All hail education!

So, here it is, the shocking truth about me - I'm addicted to learning! I love to learn something new. I love the whole 'acquisition of new information' process. I love listening to or reading about an idea that, the moment you hear it, rings true to your entire core and resonates with your whole being and you just think 'blimey, that's just genius! How did I survive before, not knowing that?!' I truly believe that, whatever field you're in and how high up it you might have gotten, there is always something new to learn. No-one ever knows everything. As a trainer (both of other people and of my own dogs), I feel that this is an essential quality - if I'm to be instructing others, it's my duty to make sure my knowledge base is up to date and ever-evolving. If I'm to be training my own dogs I owe it to them to make sure my knowledge base is up to date and ever-evolving so that I might be the teacher they deserve. However much I know, I will always be asking the question 'could it be done better?' The day I stop asking myself that, and the day I decide I know enough so why bother learning anything more, is the day I should curl up my toes and fade into oblivion.

Unfortunately it seems that an enormous proportion of the dog training world (both trainers and competitors) don't feel quite the same need to keep educating themselves, and I keep running up against the 'well it's always worked for me, so why change it?' brigade. That philosophy is the exact reason why choke chains and shock collars are still in use - because in someone's eyes it has worked in the past so why change now? If the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' mindset was widespread throughout the entire population we'd be pretty doomed as a species, and would be forever standing still. I find it baffling that people who devote a large proportion of time and money to competing in a sport like agility wouldn't have enough interest to ask themselves if they could be doing it better, if there's some new piece of information out there or a new idea that might make their training a bit more successful or make it a more pleasant learning experience for the dog, if at least a basic understanding of Learning Theory might help to them understand what is going on in their dog's head. Baffling!

Knowledge = Understanding.
All hail the power of education to enhance minds and improve lives!

And IMHO anyone who owns any kind of dog (be it pet or destined for competition of some kind) should have to have at least a very basic understanding of how dogs learn and classical & operant conditioning so that they might at least have a little bit of understanding of what's going on when they're trying to teach their dogs.