Evaluating Trainer Videos

Recently I’ve seen a few videos that trainers are using to demonstrate their training results/possibilities. I’ve been both impressed – and not – by some of these videos. It’s a great way to see some possibilities and on the other hand, video just captures a few moments of the training process.  I look for videos of an instructor when I’m about to take a new class and when I help clients find training opportunities.  As an instructor I know I don’t do a very good job of using video to promote my training or business – most of the training with my own dogs is competition training (less relevant to pet dogs and problem solving), I rarely do board and train dogs, and I haven’t been comfortable asking about taking and using video in private sessions.

Here’s a video that inspired me:

8 seconds of brilliance.  1) Look at the speed and enthusiasm.  The dog is running with happiness and is very eager.  2) The dog responds immediately to the cue. There’s no delay, no repeating the cue, no extra prompting needed.  In the second half you see the trainer right after he cued and he’s holding still. He didn’t have to ‘help’ the dog stop. 3) There are 2 repetitions on there – and they look very similar. This shows the trainer was able to get consistency.  4) This is not a simple/common behavior to train, and until I saw this training I had never seen it before.  Look at how the dog immediately jumps and plants – and stays there until the reward is tossed.  (If you’re impressed too – you’ll have an opportunity to learn this in Ohio in a few weeks).

Here’s another video that impressed me – both as a student and as an instructor:

1) These are students in a class, not the instructors dogs. She is able to get such skill from so many students. 2) You see many repetitions of the same things – often with different dogs. This shows that the training strategies were quite effective and it’s not just luck or one team demonstrating a task.  3) You can see other teams working in the background – and they’re doing a great job, focused, and on task.  4) The students are not pulling on the leash, pushing the dogs, or leading them with food. The dogs are doing the tasks to earn rewards – but not being led with food. Look at how eager the dogs are to work and how willingly they respond.  5) The teams are able to do so many different behaviors! 6) Many of these behaviors are somewhat complex and also done quite smoothly. 8) Look at how engaged the people are – they are so focused on the dogs and the tasks – they’re not wandering away, doing other things, late with the timing, talking on phones….  9) Look at what happens when the dogs make a mistake – no reward and they try again, on their own, right away. The handler doesn’t have to make them do it. 10) The dogs are on leash – but the leash is not used to make the dog respond or keep them near the handlers. The dogs look like they would do just as well off leash.

Here is a video that did not inspire me:  Okay…that’s not quite true. It probably wouldn’t be so nice of me to share videos that I think indicate bad training.

1) The dog is being pushed, pulled on, or led with food.  This would not be a demonstration of a dog understanding a task.

2) It’s the trainers adult dog in the video showing simple tasks, slow to respond, and not looking very happy.  This is a little unfair of me – as the adult dog may be recently added to the household and/or may have behavior challenges that have made it difficult to even get to this point.  When I see a trainer demonstrating with his/her own dog, I want to see the dog doing something that is a bit more complex and gives me a better understanding of his/her skills.  Trainer dogs should have fast response to cues (when the demonstration is of “good” results) and only have to cue once. The dogs should be eager participants, not slowly moving after the handlers.

Here’s a cute picture instead of a poor video.

3) Does the editing look questionable? Does it seem like something right before or right after was cut out of the video?  How was the dog rewarded? How was the dog cued? Does it seem like this was a lucky response or is it something the trainer is able to repeat with the same quality response?

4) Client videos don’t need  to have as clean of training – but I do want to see that the client handling the dog knows when to reward and is able to make those choices without having to be told by the trainer. As a student this is important to me because I want to feel that I’ll be able to get good results on my own even without the instructor guiding me.

5) Something unsafe is happening.  Babies and dogs.  Dogs off leash near traffic.  Fireworks set off near dogs. Upset and barking dogs near other dogs (other than maybe a short ‘before’ example).   There is no reason to put dogs or people in unsafe videos for training set ups or even real life situations – it’s not worth the safety risk.

6) Hidden training tools – some trainers share what kinds of collars and tools they are using, occasionally it’s hidden. At one live demonstration I saw an electric collar placed with the box on the side of the dog’s neck so that it couldn’t be seen while the dog was heeling – and the remote in the handler’s pocket.  Sometimes bandannas are used to cover up equipment. It’s one thing to choose to use that type of training – but there’s no good reason for a trainer to go out of his or her way to hide it.  Hiding equipment means that the trainer thinks you  may be uncomfortable or that he/she may be trying to make the training look more impressive.

Three dogs, leashes dropped, attentive, happy.

7) The dog is being led around with food. You can get young dogs to do “impressive” things and go over agility courses or do heeling, etc… but it’s really not that hard to get a dog to follow food.  I want to see a dog do a task and then get the reward afterwards – that small shift is the difference of a dog being a dog vs. a dog who has actually been trained.

Now what?   Go and evaluate videos!   My next steps: I put hundreds of videos online last year – but most were for classes I was taking and are unlisted/private setting. I’m going to try to put up more public and relevant videos and hopefully work up to posting videos of client dogs.