WHY I NO LONGER MUSH WITH GREENE VALLEY DOG DRIVERS
(And why they may be wrong - or right - for you)

This question keeps on coming up again and again when I talk to people about scootering like stubborn indigestion. I have decided to add a web page to explain why I no longer mush with the Green Valley Dog Drivers so that people can quit asking.

I started mushing with the Greene Valley Dog Drivers back in about 2005, the result of an invitation I received while exercising my collie Suki in the Greene Valley dog park. I mushed with them for two full seasons (during which time I wrote and maintained their web page), and was abruptly asked to leave early in the third season.  The facts are simple: my friend Roxanne (presently working at Wiggles and Wags as a dog trainer) called me during the week and asked if I would let her collie Onchu pull my custom 3 wheeled scooter as a one-off thing. Onchu had just finished physical therapy, and was still timid about using his previously injured muscle. I suggested she bring him to the area where the GVDD was training. We worked well away from the other dogs. I hooked Onchu up to my scooter, and baited him to get him to pull (that means I offered him treats... to get the treat he had to pull). Typically I did not work with drop-ins, but in this instance I did, since Roxanne was coming specificallly to work with me. She is an R+/P- trainer  and would not allow anyone but me to work her dog. Roxanne was very satisified with the session and thanked me.

No one had complained to me about my training previously. No one said anything to me at that session. Two days later, however, I received email from one of the founders (who had not been present at that session). I was told that my training methodology was unsafe, ineffective, and unacceptable. I was asked to leave, which I did. I agreed to remove my name from the website for the events I had attended with the GVDD, and merely requested that my name as author of the website be retained for as long as the website was used. This request was denied. They continued to use my code for their website for several months, after which it was replaced. I was pretty upset about that, but decided to not shut down the website for copyright infringement since - after all - the GVDD had really gotten me interested in mushing in the first place. The subsequent website contained none of my intellectual property, so the matter became moot.

The Greene Valley Dog Drivers do not abuse dogs. In the two plus years I trained with them I never saw anything that even remotely approached abuse. They train using traditional R+/P+ techniques. This style of training is still quite prevalent in mushing circles, far more so than the R+/P- techniques I use.  R+/P- training (sometimes inaccurately called "clicker training") has gained substantial ground in some dog sports like agility, where it is now more popular than R+/P+ training. As I said, however, it is still rare among mushers (at least in the midwest). I know there are some very successful mushers out west using R+/P- training.

So, where should you go for your training?

The GVDD will take a new dog and put it in a line with half a dozen or more well trained dogs, and go for a run. This works very well for some dogs (that is how my collie Suki started) but very poorly for others. When it works well it accomplishes in a few minutes what it normally takes us one or two sessions to accomplish. When it works poorly it can poison the sport for your dog. This is not a disaster - you can usually eventually undo any negative consequences - but it is not desirable.

We will typically bait a dog to get it to pull, at least at first. The food is quickly faded (meaning, we don't use food for long). Pulling has to be self-rewarding to be successful. Dogs are generally encouraged to learn to pull alone at first. Team size is almost never larger than 2 ... which means that if a dog does not want to pull, the team is going nowhere. This can be very frustrating for the humans, forcing us to use our brains to try and figure out WHY the dog does not want to pull. The answer can be something simple: for example, in one case, the dog I was handling was used to jogging with it's owner. Once I learned that, I tried jogging with the dog while it pulled. Once the dog started pulling I was able to drop out, and the dog continued to pull. In minutes, pulling had become as rewarding for the dog as jogging. Success without coersion.

The folks running GVDD are not evil. In fact, they all love dogs and would not do anything to deliberately harm a dog. The founders have all been involved with rescuing huskies.They have successfully trained or help train a substantial number of dogs (mostly husky / husky crosses, but other breeds as well) using traditional training techniques, but are uncomfortable in the extreme with new training styles. They have traditionally focused on large (6 or more) dog teams. Practices generally start at 6:30 AM.

We are also not evil. We also love dogs, have also been involved with various rescues, and have also trained a significant number of dogs to pull, including huskies, mals, collies, goldens, samoyeds, and undefinable mutts. We are open to all (non-abusive) training styles, although most of us use R+/P-.  We focus on very small team sizes (1 or 2 dogs). Our practices tend to start later in the day, usually at 9:30 AM. As a consequence, our season runs a few weeks shorter since by 9:30 the sun has already started heating things up.

You are welcome (at least as far as I am concerned) to try out both. Members live in the same area, belong to the same organizations (ISDRA and others), but have different training philosophies.

The Greene Valley Dog Drivers were invited to comment on this before I published it but declined.