No choke chains allowed.
No nose rubbing, please.
Deborah and Glenn Hotze are spreading a message of peace, love and treats in their dog training classes, including one recently attended by Chris Joern of LaGrange Park, her daughter Angela and their 6-month-old yellow Labrador, Henry. Joern’s previous canine training experience had been years earlier, when she took her Newfoundlands to a park district-sponsored class.
“They’re great,” Joern said of the Hotzes. “When we came here, I thought, `This isn’t going to work. (The Hotzes are) too nice.’ But I’ve learned that dogs just want to please you.”
“It started as a hobby, and now it’s become a way of life,” Glenn Hotze said as he watched a Jack Russell terrier, golden Labrador, mutt and Bernese mountain dog and their owners circle the ring in the couple’s Homer Township classroom. “We enjoy the dogs, and we enjoy the people we associate with. . . . It’s a good feeling to help people enjoy their dogs as much as we enjoy ours.”
The Hotzes, who have six dogs of their own, teach group and individual classes in dog training. Group classes cost $80 for seven one-hour weekly sessions, and private consultations (for dogs that might be too aggressive or too shy in a crowd) run $25 for each one-hour session. The Hotzes’ credo is positive reinforcement, a method they have honed over 23 years and through a variety of training classes around the country.
“It takes a lifetime to know this business,” Deborah Hotze said. “Every dog is so different.”
Positive reinforcement rewards good behavior with food; a recent class found Glenn Hotze teaching his human students to persuade their dogs to sit and stay with munchies, which can include hot dogs, cheese, liver treats, popcorn — whatever the dog will work for. Eventually, he explained, the dog can be weaned from the treats and the good behavior will remain. (Still, treat withdrawal isn’t necessary, according to Deborah Hotze. “Why do we feel dogs have to do something with no reward? Why are we always concerned that the dog needs its reward taken away?” she said. “Who wants to have his paycheck taken away?”)
The Hotzes recommend that before owners sign up for any dog obedience class, they watch a class in action to see if the training techniques fit with their philosophy of dog ownership.
“You need to see if the method hits you. The class that’s the closest or cheapest might not be the right one for you,” Deborah said. “Observing is important.”
“Hanging” a dog by its leash or spraying lemon juice in its face may make an owner squeamish. “If it makes you feel uncomfortable, leave,” Glenn said. “We find that by using positive reinforcement, it may take longer to learn but it reduces the dog’s adrenalin. Rough handling increases the dog’s adrenalin.”
According to Dr. Jo Ann Eurell, associate professor at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in Urbana-Champaign, positive training can be easier on both dog and owner.
“I think it makes use of the innate learning abilities in dogs,” she said. “A lot of dogs are food-motivated, and food serves as something to use to shape their behavior rather than the more physical methods used in the past.”
Those would include, Eurell said, a choke collar yanked by an owner to punish a misbehaving dog.
“Positive reinforcement corrects behavior using food as a tool to guide behavior,” she said. “I think with positive (training) it’s more fun. It plays to their desire to eat. I think it’s a trend because basically people don’t like to jerk and hurt their dog.”
“Some of these old-fashioned techniques shouldn’t be the first option,” Glenn Hotze said. “Just because we can manhandle a dog doesn’t make it right. We need to respect their nature, as dogs are bred to serve humans.”
Glenn works full time as a funeral director and works the classroom on nights and weekends; Deborah works full time as a dog trainer and consultant after a 13-year stint as a school secretary. Their canine career began when they purchased their first dog, a Doberman, and Deborah became interested in training and showing their pet in American Kennel Club obedience trials. It was then she learned that she had a knack for training.
The Hotzes visited several trainers as they began the dog-show circuits and found their methods lacking. They decided to try it themselves.
“We wanted to provide positive training for people looking for it,” Glenn said. “The problem with much of the training we found was that the person who was doing the training got the results. With positive reinforcement, anyone can reinforce the behavior.”
“We had to come up with techniques that would work for an 8-year-old child as well as a 90-year-old grandmother,” Deborah said. “We are dealing with a dog’s willingness to please.”
She honed her techniques at Sea World in Cleveland, where she received occasional training in animal behavior and frequent advice over eight years.
“I took a trip there and saw the animals perform. They were so happy and energetic and focused,” she said. “That’s what I wanted for our dogs. (The Sea World trainers) were so agreeable in letting me learn from them.”
Grey Stafford, a former animal trainer at Sea World, is now working on a doctorate in physiology and teaching trainers around the country about positive reinforcement and how it applies to almost all animals. He helped the Hotzes perfect their training philosophy.
“Debbie’s worked real hard for years. Positive reinforcement is the flip side of what traditionally has been done in dog training,” Stafford said. “I really admire Debbie. She’s had to walk a fine path. She’s developing her own following and has done a remarkable job. I have the deepest respect for her.”
The couple breed border collies and Bernese mountain dogs. Their male Bernese is currently starring in a Pro Plan dog food commercial, and his offspring can be seen in a Pro Plan puppy food commercial.
“We like the Bernese because they have a nice temperament,” Glenn Hotze said, explaining that they’re looking to produce show-quality dogs. “And we’re happy to place the rest as pets.”
Two of the Hotzes’ Bernese mountain dogs have won national speciality honors from the AKC, and they have garnered 13 tracking dog degrees from the AKC for border collies. They travel the dog show circuit year-round.
Downers Grove resident Patricia Nelson and her Shetland sheepdog Archie began training with Deborah more than a year ago, after learning about the Hotzes at another training facility.
“There was a pamphlet Deborah had written called `The Retrieve,’ where you throw a dumbbell and the dog gets it. The way the pamphlet was written made sense and was very clear. I taught him a perfect retrieve within two weeks without spraying him or correction,” she said. “I think the way Deborah works makes training fun and enjoyable for the dog.”
Westmont resident Linda Vidt, who takes in Chinese shar-peis whose owners must give them up and then helps find them homes, attended a recent class with 3-year-old Shenzi. She learned about the Hotzes when her husband, a Downers Grove veterinarian, took his first dog to the Hotzes for a “kindergarten” class, in which puppies work on socialization and some training.
“I like the positive method,” said Vidt, who has trained with Deborah and Glenn for more than 10 years. “I also like their willingness to take off-the-wall dogs. Whenever I’m fostering dogs, they let me bring (them) in and socialize them.”
After all their years in coaxing cooperation, Deborah said she thinks the dog world is beginning to respond to their message of positive reinforcement.
“Change is slow, but it’s evolving,” she said. “I ask myself, `Can I accomplish the same as someone else and do it in a positive way?’ “
THE RIGHT PUPPY
Besides training, the Hotzes provide pre-puppy consultation to help prospective owners decide on the breed that will best mesh with their family and lifestyle.
“If you get the wrong breed, it can be completely devastating,” Deborah Hotze said. “There are pros and cons to each breed; you just need to know up front what you are getting into.”
A puppy shouldn’t be a spur-of-the-moment purchase, Glenn Hotze advised.
“People have to realize they need to commit two or three months of extra training to get a puppy started the right way,” he said. “They have to plan ahead.”
In addition, before selecting a particular dog, Glenn recommends investigating that breed to understand what it was born to do. For instance, terriers tend to be tenacious because they were meant to chase rats out of holes. Movement will stimulate border collies, bred to herd.
“When you get a purebred dog, you want a dog with specific physical dimensions and temperament,” Glenn Hotze said. For instance, a jogger shouldn’t consider a lumbering Newfoundland, he said, but possibly a sporting breed.
After the purchase, the Hotzes recommend puppy “kindergarten” classes geared to dogs 8 to 12 weeks old. There the puppy will learn to socialize with other dogs, how to sit and how to walk on a leash.
And certain dogs always may have behavioral problems.
“You may be able to correct them 60 to 80 percent, but you might never get to 100 percent,” Glenn said. “But working with your dog, you increase the percentage of better behavior.”
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For more information on classes, call 708-301-0224.
