In Praise of “Boring” Training - a podcast by Ty Brown

In this post, I’d like to share some of my thoughts about how boring dog training is.

Now, I don’t mean what you’re probably thinking! Training is my profession, and it’s also been my passion since I was a teenager. I love it. But I’ve had a few experiences recently that helped me realize how boring “good” dog training really can be.

This morning, I did an assembly this morning at a school that’s attended by a young girl with a service dog. The dog does a lot of cool stuff. If she runs off, he will find her. If she has a panic attack, he will help her calm down. He makes sure she doesn’t go into tantrums or fits. But 99% of what the dog does on a typical day is heel calmly by her side, lay down next to her desk, and come when she asks him to come. That’s what he does, day in and day out.

The assembly was primarily geared toward telling kids to leave the dog alone during school. The school didn’t want students to be petting the dog, talking the dog, or feeding the dog. Afterwards, I opened it up for a few questions. A kid raised his hand and said, “All right, can you show us the cool stuff the dog does?” And I said…well, not really!

This dog’s trainers put thousands of dollars and tons of time and effort into working with him, and at the end of the day he looks pretty boring. All that training went into having a companion that can simply hang out and be a help when needed, and that quality makes him an amazing service animal.

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