Krzysztof
Forum Replies Created
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Hello everyone,
here are my suggestions to supplement the Code of Ethics.
I apologize in advance for my English, but I hope everything will be understandable and clear.
1. The trainer is responsible for ensuring the safety of participants, bystanders and the dog, which he does by informing the client about what steps he should take before and during the training – e.g. purchase of appropriate quality training equipment.
Comment: it often happens that the client brings a dog to training in a poor quality collar or harness that can be damaged and cause the dog to run away, the same applies to the leash. Providing the owner with minimal precautions, adjusting the collar, using an undamaged leash gives comfort to both the trainer and the owner, and also ensures the safety of training.
2. The trainer does not impose the behavior towards the dog on the client – with the exception of point 1. If the client makes a decision that raises the trainer’s doubts, he should inform the client of the potential consequences so that the client is aware of them.
3. Confidentiality – the trainer does not provide information about the client and his dog to third parties, does not record the client’s image in the form of photos and/or video without his express consent. Sharing the recordings or the training process with other people, e.g. for educational purposes, should also take place only with the express consent of the client.
4. We work with the client and the dog as they are. It is forbidden to evaluate any actions from the past, e.g. regarding the dog’s upbringing mistakes. Thanks to this, we increase the client’s trust in the trainer as a professional.
5. The trainer should not discredit the work of other trainers. It should be our job to ensure that we raise awareness of professional dog training, not to ridicule someone else’s work or try to destroy the competition.
Comment: in my home market there are schools – quite large and well-known, which regularly try to discredit the work of other trainers. Such behavior is unethical and should not take place. I believe that such practices should be eliminated using possible legal means.
6. The trainer should adapt the activities to local laws.
7. The trainer should conclude an agreement/contract with the client, which describes the terms of cooperation, including the financial aspect.
Comment: such formalization of cooperation gives security to both the client and the trainer, as it allows you to clearly and precisely set the conditions. It also gives you the opportunity to pursue legal claims, if any, and defend against claims.
8. The trainer undertakes to train the dog to the extent it is prepared. It is unacceptable to train in a field in which the trainer would improvise due to lack of knowledge.
9. The trainer should use only such tools that he knows and understands their operation based on scientific knowledge. The trainer should work with awareness of the potential risks resulting from the techniques and tools he uses and always choose the path that brings the greatest profit for the dog and at the same time the least discomfort.
Comment: I have seen many times how trainers fascinated by some new tool heavily abused it, trying to take shortcuts, which did not bring training benefits, but had a negative impact on the emotions of the dog and the owner.
10. The trainer should always maintain the highest possible standard of knowledge. If the client disagrees, starts a discussion trying to impose a different way or solutions, we should be prepared to lose the client, instead of keeping him at all costs.
Comment: I have met clients many times who tried to impose solutions or negated the proposed solutions. Compromise never led to success, the client, the dog and me as a trainer lost – I gained a dissatisfied client.
11. The client should be informed about the opinion about the dog directly and not withhold information only because the client feels better.
Comment: Customers are often not objective in their assessment of their dog. Make them aware of the problem and its consequences. Otherwise, it can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts between the trainer and the client.
12. As professionals, we should pay attention to other aspects such as the condition of the dog, its health, diet, etc. If necessary, we should undertake three-way cooperation Trainer – Client – Veterinarian.
Comment: It happens that the client is not aware of his dog’s health problem. A dog that suffers from pain, for example, will not cooperate and learn like a healthy dog, which means that training may be ineffective. Also, training work with a sick dog can worsen its health.
13. You should train, exchange experience with other trainers, improve your competences and maintain the most up-to-date knowledge based on new scientific experiences.
14. Transparency of the trainer by not concealing information about his work and experience, as well as by not making false statements, e.g. about skills, certificates or training programs.
Comments: I’ve come across a situation many times where a trainer claimed to have “invented” or “developed” a technique when it turned out that they were borrowed from trainers from another country. The same applies to training materials when the trainer claims to be the author, but in fact the materials are copied from the programs of other trainers from other countries. I consider such practices unethical and dishonest. Respecting copyright seems to me paramount in maintaining transparency and purity.
Ok. For me – and as I’ve noticed for most people here – apdt’s code of ethics is clearer and more specific, as opposed to the rather general rules of iacp. The issue of advertising discussed by apdt seems redundant – probably in most places in the world it will be governed by local regulations. Transparency seems to be a matter of course, but it is one of the points I made above – I do not see the need for additional specific regulation on advertising and marketing.
An interesting topic (apdt) seems to be the procedure for submitting and examining ethics complaints. This may indeed be an important issue that should also find its place here.
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And here is my 15-year-old female Tara, video from the end of April 2023. View from the helper’s perspective 🙂 I allow her to make small mistakes, because now it’s just supposed to be fun for her 🙂 Pay attention to the condition of the 15-year-old dog 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1fquEy5OPWA
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I put a video of solving the trace – age of the trace: 17 hours, length approx. 250 meters, 6 items left, 5 of which were found and marked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uNUzikRdt8
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I forgot one perhaps most important difference between mantrailing and searching. in mantrailing, the dog tracks a specific person, in search and rescue work, the dog’s task is to find every living person in a given area 😉
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And here is my Czekan, which makes a mistake – it should not enter the hideout, but immediately mark it from the outside.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/glc7S9b5g48
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Here we have my friend’s Munsterlander, the helper’s designation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI3bNFY4NKQ
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Hi, I don’t have a lot of videos, just a few snippets from marking. The dog works independently, and during training the handler usually stands still and waits, or along the path. At later stages, a man also searches the area, but it is rather difficult to record a dog during work, because it just runs, often far away and is not in the field of view.
The marking itself is posted below, my dogs mark by barking, they do not lead the guide. I will also look for videos on the web that will show the work in more detail, I will post and describe it.
The helper can be hidden from the dog in 4 ways: it is accessible to the dog (physical accessibility) and visible, it can be physically accessible but invisible (e.g. hidden under a blanket, etc.), it can be inaccessible and visible (e.g. high up or down – the dog can see, but has no possibility of physical contact), and can be invisible and inaccessible.
The dog should not make physical contact with the helper – this is forbidden and should not break the hiding place, e.g. pull out sticks if the helper is covered with them. The reason is safety – avoiding potential bites and the safety of the rescue dog – missing people are usually sick people or those who do not want to be found (e.g. suicidal, unbalanced people, etc.). Attempts to dismantle hiding places are excluded due to working conditions, e.g. rubble may slide on rubble and the dog and rescuers may die – such conditions may also occur in field searches.
Here is in train searching – the helper is accessible to the dog and visible. The first dog is my Czkekan – Polish hound, the second dog is my friend’s Polish hunting dog – Bora. Bora is just learning to mark by barking, so she is rewarded by the helper for each bark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2T4ijiketg
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I also believe that emphasis should be placed on the good of the dog and the good of the dog-owner relationship, which is unfortunately lacking in many companies providing services. They have beautiful marketing, but the formal aspects of the partnership are about the trainer-client-money relationship.
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I started my olfactory work with mantrailing. In mantrailing, dogs work on medium and heavy molecules – what settles in space for longer. When searching, dogs work mainly on light molecules – hydrates, primarily on the smell of exhaled air. The task of the rescue dog is to find people who are ALIVE and only the living (although here there are differences in different countries when it comes to the training methodology; in Poland cadaver dogs are trained separately).
Mantrailing has limitations – the mantraling dog will not search the rubble. A search dog is also able to work longer and check a much larger area than a mantrailing dog. Besides, a few years ago, when I was still training mantrailing, trainers had a stupid rule that the dog is only rewarded by the helper at the end of the track. At the same time, the dog is required not to follow the shortest path (e.g. when he gets the wind and smell directly), but to follow the track followed by the helper
(not foot to foot like in tracking, but cutting corners is not good).
Fortunately, some trainers have come to their senses and started introducing elements to reward the dog for working on the track – elements taken from sports tracking, marking objects, etc. This makes more sense, because the dog actually learns to follow the track. I don’t know what it looks like today, because I was drawn to the work of search rescue dogs 😉
There is indeed a belief that mantrailing is a great sport to help solve behavioral problems – I have my doubts about that. Although it can help indirectly by providing activities related to the naturally strongest sense, related to the elements of the hunting sequence, cooperation with the guide and work with helpers (socialization). But personally, I wouldn’t overestimate it as a means of “repair” dogs. Of course, such activity is valuable in itself – that’s for sure 🙂