad, the kids and then you on the totem pole (the cat refuses to come anywhere near the totem pole so deal with it). You need to be respectful of the house, greet visitors with manners and respond to commands. Our job is to be a good leader, play ball, play a little hide-n-seek and love you.”
The biggest hot button issue in the obedience world is what kind of techniques and reinforcements an instructor advocates. I am what’s called a balance instructor. I use both positive and negative reinforcements when I work with dogs. The words “Yes” and “No” are information. The story that I use to illustrate this is: I am walking down a hall lined with doors with my dog. My dog starts to enter a doorway. I tell him “Yes!” “That is a great door. That room has play equipment.” He then starts to walk toward another door. If I believe that I should not ever be negative with my dog I will not be able to tell him, “No.” He walks through the door and is eaten by the tiger that I knew waited within. “No” might have been useful information for him!
Reinforcements, both positive and negative, should seek to strengthen a dog’s desire to follow the teacher’s desired path. Since I want my dog to follow the path of obedience and manners I am going to administer positive reinforcements to help encourage my dog to keep choosing that path and negative reinforcements whenever he tries to stray from that path.
A reinforcement is deemed successful if it keeps the dog on the right path. If a positive reinforcement is too strong, the dog will get distracted from the job. If the reinforcement is not strong enough the dog won’t notice it. Example, if I break out a Mardi Gras band every time my dog responds to a sit command he’ll get so excited that he’ll forget all about the sit. By the same token, if I offer him a quarter as a reward that is not much encouragement to keep responding to commands.
Negative reinforcements follow the same rules. If I throw a refrigerator at my dog as a negative reinforcement he is going to be so scared that he totally forgets what the infraction was. By the same token, if I whine, “Please don’t” to a dog that is lunging and snarling at another dog, I’m probably not going to get a positive response! A reinforcement should bring about a change of behavior or demeanor. In other words, if I hand my dog a hotdog I should get a happy wagging tail and if I pop the dog’s collar I should get a sheepish look that says, “Oh, yeah, Mom. Sorry I forgot.”
What positive reinforcements do I use and advocate? Because a dog’s primary languages are energetic and physical that is always what I start with:
Kind hands giving pets and scratches, a game of tug or fetch, hotdogs, treats, words of praise in a kind voice.
What negative reinforcements do I use and advocate?
A firm tap on the skull with the tips of my fingers, grabbing a couple of hairs and giving a tug, a collar pop. In herding I will throw an 18” pvc pipe between the dog and the stock to break the dog off of coming in on the sheep. For some extreme barking issues I will advocate a dog controlled bark collar. What do I mean by dog controlled? If the dog barks, depending on the type of collar used, the collar emits a shock or nasty scent (at least to dogs. The scent used is citrus) to the dog. If the dog doesn’t bark, no shock/scent is administered. NO person is responsible for anything. The dog has control of the collar based on his actions.
Huge, hard physical corrections come about because of two things: 1.the dog has been put in a situation beyond his skill set and he is hysterical or 2. Bad training has caused the dog to be insensitive to physical sensation. 3. The person is frustrated and doesn’t know what else to do. Proper teaching techniques will solve these problems.
If you go to the Current Dogs pages on my website you will get a chance to be introduced to the other members of my family. The tribute pages are past family members who taught me a lot of what I will be teaching you.