July 26, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local dog trainer is clearly the leader of the pack
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

Diane teaches proper response to commands as another canine client looks on. (Photo by Kristin Pazulski)

On a chilly morning, before the heat of a summer day sets in, Germantown dog trainer Diane Collins pulls up to the Blue Bell  entrance of Fairmount Park, off Walnut Lane, with Attah (her Shiloh Shepherd), Carmella (husky and German Shepherd mix) and Lucca (German Shepherd). Lucca and Carmella live with the same owners and are being trained by Collins because they were fighting each other, even sending each other to the vet for stitches.

The walk, which happens a few times a week, is part of Collins’ training program. The dogs are allowed to roam off the trail during the walk, but Collins keeps a close eye.

Collins is sometimes criticized for being “hypervigilant,” meaning she doesn’t let the dogs roam freely enough. “I don’t take it as an insult but as a compliment,” she said. “I remain vigilant because that’s what the canine leader of a dog pack would do.”

During this particular walk/lesson (after a week of vacation at Ring Lake Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming, giving a lecture about the connectedness between art, spirit and nature. She’s also a sculptor), the three dogs are rowdy, excited and less obedient than usual.

“It’s just as children do,” she said. “They think they can get away with things because I’ve been away.”

Their apparent misbehavior is surprising because with the raising of a hand and a certain tone of voice, the dogs are basically at Collins’ beck and call.

“They’re on duty,” she said. “This is not a free-for-all, but we’re a pack, a structured pack, and I’m the leader.”

Collins said a large part of getting the dogs to listen and respond is establishing a hierarchy, as they would have had in their natural habitat, with Diane at the head so they listen to her.

“Humans confuse their hierarchy,” Collins explained, when people treat dogs as equals or coddle them. “If I have any chance of establishing a language with them, then I have to work with the rules they live by.”

Changing or adding pets and kids confuses that hierarchy, too.

For example, Lucca was a stray that was added to Carmella’s family. Carmy, as Collins calls her, was subordinate to a dog that used to live in the home and is now superior to Lucca. Collins said this switch confuses them, and the confusion turns into perceived misbehavior.

One thing Collins does to make sure the hierarchy remains consistent concerns the order in which the dogs enter and exit from her car. Carmella is always first, then Attah and Lucca, who is on the bottom of this pack’s hierarchy.

On our walk, other dogs in the park are leashless, and as the pack approaches one of these, a pale-colored dog, Collins’ attention heightens. Carmella, the pack’s leader (under Collins, of course), used to attack other dogs frequently.

But Carmella and the pale dog smell each other’s behinds and pass each other easily.

Normally Collins wouldn’t be as worried with Carmella, but because of the vacation break, she’s being cautious. Carmy’s behavior is much improved, as she illustrated the week before Collins went away when a pit bull went to Carmy for a fight and she backed away, or as Collins’ referred to it, disengaged.

“That is a big deal with a dog that has a history of attacking,” Collins said.

If Carmy had tried to attack or showed signs of preparing to do so, and Collins wasn’t able to get the dog to listen, Collins would be forced to tackle her. Not hard enough to hurt her, but just to distract and stall the action. In her 35 years as a trainer, she’s only had to make three or four tackles, she said.

Collins said training has always been ingrained in her person.

Collins, who at 43 is an energetic artist who doesn’t look a day over 30, started training dogs unofficially when she was about 14. Living in Germantown, she got off the school bus one day and found boys throwing rocks at a dog, which was confined to a small area by its 20-foot chain. The boys said the dog was mean, and she asked if they threw rocks at it every day. When they said yes, she said, “It’s no wonder it is mean.”

Diane began caring for the “mean” dog, and within three months, it was sitting in her lap. “I didn’t win over that dog by dominating him; I won him over by loving him.”

Since then, she’s worked with dogs by nurturing and becoming familiar with dogs on a more equal level, without human dominance and discipline. She said on some level, she can speak with them, not through barks and woofs but in a language they understand.

“It is my primary goal to help foster a better dialogue between humans and dogs using the dog’s primary languages — her senses,” Collins explained.

Right now, Collins is training four dogs, and she has five on the “roster,” which means she’s interviewing the families and considering taking the dogs into her program (which she is likely to do since she’s never turned one away). The length of her training programs, which involve the hikes and runs in the park and other activities, depend on the dogs’ needs.

The time it takes her to get to know each of the dogs varies, though Collins said she usually connects with them faster than with the families. The longest connection with a dog took three days, but that’s rare. “I didn’t get the eye contact I wanted that time.”

She’s so in tune with each dog that small personality traits, which a lay person could barely distinguish, are easily recognized by Collins and once pointed out, are obvious to the observer.

For example, since Lucca was a stray and likely left stranded, he seeks attention and positive reinforcement much more than the others. Therefore, Collins has to offer more positive reinforcement to Lucca,  and some disciplinary actions Carm and Attah react normally to would be different for Lucca.

“She would have tucked her tail to her ribs” with a simple tug of the leash, Collins said. And watching Lucca, you can see her constant need for attention, which seems like nagging if you are unaware of her needs.

Carmy, as mentioned, has established herself as a leader, and the others do follow her. Attah, second in charge and the “enforcer,” Collins said, corrects and “tattles” on Lucca. And though I wouldn’t have noticed it if Collins hadn’t pointed it out, Attah did in fact fill that role numerous times.

Though it was rare, Collins did use baby-talk a bit, and she had a treat for them whenever they did something good. The special treat was a swim in the creek and some “fetch” while learning how to share the stick.