Positive Methods And A Reliable Pack Leader
Daina Beckman
“IT IS WHAT YOUR DOG THINKS THAT MATTERS”
“LEADERS LEAD SUBORDINATES REACT”
Remember everything we are doing is based on the dogs’ thoughts and interpretations. Dog owners assume what the dog is thinking. Generally the conclusions they make are based on human psychology and experience. Dogs think like dogs that will never change.
Positive Methods
Negative methods are called aversive’s. Obviously things like shock collars, prong collars, choke chains, hitting your dog, using a painful sound, throwing things at the dog or spraying the dog with water are all negative.
Negative methods cause your dog to experience fear and stress. A stressful experience will induce the stress cascade in the brain ending with a higher cortisol level. When a dog has a high cortisol level they can not think, they react.
In the human experience this would be similar to you having a suddenly terrifying experience. Perhaps you nearly got into a head on collision. You become so shaken that you have to pull over. You can’t think. The experience is on your mind even a few days later. That is cortisol. I am sure you can think of situations where people became suddenly afraid and reacted with out thinking, many times in violence.
Also important is the effect on the human/dog bond. What happens to your relationship with your dog from his perspective when you use aversives? If you boss walked up and choked you when he didn’t like something you did but never told you what he did want, you would think he was untrustworthy and crazy. Constantly telling your dog what not to do will only create confusion in the communication you have with him, and will damage the bond you have with your dog. Screaming at your dog, reacting with loud high pitch yelling or moving quickly toward your dog while you excitedly express displeasure are all actions that will scare your dog, damage the bond, and place you on the bottom of the pack.
Use a confident “I can do it, you can do it” tone when speaking to your dog. At every opportunity praise your dog when he is doing something good, or doing what you want. Think about how the praise sounds, is it sincere or just half hearted? Don’t be stingy with the praise, sound like you are really happy about what your dog is doing. If you are trying to teach your dog to have a more relaxed state of mind, praise him when he is resting but in this case use a soft happy tone “gooood boy relaaaxxx” draw out the word relax so that is sounds relaxing.
A Reliable Pack Leader
Dogs care about five things:
Establish and Protect The Territory
Find Food and Water
Court and Mate
Raise Young
Play.
Dogs are masters at what the priority of the moment should be. They are very consistent. The relationship we are trying to accomplish is that of an adult wolf to an adolescent wolf.
First off canines do not nag each other. If you are nagging or repeatedly asking your dog to do something they will ignore you either because they think you have no idea what you want, or they think you are immature, a puppy. Adult dogs do not react to younger dogs or subordinates. Your tone and body language are everything. If your body and mind are confident, your pheromones smell confident. Ask the command such as sit, let the dog think it through. If he becomes distracted or can’t figure it out gently push down on his back end then praise him as his butt is lowering.
Pack leaders never lead the pack into danger. There is a popular T.V. trainer who consistently uses fear to control dogs. You will not find any behavior specialist who recommends these techniques. Dog trainers do use negatives and fear, people who are educated in the field of animal behavior do not. Do not lead your dog towards things that upset him.
Pack leaders lead with confidence and do not encourage insecurity or worry. If your dog becomes scared act like the thing is no big deal. It will help your body posture and pheromones to say to the dog confidently, “I have control of it, it is no big deal”. This is especially important during the first year of life. Dogs repeatedly go through what are called psychological fear periods. It is vital that you ignore any signs of fear. Do not molly coddle, sooth or speak in a high pitch voice when your dog is afraid no matter what it is. You will be praising your dog for being afraid in the situation, and you will also sound like a puppy who is whining.
When an alert is sounded all pack members are expected to check out the possible threat. If your dogs barks excessively at things outside, then you need to address the threats as a pack leader. Subordinates referred to as guarders will sound an alert bark or a low growl if they think there might be a threat. The low growl means they are not sure, but are listening. If it escalates to a wolf – wolf wolf wolf wolf wolf, that is an alert. As pack leader you should go to the door or window the dog is barking at, stand up tall in front of the dog, look out in an animated fashion with your hands on your hips, then turn away with out looking at the dog and say “ it’s nothing”, then walk away. Establish and protect the territory is the most important thing to a dog.
You must participate in this activity if you are going to be a pack leader. When you yell at your dog to shut up, they view it as you joining in with all that frantic barking. Any time your dog gives an alert bark tell him “good alert, it’s nothing”. If it is something address it casually like you have control and this is either a small matter or a happy matter.
Leaders never react in a hysterical manner. If your dog is doing something like steeling off the counters, don’t become hysterical. A firm “off” while you place your body between the dog and the counter will work. Remember to stand up tall and confident when ever you are moving your dog away from something.
Think about situations in which you react to your dog. Some examples might be:
• Dog paws you and you touch him
• Dog barks at you and you talk to him
• Dog cries and you go to him
• Dog jumps up on you and you touch him
• Dog takes something and you chase him
• Dog bites you and you react by getting into a puppy fight
• Dog runs and you chase him