The Jefferson County History Museum got a few furry visitors on Sept. 14 as dog trainer Georgia Towle brought her two Leonbergers to the museum to demonstrate training tricks.

Towle’s program on Friday evening kicked off the museum’s “Animal Encounters” series, which began on Sept. 14 and will feature different animal enthusiasts and experts through February.

Towle, who works at Lucky Dog Training Center, was first inspired to be a dog trainer when she was a young girl, and her family would watch her older sister’s dog on the weekends.

“As a child I would chase this dog and chase it and he would stay just five feet away, just out of reach,” Towle said. “I got so frustrated with him that I vowed when I grew up I wasn’t going to have a dog who wouldn’t come.”

Training dogs for 35 years, Towle has watched the evolution of animal training change over time from a punishment based system, to one that rewards animals when they behave well.

“Up until the 1980s, all animals were trained using force and coercion,” Towle said. “The shift came about when people started training marine mammals.”

At her program, Towle explained how dogs speak in a different “species language” than humans, and that the trick to training them with positive reinforcement, was to start speaking the same language.

“We have this language barrier between us and the dogs. They don’t speak English, they don’t even speak human,” Towle said. “Your dog is learning a different species language.”

Using words assigned to actions, like putting a treat on the ground, or holding it above the dogs head, allows humans to speak the same language as dogs, said Towle. In other words, if you say “sit,” while holding a treat over the dog’s head, the dog will sit, not because of the word you said, but because it’s the easiest way for him to get the treat. Then, after enough repetition of the word with the action, the dog can associate the word “sit” with sitting down, and with hopefully getting a treat for being good.

With this type of training method, Towle demonstrated several different tricks to an intimate crowd at the museum on Friday, such as rolling over, backing up and even trying to ride on a skateboard.

Not only were audience members delighted to see the dogs perform, they also enjoyed getting a chance to pet the fluffy Leonbergers, who were extremely friendly, especially to the children in the crowd, despite their large size.

The next Animal Encounter event at the museum will be on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 2 p.m. and will feature a “Baby Goat Meet and Greet” with Sunfield Waldorf School. On Sunday Nov. 18 at 2 p.m., the museum will host Debbie Goodrich, who is also known as the “Parrot Lady,” and on Friday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. they will host Heather Taracka with 4H Reptiles.