The History of Dog Training

Archeologists have actually found old art works that are centuries old that show dogs working and living as domestic pets in families as far back in history as we know of. The place dogs have had in human families and in society has been central from the beginning of history. It was an easy transition to domestic life for dogs. A mutual partnership for survival was born where dogs helped people in hunting tasks and benefited from easy food and shelter in return. From there it was not a big strech for human to see how dogs could helped and assist in other daily chores. How did the transition occurs? So far it is still a wild guess and many theories exist.
One thing for sure: Dogs were breed and trained to assist people in their daily chores all other the planet throughout history.

In ancient Turkey, Anatolian sheep dogs aid shepherds in caring for and protecting the sheep that were their livelihoods. Britain also has a long line of shep herding dogs dating from very far back.

Tribes living far North used dogs to pull their sleigh full of supplies: the Husky in Siberia, Malamute in Alaska or Inuit Dog from the Northern Territories are another great example of a dog/human partnership for survival.

The Roman Empire was well known for their mighty army and trained full battalions entirely made up of battle ready dog soldiers. Later, during World War I, dogs could be found in dozens of crucial functions including: guard duty, serving as delivery dogs for top-secret messages, protecting military bases, and guarding prisoners. The Bouvier des Flandres for example native of belgium often helped with the movement of heavy military gear to the front to continue the war.

It is easy to also document many important nonmilitary jobs dogs have learned to due throughout history. The use of dogs to help the blind was developed as far back as the first century as has been documented in pictures and histories of that time. It was in 1788 that very first dog training facility for seeing eye dogs was set up at the "les Quatre Vingt Treize" hospital in Paris, France. The use of dogs in health related functions has expanded tremendously today.We found assisting dogs for people recovering from illness or injury and helping people with autism and epilepsy.

Dog training was first geared towards a very specific task someone had to accomplish. The dog was trained directly by his owner and the training refine to suit the job.

When society moved away from agriculture and hunting and toward industrial and technology economies, our dependence on dogs in work situations was reduced. Somehow dogs still find their in people's home and heart.

That transition is so thorough by now that these days people keep dogs in their homes for the fun and pleasure of their companionship and in many cases, house dogs don't have any "jobs" to do at all.

Still in need of training, mainly owners handed the job to professional dog trainers. Most of their training was grounded in the military and used harsh training methods. The theory was that dogs learned best from their pack mentality so humans had to dominate them with strict techniques using choker chains, harsh commands and harsher punishments when the dogs needed to be corrected.

By the 1990s, how people viewed dog training changed radically. By this time dog psychologists and behaviorist started to have a different understanding of dog behaviors. New theories led to new training methods were the natural intelligence and intuitive nature of canine were taking into account. These new approaches to dog training also emphasized the training of the owner right along with their dog. It is people like: Karen Prior with clicker training, Ian Dunbar with the first puppy school, dog's calming signal and body language from Turid Rugaas and interesting insights in dog behavior from Patricia Mac Connell that started to revolutionize the dog training world.
Slowly but surely, training methods and techniques started to change.

But is is probably the Internet that brought all of these new ideas to the public and created radical changes in the way people view their dogs. Readily available online, any dog owners today can tape in to the latest information and research about dog training.
Dog training is back into the owner's hand. Natural dog training or more politically correct positive dog training is making head ways and more and more interesting and valid information is being published. It is up to each and every one of us to educate ourselves and learn more about our canine companion.

Dog Training Basics
Free Dog Training Tips