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Today, I wanted to talk to you about reasons why. It is so important to have your reason why you are doing what you want to do. It's like having a compass or following your north star. When you work for someone or you work on your own. Business is always evolving. Culture is always met and lost. As the company grows it remains harder and harder to keep the (why) it or (why) you started the journey. Most companies start out as a mission. My mission was simple "help create best friends for life". It has been that very sentence that has allowed me over the past 10 years to mold and shape the way I train. How I teach people to interact with their dog(s). I want people to understand that it's a friendship a partnership. One where you must act like the responsible one or like the parent. But it's still a partnership. For me it's never been about being frustrated with the dog do to me understanding that there is just a communication gap. The figuring out why there is and closing the gap is what I feel I do best.
I was working last night with the command (sit). I use that word command because it's proper to do so. We command the dog to do something. I want you to take that in for a moment. Come one take that in. You might be wondering or saying to yourself...So. Well in the top of the blog I say it's a partnership. Would you command a partner to do anything? Or would you ask? During group last night. I hit this point home very hard. The word sit or asking the dog to sit should be beneficial and the dog should want to perform this task. Lots of times I will see people pull up on the leash after they told the dog to sit. The problem with that is it may understand sit but the dog only understands that there is pressure or something that doesn't feel pleasant coming. If you shape then allow the dog to offer the cue you're really teaching and making it a true partnership. If the dog wants to perform or clearly understands how to perform, then you can use social pressure to discipline. Social pressure is acceptable when the dog has a CLEAR understanding of what to do. So when teaching a cue, make sure that you giving to the dog. The dog will pick up on what's most consistent. So watch the body language.
In all remember this. Shaping, followed by offering, ending in adding the (cue/word) for the command. Never get frustrated the dog is just learning.