Over the years, people have found many different ways to train dogs. Most of us over a given age will admit to having used command-based training methods with our dogs.  Some of us did so for years. Many dogs were taught successfully.

This short article is by Mary McCready, an experienced dog owner/trainer who rehabilitates many dogs. In her regular life, she's a cognitive psychologist. We're grateful to her for the perspectives and clarity she has brought to our understanding. BDB. 

We write a great deal about using positive training, desensitization, and counter-conditioning to help modify the behavior of aggressive dogs. We discuss classical conditioning, desensitization and counter conditioning wherein one attempts to pair two things (i.e. food treats and the dog's sight of other dogs/or other people) in order to help the dog form a new positive mental association.

Jos Lermyte is a professional dog trainer in Stabroek, Belgium. His message about teaching your dog to love its crate is one of the best lessons I've ever read!!   It teaches the handler how to use shaping by successive approximations of the desired behavior. That's a useful technique to teach many different tasks, particularly for skills that may not come naturally to a dog. The article was first published in the ClickerSolutions group. http://www.clickersolutions.com  

Subsequently Mr. Lermyte gave me permission to publish it for the Agbeh group, for a charitable group's newsletter for adopters, and for my clients. I'm very greatful to him. It is a great pleasure to present the article here for more readers. Please just click the red "read more" link below. BDB