Training Methods

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The DAWG shelter is currently using the Cesar Milan force training techniques and also spray bottles to control the dawgs. Their trainer is teaching these techniques to volunteers and staff as part of their experiment about how to make dogs be quiet in a shelter environment. This is a change from the normal Open Paw training methods previously used at the shelter and at other Santa Barbara shelters. 

The reason that most shelters do not use force methods for training is because many of the dogs have been treated roughly before they get to the shelter and they do not respond well to this treatment. Also there can be a big difference between the trainer using these techniques and the less trained staff or volunteers using them, which could lead to someone using them out of frustration and with the wrong timing so that the dog is being punished instead of modified.

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The DAWG trainer was also showing the County Shelter volunteers to use the spray bottles to control their dogs. When the County Management found out about this, they put a stop to it. 

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A volunteer witnessed a kennel attendant walking through the interior of the DAWG kennel and spraying dogs that barked in the face. He reported this to the Board President. No response was received on this report. 

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Another volunteer watched  a staff member walking a dawg through the kennel interior and kicking him more than once in the abdomen when he reacted to the dogs in the kennel barking at him. 

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A volunteer fostering a DAWG was taught the use of the Cesar Milan techniques and also the use of the spray bottle during "stay" training.  The trainer told the volunteer that these training sessions had to be done before the public access time of 10 am so that the public would not see them being used. 

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