Coming to Terms with Terms

As science-based dog trainers, we always take the time to define terms in an easily understood way so everyone is on the same page. We want you to understand exactly what we are doing and why, Also, there are some things, such as canine body language for instance, that need to be described to understand it better. We much prefer to describe the behaviors  and actions we see instead of using terms and jargon. The reason for this is that people often have their own thoughts about what a behavior or word means. So rather than relying on a possibly misunderstanding, we describe and ask that you also define what it is you are seeing. Take the term “Dominance” for instance. Most people have heard of this term and even use it to summarize behaviors. The difficulty is that everyone has a different interpretation of what the word means to them. So instead of using that one word to summarize a bunch of behaviors, we prefer to break the behaviors down and describe each one individually. We get more information that way and can target the behaviors you want to change in a much more effective manner.  Sometimes when we use broad terms to describe complex behaviors we loose too much in the translation.