Julianne Ramanujam

I stopped by a little training hut the other day. I'd never noticed it, and thought it would be worth a look... I was greeted by a malinois (fancy that) and I got to watch the end of an obedience session.

After the trainees had left, I was able to talk to the trainer more and find out about what these guys do, training philosophies, whatever.

He mentioned that he doesn't allow the use of the word "no."

I mean, I understand that if used as a "no! Don't do that!" *beats dog* mannner, it isn't necessarily productive when it comes to the emotional/mental state of an animal, but, I've always used it to give the dog direction, as in "no" *dog looks* ('what do you want?') [insert redirection here]. Even Balabanov talks about that one...

So... I guess I don't -really- understand that. It's been my understanding that 'dogs don't know English' and therefore, the use of a particular word should have no effect other than intent from the owner.

I hope I'm making sense...

But whatever the case, I was just wondering if anyone else trains like this (i.e. "am I missing something?") or, if you train people to train dogs, do you instruct them to do this... maybe you could enlighten me... It just sounds goofy...