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For the dogs
Published September 6, 2006
SEGUIN — Having trouble making Fido sit, stay and rollover?
Thunderpaws Canine Solutions may have just the trick.
Run by Hepzibah Hoffman-Rogers out of her Krezdorn Street home, the positive reinforcement-based training school has been teaching pooches better manners for about a month now.
“I get a lot of people who want help with potty training, dogs who jump on friends or family or dogs who have trouble listening to commands,” Hoffman-Rogers said. “It varies from basic household manners to the beginning of competition training.”
During training, the owner is present and doing most of the work. Classes are tailored to each owners’ needs, from keeping the dog off the sofa to learning to brush its canine teeth.
“We teach people to teach the dog,” Hoffman-Rogers said.
As Hoffman-Rogers played with her 175-pound, 20-month-old mastiff on the living room floor Tuesday morning, she explained her teaching philosophy, which is based on learning theories and behavioral science, not choke chains.
“The basic idea is that if you keep the dogs guessing about when they’ll get rewarded or what they get, they will pay attention to their owners,” Hoffman-Rogers said. “It’s like when people put their efforts into a slot machine — it’s only so rewarding because they pay off every once in a while. With a Coke machine, you put money in, and every time, you get a Coke. If you don’t get a Coke, you might try one more time, and then you’ll assume the machine is broken. Dogs are the same way.”
When that behavioral principle is applied to animals through reward schedules with affection and food, the result is a powerful training tool.
“When you use positive reinforcement training, the dog and the owner feel like they’re members of a team, and the dogs enjoy it and they want to continue learning,” Hoffman-Rogers said.
To demonstrate, the trainer lures her larger than life puppy “Iphi” into sitting, laying and standing positions and convinces the pet to play dead with a piece of freeze-dried chicken. Iphi doesn’t get her treat after every trick, just a nibble after the sit and a healthy piece at the end of the routine.
The commands still work without food, Hoffman-Rogers said, because the animal never knows when the reward will come — and rewards come in forms other than chicken.
“Praise and petting are very valuable rewards, too,” she said. “Basically you can use whatever is rewarding to them. Iphi likes to play with other dogs, so when we’re out walking and she sees one, I make her sit first, and her reward is that she gets to go meet them.”
City of Seguin Animal Control Supervisor Jennifer Kuhn said there’s been a definite turn toward positive reinforcement training during the past several years — and she’s glad to see it.
“This type of training results in a much better relationship between people and their pets,” Kuhn said. “We don’t see the issues of animals resenting their owners because they work out a partnership, and they are both happy and comfortable in that relationship.”
Hoffman-Rogers learned her training skills from a national chain of pet stores. She’s kept them up with continuing education and trading industry knowledge with other trainers.
The field isn’t highly regulated, but Hoffman-Rogers keeps her skills on a short leash.
This weekend, she will travel to Kansas City to participate in the Association of Pet Dog Trainers conference and exam, and if all goes well will receive national certification — a certificate only 37 trainers in the country hold.
The trainer is focusing on individual classes and hopes to expand to groups as the business become established.
A six-class package of one-hour classes costs $150. For more information, call Thunderpaws Canine Solutions at (830) 379-7000.
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