When discussing the roots of the domestic canine, people often misinterpret and apply concepts of the wild canine, to the domestic canine. I have been able to clearly distinguish what I felt were the similarities and differences.
The main similarity between a wolf and a dog is in their thought processes particularly in, the way in which they learn and analyze things about and within their environment. The wolf naturally learns about its environment and analyzes through observation all on its own. The domestic dog usually has difficulty doing this because it is not in a natural environment and is not forced to utilize all of its instincts. Our companion dogs live in the world of humans, not the world of wolves. Their brains function like a wolf’s, it is a highly instinctive brain; and they have a bible of nature that they are born to follow. It is based on earth, trees, grass, wildlife, etc. Canines do not naturally understand being tied up, TVs, four walls, vehicles, traffic cones, or Spiderman action figures. There is nothing instinctive about these things to a canine, and since their reasoning is based on their instincts they can have a difficult time adjusting to human norms.
Canines think very methodically; one thing at a time. They can think quickly, however, one thing at a time. The last thing a person tells a dog is the last thing it remembers. Whether or not they listen depends upon two things, first, if they understand what the handler is telling them, and secondly, if they respect the handler (or not). Dogs usually have an amazing memory. Remember that the last command that was said to the dog is what is on its’ mind. If a person says sit, down, stay, then stay is what the dog has on its’mind. One can also apply this to a session with the dog. If the dog is worked for fifteen minutes, and the handler keeps things positive and flowing nicely, the canine remains in a good frame of mind, thus ending on a positive note. The longer the session, the more difficult it is to keep everything upbeat and positive, especially basic obedience. A person could work with a dog for five hours, and if the last five minutes had a negative tone, then the dog more than likely views the activity as negative. The dog still retains parts of the session, but it is not viewed as positive due to ending on a bad note. I recommend short but frequent sessions; anywhere from five to twenty minute sessions, two to four times a day, until the dog is doing satisfactory work for the handler. This is for basic obedience. Like everything else in life, the more one does something, the better one gets at what one is doing. The handlers have to feel out their dogs to know where the animals’ boiling points are, so they know when to call it quits. The handler should always end the session when the handler wants to, however, the handler should make sure the dog is aware that the handler is the one terminating the session, and not the dog.
The canine has blueprints in its head that it bases both its’ own functions on as well as functions of others in life. To understand the transfer issue from teacher to owner we must breakdown the love, respect, and trust relationship. The owner’s relationship is based on love, and their past with their dog is usually an unruly one, or at least not an obedient relationship. The owner has established security, comfort, and a lack of control, simply due to never showing the dog otherwise. Even the most mild, easy-going dog needs to know why they must listen to the owner. A dog is given the role of Alpha whether they want it or not due to a lack of communication on the owner’s behalf. The owner hopes to gain respect through proper presentation with practice. I, the teacher, on the other hand, come into the relationship with a clean slate. The dog has never gotten away with anything with me. I establish control from the start with black and white guidance that the dog understands completely. The dog usually realizes due to my ideal presentation that I learned this a long time ago. My most dominant dogs are usually willing to step down from the throne for me. That is not the problem here. It is taking someone below the dog on the social ladder, and placing the owner above his or her dog, when it has always been reversed. My role is completely understood, and most of the time, accepted, by the dog. The owner’s previous role was understood and appreciated, but now the dog says, “Whoa-whoa-whoa wait a minute here! The alpha, the teacher, is now taking my owner who is below me on the social ladder and trying to place my owner above me?!” There is nothing in the bible of nature that says that canines have to listen to more than one alpha per environment. A multi-alpha environment is a foreign concept. Unfortunately, living in a human world, we must oust this belief, so we can all function as handlers while teaching the canine. Honestly, at best, I would say that there is normally only a forty to fifty percent transfer from myself to the owner. It takes several months of consistent hard work to reinforce my standards for the owner to become as similar to me as possible that will achieve the owner’s eliciting maximum performance out of the dog. Good handling is so valuable to the handler. A novice handler must concentrate on what he or she is doing more so than about what the dog is doing! The dog can never handle better than the handler. In first few weeks, there can be a lot of friction between the owner and their dog, until the owner’s handling improves to the point to where the canine responds promptly, due to the good guidance by the owner. If only up to fifty percent of what I do or less transfers to the owner then the rest is up to me to teach both the owner and the dog the education required to function together as a team. The majority of my canines thoroughly enjoy the communication despite the material being learned. Many of my dogs that I see every week (and bust their chops with their problem areas) cannot wait to see me. They would love for me to spend the entire day just interacting with them because the communication that I have with the dog is far more connected than the dog’s communication with any other human in their lives! If through quality communication, I can keep the canine focused on the tasks that I am demanding, and I am remaining in communication with the canine, and encouraging a positive frame of mind, then the canine is almost forced to be positive toward our work since the dog thinks very methodically, one thing at a time. Handling fluently essentially does not allow the canine to think about things other than what I want it to think about. Dogs are very grey creatures, but as stated earlier we must deliver our messages in black and white to make our presentation clean, cut, and dry. To reach the level of success that I mark as a goal, we must only tell a canine a command once, and then fix it the second time. Make sure that the handler is following this rule: First time told, second time fixed. This simply means that if the dog does not do it the first time, then make them do it the second time. If the handler tells the dog to sit, and the dog does not sit, then wait one second and make the dog sit. The canine must be aware that there are no options with the handler, if there are then I guarantee that the canine will choose everything but the handler’s desired response. As handlers, we want to have as little negative interaction as possible, both verbally and physically. I touch the dog in a negative sense as little as possible. One should use the leash as much as possible to correct the dog. If the dog gets up from a stay, do not push it forcefully back into a stay. Walk the dog quickly and nicely back to the stay spot, and repeat the command. The leash is the handler’s main tool until respect is gained. I call the leash a freedom stick. When in hand, the dog knows the handler has control, and when out of the hand, the dog “flips the handler the paw,” as I say. A leash and collar is all that is needed for my teaching. We never use prong collars or shock collars. In my basic obedience chapter I have a brief section on training devices and their benefits that one can use to assist them, if needed. If used properly, my methods will educate the handler to gain maximum cooperation from his or her canine.
The nice thing about dogs is that whatever the handler puts into them, the handler will get out of them. The bad thing about dogs is that seldom will they do more than what one makes them do. Make sure to never give a correction without a command. Do not ever give a dog a correction for something and not let them know what it did wrong. We only give a command initially when we want the canine to do something and we repeat it only if the dog makes a mistake. We do not want to constantly repeat the command if the dog is doing the task properly, because the canine might think that if we continue to sound like a broken record that it made a mistake and/or does not understand us. If we make this error we could very well encourage the dog to make mistakes owing strictly to our own carelessness. Please, only give a command if it will be followed through, if not, it only emphasizes to the canine a lack of control.
Teaching a canine properly takes time. The entire “Rome was not built in a day but they worked on it everyday to build it” concept is in effect. We do not use treats! The canine is being bribed and usually only works optimally in a minimally distractive environment, where there is not a reason for a priority shift. This is a crowd-pleaser, and makes the canine happy, but the handler is never happy in crunch-time. The treat is the priority, and there will always be something more important than a treat. At its’ best performance, the canine still is not making the handler its’ number one priority. In many cases, treats are used in place of communication skills. Certainly heavy –handed techniques are outdated, frowned upon, and inferior to an array of methods. The more violent the handler gets with the canine, the dog will either go into total submission, or become defensive or offensive, both of which often will bring about aggressive behavior. Again I attribute this method to a poor handler profile, including a lack of communication abilities. With a love, respect, and trust method there is nothing more valuable to a dog once these feelings are earned. Along with being understood by their peers, dogs thoroughly enjoy verbal and physical praise.
Canines are extremely intelligent in comparison to most other animals, but if one truly understands them, he or she will learn how simple they really are. A handler’s natural ability certainly affects the results he or she will get. My methods are simple, straightforward, compassionate, and equally important, they are understood by the canine. There is a tremendous amount of information to learn about the canine, but it all comes easily. The hardest things for a handler to learn are: When to appropriately trust his or her dog, and how to respect his or her dog. Lastly, people always find it funny to hear me say this but the least important thing that you do with your dog is “work” with it. A lot of work is necessary to achieve excellence in many cases, however, by no means the most important thing. Since working a dog is a very small percentage out of the day, it is when the dog evaluates the owner the least. Even if the owner is a real die hard and working their dog a half-hour every day there is still twenty-three and a half-hours out of the day left to consider. Great handling is one of the keys to success but when the dog is on a take-a-break and is feeling in control of itself then you better believe that is when the dog is doing the majority of its’ evaluating of the owner. Keep this in mind so as a handler; you can establish a baseline presentation to the dog. If a person’s physical movements are really fast and later are really slow and their voice is low then high, this person has no baseline, no consistency. Therefore the dog will not want to comply because this person has shown no alpha-like qualities. The attitude of the handler can greatly affect a dog’s progress. I can teach an owner technique and the understanding of his or her canine; however, having the right attitude can often just depend on the individual person. When people see me handle they say: “Wow!” I do not have that much energy. My passion for teaching the canine certainly is projected, along with confidence and the ideal presentation. It is important to want to work with the canine. One has to have the discipline to work every day with his or her unruly student. A novice handler has to have the confidence that he or she CAN accomplish work with their dog. I define confidence as being positive, upbeat, fluent, and knowing what you want from the dog. The handler has to have the attitude that the dog must impress him or her. When I handle a canine always say to myself, what are all the possible outcomes when I tell the dog to do a particular task. I identify all possible mistakes and then assume that the dog is going to make them. By thinking in this way I am fully prepared to correct any mistake that the dog might make. The handler must always present himself or herself the same regardless of the dog’s presentation, that’s an alpha for you. It is very natural for the handler’s performance to deteriorate as the canine’s performance worsens. This cannot happen if one is achieve alpha status. The handler must always remain cool, calm, collected, and always focus on his or her handling. The presentation of the handler to the dog is the make or break factor. The dog can only handle as well as the handler handles himself or herself. It is imperative that the novice handler concentrates on improving his or her handling. The sooner the handler improves, the sooner the dog improves. We must clearly define our rules so that the guidance that we are giving is totally understood. Think of teaching a dog like dancing; the handler is the lead dancer, and the dog must follow the handler’s lead. Have the attitude that you are on a mission, you are going to succeed, and you are going to have fun! As you heard me state earlier as the dog’s presentation deteriorates so does the handler’s. If I ever work with you personally you will hear me say that all the time. I have found that the more precise structure I am able to give the owner, the better the owner does as a handler and the better the dog does for its’ owner. I have come up with several simple things to keep in mind when handling a dog to make sure that the handler always has structure so he or she does not deteriorate with the dog’s performance. As a handler, you bring the dog to you and never let the dog’s actions alter your original plan. Here are some plans: when you are heeling with the dog drawing patterns with your feet is an excellent strategy. I keep it simple with squares, triangles, circles, straight lines, “s-shaped,” and “i – shaped” patterns. When walking these shapes and letters, the handler has a defined plan and when the canine makes a mistake the handler can stick to the plan. You can create your walking plans before you ever go outside with the canine. I find that people just go outside to “work” with their dog and the only thing they know is that they are going to cover all the positive concept commands. If the handler is a person that is having difficulty controlling the dog when the dog starts to shut down on him or her, then these shapes and letters are great! Every pattern serves a purpose, this is especially great for children. Experimentation is good but do remember to keep it simple. While walking with the dog I also encourage troubled handlers to not look at the dog that much so he or she does not dwell on what the dog is doing, rather concentrate on what they are doing.
Helping a handler learn and keep structure when working with a dog can be challenging. I have found that one of the most useful ways of practicing to improve the consistency in a handler’s presentation is to practice will your invisible dog, Fred! The reason why Fred is so helpful is because of what I said in the first sentence of this section about interaction effecting presentations. Since Fred will listen perfectly to a handler, the handler is able to completely concentrate on what they are suppose to do rather than what the dog is doing. The more a handler practices with Fred, the more naturally coordinated a handler will become. When a handler wants to practice correcting a mistake then the handler simply assumes that Fred made a mistake and correct him accordingly. Many of the first several hundred dogs that I taught were easy-going dogs (on a whole) this allowed me to focus on a constant uniform physical presentation. A real dog that a handler is working with will most often not give a flawless presentation therefore the handler’s presentation worsens. This is why Fred is so valuable. My CHECKLISTS are the foundation to physical execution of all the basic commands. Fred helps the handler develop himself or herself as the focal point rather than the dog being the focal point. So much of teaching a dog is being in control of yourself and having self-discipline, prior to being able to discipline the dog. Many people find working with Fred to feel uncomfortable and silly. Dog handling in many ways is a physical skill and can be learned. When I was young, I would practice my movements every night prior to going to bed for a little while. If I told someone I did this but it was for martial arts, people would think that it was entirely normal; dog handling is no different.
The details of my journaling techniques go far beyond the scope of passage however, I feel that I must mention this since my teachings are based on my personal observations over the years. Keep a journal and simply write what you see your dog doing at anytime. Being a keen observationist makes a person a great handler and owner. The sky is the limit write as much as you are willing to do.
Text may not be used without author’s permission. This is copyrighted material.
