Michelle Frumento’s School for Mannerly Dogs

Michelle Frumento with Roo.

It’s Thursday evening at the Swarthmore Community Center, and Michelle Frumento is getting ready to teach “drop it” to a room full of humans holding the leashes of excited dogs. First, though, she goes around the room and asks everyone how the week has gone. 

One woman says that holiday visitors were frightened by her German shepherd’s bark.

“Put a basket with treats on the front door,” Frumento suggests. “People can come in already armed with treats, so he’s like, Oh, people are awesome!”

Another woman says that loose-leash walking has been a challenge.

“That’s why we have school,” Frumento reassures her. Then she starts distributing toys for the “drop it” lesson: a fluffy purple fox, a fat green mouse. “No words yet,” she instructs as the humans use their clickers to mark the exact moment the dog gives up the toy. A clicker is a small plastic device commonly used in positive reinforcement training, which is what Frumento teaches. “Practice all over the house,” she urges. “Inside, outside. Bedrooms, bathrooms. There’s all kinds of things to steal in there.”

This is beginner manners, one of several dog-training classes Frumento has been offering out of the community center for the past five years. Manners, not obedience. “Obedience is about controlling the dog and having them comply like robots,” she explains. “Manners teaches dogs how to think for themselves and make correct decisions...It’s a kinder way of helping them live in the human environment.”

Teaching “drop it.”

Positive Reinforcement Training

Positive reinforcement training works by teaching animals to associate specific behaviors with rewards. The clicker marks the instant the desired behavior is given, and then a treat is given to reinforce the behavior. Over time — once the animal reliably executes the desired behavior (sit, come, roll over, go find your toy, or whatever), treats are given only intermittently. “The human version of [intermittent reinforcement] is slot machines,” Frumento explains. “You’re not about to get up, because the very next one might be the jackpot.”

Lauren Shohet, who with her dog Ivy has worked with Frumento for a few years (they recently took intermediate manners for the second time, mostly for the opportunity to practice with a lot of distractions), describes the approach as straight-up learning. “You can see the wheels turning as the dogs figure out what they’re being asked to do. And then they just brim with glee when they master a new skill.”

It’s not just dogs that can be trained this way. Zoos use positive reinforcement training to get large animals to move from place to place. Dolphin trainers use it to get dolphins to jump through hoops. Crabs have been trained to pull a string to release food. Frumento is a veteran of chicken-training camps, which — because working with chickens removes the emotional baggage that comes with training dogs — animal trainers often attend for opportunity to improve and demonstrate their skills. “Chickens will peck you,” Frumento says. “They’re less forgiving than dogs.”

From Dabbler to Professional

When Frumento was in college, she thought she might become a marine biologist. But she didn’t like the part where they had to cut the animals up, so she studied psychology and sociology instead. In 2001, she started volunteering at the Delaware Humane Association (DHA). “I just started dabbling. Like, maybe if I can teach this dog to sit, he’ll be better in the kennel.”

When DHA started assigning specific dogs to specific volunteers to train, she got to work with individual dogs over longer periods of time. Before long, the people adopting the dogs were asking her to come to their houses to continue training. “It just kind of snowballed.” She started joining dog-training organizations and attending conferences. Then a friend connected her to the world-renowned veterinary behaviorist Dr. Karen Overall, and Frumento got to go along on client visits and learn from an expert. She opened her own business, Your Mannerly Mutt, in 2007.

Frumento herself currently has three dogs. Roo, her chihuahua, is a certified therapy dog, a Canine Good Citizen, and holds tricks and K-9 nose work titles. “I wanted a chihuahua because I wanted to teach people that [a dog’s behavior] is so much about the way you rear them...You don’t have to have a chihuahua that’s nasty and bites people. [Roo] has changed so many people’s minds about the breed. He has a huge fan club.”

Sprout is a black, long-legged half-Pomeranian (she tested his DNA) who doesn’t look anything like a Pomeranian. “He’s my special needs guy. I think he was born anxious.”

Little Girl, the newest addition, is a Chiweenie — a chihuahua-dachshund mix, “shaped halfway between a baked potato and chicken nugget,” Frumento says. Though extremely fearful when she arrived at the Providence Animal Center, “She’s doing great,” Frumento says.

“She’s started trusting people and enjoying being around them.”

Praise and Advice

Back in manners class, Frumento circles the room, watching the students work, offering praise and advice, and talking to the dogs with palpable affection. “You’re killing that toy!” she croons to a very small dog. “You’re a vicious little four-pounder!” Then she looks up to remind a student, “Don’t move until you have a handful of treats.”

She compliments a woman who’d been struggling with loose-leash walking. “You’re doing way better than you think you are!” Then she looks down at the woman’s dog and exclaims, “He’s got the best eyebrows in the class.”

The hour is over quickly, and the students head out, or stick around to ask a final question or get a final pat. 

“With dogs, every day is wonderful,” Frumento says. “They don’t worry about the past. They don’t worry about the future. It’s all about the present. We should all live that way.”

Michelle Frumento’s next beginner manners and tricks classes start January 23 at the Swarthmore Community Center. K-9 nose work starts January 14.