Canine Conversations - Dog Training Podcast
Oct 4, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min · 12 segments
This is a great chat for anyone interested in Sport Protection Training. Shade Whitesel has competed in Schutzhund / IGP for close to 30 years. She is a crossover trainer who has found an approach…
Shade WhiteselGuest
Robert CabralHost
I think more and more people, and this was a conversation, a long conversation Denise and I had one day, she said, you know, I think more and more people are getting away from this label of purely positive because it doesn't really exist, right? There's nothing purely positive.
And I'm seeing on this whole thing where they call the balance side, which I used to consider myself a balance trainer, there's very little balance in that because once you step outside of their ideology, suddenly like, oh no, no, you're on the radical side.
yeah and i think that you know the vocals on both sides you know like like i think we have way more in common most of us as good trainers as trainers trying to figure out the dogs uh and i think that's more in common and also better to focus on than the vocal people at either side that want to label and have, there's just like so many variations on all dog trainers, whether you consider yourself balanced or positive.
I used to call myself R plus that seemed a good, um, a good thing, but I also try to not define myself in terms of like positive, therefore everybody's negative or purely positive, which is impossible.
And, you know, it's kind of like I've always said dog training is more of an art because it allows an interpretation of, you know, of how we feel.
And each specific dog kind of demands a different approach or a different, you know, maybe a different finesse is what I should say.
one example is i normally shape getting onto a platform with uh i don't feed the dog in place because i'm interested in the dog going to the platform so i often uh toss a treat off so the dog might like put two feet on a keto board or a prop and i might mark that with toss and then toss treat off but this weekend there was this really uh frenetic brittany And it was just like, he was, he was so over aroused and he was like trembling.
And it was like, if I were to shape that dog, there's no way I would do it with a toss tree
it would just like, and so I just look at all those examples and there's, there's always like different ways, different finesse, different.
He's still offering the behavior, but because of his personality type, we need to like modify it.
I always look at stuff like that, like depending on the dog in front of you, you know,
Do you feel that not having a label, like being, let's call ourselves label-less dog trainers, I think it kind of opens us up to saying, I need to do this with this dog and that with this dog.
I think more and more people, and this was a conversation, a long conversation Denise and I had one day, she said, you know, I think more and more people are getting away from this label of purely positive because it doesn't really exist, right? There's nothing purely positive.
And I'm seeing on this whole thing where they call the balance side, which I used to consider myself a balance trainer, there's very little balance in that because once you step outside of their ideology, suddenly like, oh no, no, you're on the radical side.
yeah and i think that you know the vocals on both sides you know like like i think we have way more in common most of us as good trainers as trainers trying to figure out the dogs uh and i think that's more in common and also better to focus on than the vocal people at either side that want to label and have, there's just like so many variations on all dog trainers, whether you consider yourself balanced or positive.
I used to call myself R plus that seemed a good, um, a good thing, but I also try to not define myself in terms of like positive, therefore everybody's negative or purely positive, which is impossible.
And, you know, it's kind of like I've always said dog training is more of an art because it allows an interpretation of, you know, of how we feel.
And each specific dog kind of demands a different approach or a different, you know, maybe a different finesse is what I should say.
one example is i normally shape getting onto a platform with uh i don't feed the dog in place because i'm interested in the dog going to the platform so i often uh toss a treat off so the dog might like put two feet on a keto board or a prop and i might mark that with toss and then toss treat off but this weekend there was this really uh frenetic brittany And it was just like, he was, he was so over aroused and he was like trembling.
And it was like, if I were to shape that dog, there's no way I would do it with a toss tree
it would just like, and so I just look at all those examples and there's, there's always like different ways, different finesse, different.
He's still offering the behavior, but because of his personality type, we need to like modify it.
I always look at stuff like that, like depending on the dog in front of you, you know,
Do you feel that not having a label, like being, let's call ourselves label-less dog trainers, I think it kind of opens us up to saying, I need to do this with this dog and that with this dog.
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