Update: A Third Forum is at Reddit

The blog post below was written a few years ago and revised recently I just found an active forum that emphasizes the least intrusive or aversive methods. It’s at Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/

Looks like a good place to get answers fast! I am EclecticLibrarian there.

Two Forums

Once just before bedtime, I googled “dog training forum” and looked at several of the websites that came up. This was not a good thing to do late at night, as I got fascinated by two of the largest forums and stayed up quite late. I joined them and will describe how you can use them as a quick and easy way to get ideas when you are dealing with dog training or behavior challenges.

Notice that I said ideas, not only good ideas. Perusing any forum means wading through a lot of uninformed posts. In the case of dog training today, where there is such a wide spectrum of attitudes about what constitutes good training, you will no doubt encounter attitudes I wouldn’t endorse on this website. Actually, I was pretty happy with how extensively people mentioned positive methods, trainers, and books

The two forums that I joined were:

• Dogforums.com
• Chazhound.com

Both were active. I like busy forums, where any question is likely to be answered. it is free to join either one.

There are other dog forums that looked quite popular, but two is enough for me. A google search will lead you to them.

Five tips on how to use a dog training forum

[1] Think for a moment in advance how much time you want to spend on the forum and if you have a specific purpose. These places can gobble up your time. (I knew this but re-learned the lesson that night.)

[2] To find the answer to a specific question, find the word Search, with or without a search box visible. On almost all forums, you can search without joining, and it’s a good way to get a sense of a forum.

Now here is where tabs in your browser save a lot of time. Look at the list of threads that have come up from your search, and guess which ones look pertinent. Consider the title of the thread and also how many answers have been given… this number usually follows the title in another column. Typically you will also see how many people have viewed the thread as well.

Choose a promising title, and right-click on it to open it in a new tab. Stay with the page you are on for now, and open several promising threads. Once you have some open, go take a look. Warning: some of the threads have heart-rending titles, like “Should I put Fluffy down?” Only open those if you are willing to be distracted. (I was last night, and I was very impressed with how caring many of the responses were.)

[3] Once you are in a thread, skim through it to see if it actually discusses what you are researching. If it does, read it through and — using your own judgment — take from it what is useful. You can copy a part and paste it into a file you have on your computer, to print out or refer to later, if you wish.

[4] If you find that you like a forum, join it and contribute your knowledge. If you have a dog-related website, often there is a place in your profile to put the website’s address, and there may be a thread on the forum (as there is at Chazhound) where you are invited to tell people about your site.

[5] Explore other dog-related topics. Both of these forums, for example, covered dog food, health, rescue, and a variety of other canine matters as well as dog training.