It seems like yesterday that Lisa was pregnant with Elizabeth who is now 23. Like most expecting couples we were extremely excited. Lisa had been working at the Edgewood Arsenal Child Development Center for years, and before that she had been babysitting the kids of friends and family for years. I always loved kids and had taken several years of child development in high school. Primarily because thats where the girls were, and because I knew my future was a family, not wood working. In spite of our backgrounds, we were gifted and bought books on babies, and of course had no shortage of advice from others.
Its amazing to me how much we put into gaining knowledge of raising our own species, but not the species who have cohabited with us the longest, dogs. That is the primary reason we have so many behavior problems with them. We treat them like humans, and they respond as well to that as a human child would to being treated like a dog.
Dogs are very simple, their lives are made up of 5 things we call the Canine Commodities. They are Food, Water, Space, Toys, and Attention. With each one, either you are in control or the dog is. Once they have control of one they will continue attempt to control the others. They do this by treating humans as if they are dogs. Thats because they don’t have the ability to understand another species. So when they use these Canine Commodities to control you, basically you are the frog in the water. The water is turned up so slowly you don’t even realize you are being cooked.
When people ask me when is the best time to book a training session, I say before you get the dog. Whether it is a puppy or a rescue. When the puppy leaves Mom he is probably leaving the best pack leader he has ever had. He is not used to taking care of himself and will be more than happy to accept a pack leader, but you have to act like his Mom to be treated like his Mom. If he does not see you as a pack leader, he will have no choice but to be his own.
The same thing is true of a rescue. It has usually months or years away from their Mom. They have in some-cases been through terrible traumas, usually cause by humans. They often come to us with a massive distrust of humans and their behaviors. They have figured out that the best thing to do with humans is to avoid them and if they come to close to bark, growl, nip and bite to keep them away. Distance equals safety in the animal world. If you act like a human it may take a long time for them to accept you as anything other than a food source. This ensures that they will stay anxious and reactive. How people act around a dog that they feel bad for is interpreted by the dog as submissive behavior. The dog thinks “oh great”not only do I have to take care of myself but now this basket case too.
The way to recovery is to show yourself as a canine pack leader. This is the exact opposite as acting human. As it should be with human children, love is an action, not just a feeling. Dogs respond to actions. Consistent actions equal healing, consistent results and progress.
Canine Moms don’t focus on getting their pups to sit, lay down, or come, so why are we so fixated on that. I don’t care if my dog is standing on his tail as long as he is calm and relaxed. Calm and relaxed dogs have fewer maladaptive behaviors, its that simple.
What we do is extremely simple, it has to be, because dogs are simple. But the problem is that the more simple the process, the more important each step in the process becomes, adding or subtracting from the process inhibits the process.
As it is with any process, you maintain control by identifying and removing as many variables as you can. You develop best practices based on prior outcomes, not feelings. If it works you keep it, if it doesn’t its discarded, not matter where it came from or how long you have been doing it.
This is the mindset that allows us to train two, and even three dogs in an hour in some cases.
Something that is not broken does not need to be fixed, if it is broken, before fixing take the time to understand what caused the failure and rebuild again taking that into consideration.
Some dogs can be part of your family for up to 15 years. While live even a single day of frustration that can be avoided with education and knowledge.
Because of what has been explained above we are going to start offering our New Dog Package. It includes 2 one hour sessions for $150 instead of the regular price of $175. The best time for the first session is just before you get the dog. You will save an enormous amount of money by knowing what and what not to buy. We will teach you all about creating the best environment possible for the new puppy or dog, housebreaking, and how to deal with the most common problem behaviors. You will learn our program while handling one of our dogs if you don’t have yours yet. We will also answer all your questions.
You have up to 6 months to use your 2nd session. During that session will will focus on fine tuning your dog. It can be at your house, the dog park, or wherever you want. The entire $150 must be paid in full at the completion of the first visit. This is a $25 savings.