SDES will follow standards of humane dog training currently under development by a national task force of training experts. These standards will be completed by the fall of 2000. SDES may impose additional, more restrictive standards than those outlined by the AHA task force. Humane training emphasizes the use of positive reinforcement. Humane training minimizes the use of aversives.
Humane training does no harm.
SDES students will learn, apply, and demonstrate their competency in the principles of operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Students will have a thorough grasp of operant and classical conditioning principles as they apply to dog training. SDES training will focus on setting dogs up to succeed and then rewarding them for success. Clicker training techniques are another example of reinforcement-based training techniques that SDES will teach. For example, if the handler is physically unable to guide the dog to perform a behavior, the trainer may use guiding to initially train the behavior, but should transition the dog to a technique that the handler is able to use before placing the dog with the handler.