Man, I like Michael Ellis. Very balanced trainer. Very, very clear instruction. Solid science behind his methods. Tries like hell to use softer, enjoyable methods, but understands that “corrections” must be used in some situations. Still, attempts to use them as little as possible. And this is on SUPER high drive performance dogs that are VERY hard to manage.
But, mostly I dig his honesty. He is one of the most honest trainers I’ve ever seen. If you’re unfamiliar with him, watch this clip. It is only 5 minutes long, but gives a real solid example of why I like him. And for a short clip it delivers a surprising amount of info!
Check it out HERE.
3 Bad Bullies 
I was the person who asked this question. It was at a seminar in Menomonie on the proper use of the ecollar. Love Michael Ellis. He is so nice and gentle in person.
Wow! What a small world. Crazy.
I can’t wait to attend one of his seminars. My wife and I have been fans for a while now. Definitely one of our goals.
Maybe we’ll bump into you at one.
They said that Michael will come back to give more seminars in Menomonie. It is a 13 hour drive for me (each way), but is much easier than going to CA. I hope to attend another one. I just could not believe how nice and articulate he was in real life.
I want to know more about increasing motivation. Sierra is a low motivation dog. She has made that bad association w people and after 2 years, it is better but it seems like it will never go away. What he said makes so much sense…she really is not into food unless all the conditions are right.
Is she low motivation, or high threshold? as in, she’ll go for food or toys with gusto, in the house, or some “safe” area, but not in public. Or, she just doesn’t care about food, or toys no matter what the scene is?
Let me know, I feel an article coming on about this!!!!
She seems to only care about toys or food about 25% of the time regardless if we are inside and safe or outside. 25% of the time, she is either more interested in eating grass or sniffing or is over threshold to care and 50% of the time, I am acting like a fool trying to get her to play. With fetch, once I get her going, and if I dont throw the ball near grass, she will start to get into it and actually encourage me to throw. Other days, she’ll play ball right from the git-go but those days are rare. I have to encourage her to eat a bully stick by throwing it a few times…then she will eat it. Gosh – does that help?? lol
Yeah, that helps. I’ll give it some thought, and write something more detailed.
But, in the meantime….. She sounds VERY smell motivated. That’s a concept I think few people give any thought to. Food, toy, praise…. All used to motivate. But, never smell. Find smells that capture her attention, and use that a as motivation/focusing agent. And don’t just stick with the stuff in the cupboard. While smearing steak on your hand may work, you might need to get creative. For example, go to a hunting supply place, and get their deer scents! They have bottle’s of deer “urine”. Not sure exactly what is is, as I haven’t had to try it yet, but I know hunters use strong animal scents for bait. Can’t imagine you couldn’t catch he attention with that!
And, once you find a scent that sparks her, you can apply that to a toy to get her interested. I’ll talk more in the article about building drive for a toy in the article, but that’s some food for thought.