Louis Mande

Ain’t Mis­be­havin’ Gen­tle Dog Train­ing was started by me, Lou Mande. When I was in high school, I wanted to become an ani­mal behav­ior­ist and a National Geo­graphic pho­tog­ra­pher. I took pho­tos all the time and had a dark­room in my base­ment.   I also read many books as I could on ani­mal behav­ior.  I was on my way.  As so often hap­pens, things don’t turn out as imag­ined, and I took a bit of a life detour.  I became a crim­i­nal lawyer, and for most of my career prac­ticed as a vio­lent crimes pros­e­cu­tor in Albu­querque, NM, and Min­neapo­lis, MN.  While I received a great deal of sat­is­fac­tion from pros­e­cut­ing gang related mur­ders and asso­ci­ated crimes it did seem awfully far away from my orig­i­nal goal.  Work­ing in the field of ani­mal behav­ior was some­thing I thought of often but never imag­ined could come true.  With respect to ani­mal behav­ior, I had to set­tle for train­ing my own dogs for many years.

While work­ing in the prosecutor’s office in Min­neapo­lis, I had the oppor­tu­nity to teach trial prac­tice at the William Mitchell School of Law in St. Paul, MN.  Teach­ing was some­thing I enjoyed and was pretty good at.  It was reward­ing teach­ing law stu­dents, but I have found it is much more fun teach­ing pet own­ers how to train their dogs!

In time, an oppor­tu­nity made it pos­si­ble to return to the world of ani­mal behav­ior, and one of the most reward­ing expe­ri­ences of my pro­fes­sional life was attend­ing Karen Pryor Acad­emy For Ani­mal Train­ing and Behav­ior.  Karen Pryor is a behav­ioral biol­o­gist who taught dol­phins in Hawaii in the 1960’s using “oper­ant con­di­tion­ing.”  She was instru­men­tal in intro­duc­ing clicker train­ing to the dog train­ing com­mu­nity in the 1990’s.  The Karen Pryor Acad­emy is a six month, inten­sive ani­mal train­ing pro­gram and is the gold stan­dard for ani­mal train­ing in the coun­try.  The stan­dards are high and not every­one grad­u­ates.  Grad­u­ates must pledge to train using force free meth­ods.  If it is dis­cov­ered that a grad­u­ate of the Karen Pryor Acad­emy is not train­ing in accor­dance with the stan­dards set by the Acad­emy, that train­ers cer­ti­fi­ca­tion will be lost.

Ani­mals trained using the clicker train­ing method, are treated gen­tly and with respect.  Most peo­ple hav­ing prob­lems with their dogs, or look­ing for train­ing, sim­ply want a well-trained dog right now.  With­out expo­sure to the dif­fer­ent train­ing meth­ods one method looks much like another.  Own­ers are delighted to learn that the clicker train­ing method, while gen­tle, is the most effec­tive way to train. The sci­ence of learn­ing is on the side of pos­i­tive rein­force­ment — wouldn’t you rather work for a car­rot than a stick? Imag­ine train­ing a dog to do any­thing you want with­out any cor­rec­tions. It will seem like magic.

Let me help you jour­ney to a closer rela­tion­ship with your dog. If you have expe­ri­enced tra­di­tional train­ing meth­ods, you will be amazed at observ­ing a happy dog that can’t wait to begin a train­ing ses­sion. With clicker train­ing at Ain’t Mis­be­havin’ Gen­tle Dog Train­ing, LLC, you will become much closer to your dog.  Your dog becomes your train­ing part­ner and not a ser­vant.  Remem­ber, this type of train­ing is a lot of fun — so, let’s have some fun.

Louis Mande with the entire Research and Devel­op­ment staff.

Lou Mande with the company’s intern, Barkley.