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I can tell you I've been in the business of training both, humans and dogs for combined over 16 years. I've worked in the corporate world where I was supposed to train and develop people daily. Now in the dog world where I train people and work with the dogs. I often get called out do to a puppy or adopted or young dog is out of control. The dog is hard to walk, doesn't like to share it's toys, doesn't like strangers, impossible to walk, killed a small animal, snapped at the kids, aggressive with other dogs, aggressive with people, and yes my personal favorite the belief that the dog is stubborn. What I do is come in to a consult or a situation with the most open mind and lots of empathy. I'm to the understanding that the dog will tell me the real story. I'm the biggest advocate for the clients dog they called me about. I want to see where the communication is messed up so I can bring happiness to the dog and person. The dog feels most complete when it knows it's doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Often times when I see the owner and dog interact I usually end up seeing the whole picture and often times people wonder if i'm psychic. People go that's exactly what the dog does. For me it's about reading the dynamic of the home. Which is why I love to do house visits. We get to see the dog and owners change from the beginning to the end of our sessions. I don't mind giving all my secrets away because the owners are learning a lot and I just love to help. I love seeing the progress of each families journey to finding their best friend under the stress. So how do I actually help? Well that is what we will talk about today.
It is our fourth lesson and by now the dog understands it's name, knows sit, down, come, and stay....usually. We are getting the leash that the owners will use for their friend. While they say to me we will not use the W.A.L.K word. I just grin and say that's okay. If you think that will help keep him/her calm. The truth is as soon as the owners intentions switched to the W.A.L.K. the dogs did too. You see the dog studies us as if they'd study prey in the wild. One of those instincts that they kept up. They study us so well that they'd know what you're feeling, going to do or not do just by how your mind moves from one thing to the next. We give off signals that unintentionally hit our dogs mind. We call these things associations. Our dogs associate everything we do. You do have to understand you live with a predator which has all the tools to hunt. Did you know that they can smell chemical changes in the body? It's true, they're incredible. You can not full a dog at all. Back to the walk story. She leaves the room for the leash and the dog is going bonkers. She comes back in and I say wonder what would've happened if we'd just say walk:). Most unwanted behaviors are triggered by our own emotions. We don't want to be embarrassed. We want to take our dog out. We want to talk to the neighbor with our dog. We want people to be like, wow they've got great control. What I can tell you is when you're having lots of problems with the dog. It's not that someone needs to dominate, make it submit, or have more control. There is a fundamental breakdown of communication in the relationship on your end. Not the dogs. We need to own it. We are the more intelligent species even though sometimes we give up on ourselves way to easy when it becomes to these embarrassing behaviors. Truth is, we like dogs can get comfortable with uncomfortably like a tight leash pulling us everywhere. So we just go in this viscous cycle out on the walks. You start replaying the movie in your head before you even leave. It's almost like a checklist of everything bad that's going to happen. All the while your dog sees and smells you getting stressed. Every time my person grabs the leash and we try and go outside they seem to get unsure and stressed so I need to make sure that I can protect them. Not knowing they're the cause of the stress. I mean how couldn't they know right? They only get loved on 24/7 in the house, lay next you, sleep with you, feed them, call them all sorts of cute names, pet them nonstop, give them treats, call them over just to make sure they know their loved. Now do see why your dog never thinks it's them? They spend 90-98% of their life inside where you are relaxed and closed off from the world. So even if there's embarrassing behavior you may not change at all. Some people even laugh or think certain things may be cute....you know who you are.
When I teach my clients I will always tell them to envision themselves sitting at home at their most relaxed part of the day and work the cues that day. Yes, even the walk. Especially the walk. Their is no time for being tense out there. Often times when I see the treats being held close. I'll ask if everything was okay, because those treats are not that good. I'm like lower them stand normal and walk away normal. You will see a difference. Wallah you get a different or faster result every single time. Everything for how the dog feels about their environment when you bring them home comes from you. It doesn't come from the car you drive, how hot or cold you keep your place, how comfortable the bed they sleep on is, or what sweaters they wear. All that matters is are you checking your emotions at the door. Understand that you and your dog are both learning about each other.
When I was teaching Snickers to walk I used to be so embarrassed. Pulling, choking, lunging, barking, growling, zigzagging. I would apologize to people all of the time. I finally got to a point where I didn't even see people anymore. My dog acted up I addressed it immediately. I chose to not care about being embarrassed. I cared how my dog was seeing things. I had to get to the point where I had to change his habits. He was used to protecting me on the walk. Now he was just in a bad habit and he had to know I was serious. Every time he misbehaved I addressed directly to him. When he'd calm I'd mark and praise. As soon as he'd start in again. I'd address his behavior and as soon as he did something different I'd mark it. It's so important not to move on during the walk when you're in that fire. You've got to be the one to put it out, not the dog. Remember this, if never nothing else. Address behavior and as soon as you get a better or different response mark and then reward. So crucial the dog understands when they did it right and when they did it wrong. You, by creating a habit of marking behaviors will help control the happy hormones in your dogs head! How cool is that?
This one was kind of long one. I hope you received some kind of value out of it. Our dogs learn to communicate one way or the other. We have to understand directly what it is that we are giving to them in communication. A word of advice always address as relaxed as possible. Leave the emotions at the door.
Take care until next time. Please like always. I'd like to know your thoughts. Please post your comments on the blog page or on any outlet you see that it's posted. Love to hear from you all. Thanks so much for the support.