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| Dog Training must make a dog a pleasure to be around, not just a trick machine. |
People have many different expectations when they come into a dog training class or when they want you to give them an in-home session for their misbehaving new puppy.
Some of them remember how their idealized dog from their young years, some have watched the Dog Whisperer on Animal Planet, others have been asking everyone in the Craigslist Pet Forum or their friends on Facebook, and have come up with a shopping list of commands they want their pooches to obey.
Their itemized lists are pretty much very achievable, given the proper discipline on their part, but sometimes I wonder what is their final goal, or if they even know exactly what is the best for them and their dogs.
I don't claim to know what is best for everyone, but experience tells me that checking every item of their command list is not the way to go. What you want, and what is going to give you a more satisfactory relationship with your dog are these 5 goals:
- Understand the way your dog communicates with you
- Understand how your dog reads what you do and what you say
- Give your dog calmness
- Create habits that both your dog and you can share
- Exercise your dogs thinking skills to adapt to everything life will throw your way in the future
Have you seen your dog's face when you are angry at it after you find pee on the carpet? You see how guilty he looks? Well, that is not guilt, that is just an expression that means "could you please be calmer?, you're scaring me". That's why you need to understand your dog's body language, we often interpret it like human body language, and ofter err.
Have you notice that when your teacup chihuahua is aggressive to people walking by and you hold it in your arms, instead of calming down he gets even angrier and starts to shake? He understand that your hugging and petting means, "good job, that's is exactly what I want you to do. That is why you need to know how to communicate effectively in a dog-appropriate way.
Sometimes I find people who spent hundreds of dollars teaching their dogs all commands available and more than 50 different words, but when Fourth of July comes, there is no way to control his fears, or if you want to just lounge and relax, they get their dogs jumping all over them, playing, tugging, barking and chewing on furniture, but all they need is for their dogs to just chill with them, being calm.
About creating habits that both your dog and you can share, imagine you are sitting in front of the computer, working on an important file and your Fido rests on a doggie bed, waiting patiently for hours until you finish, or you take a car trip to visit friends while your dog sits nicely in the back seat, quiet, enjoying the ride, without distracting you.
And finally, even if your dog is a total candy at 2 years old, life is bound to bring changes, vacations, thunderstorms and any amount of other unforeseen events in your life for which neither you nor your dog are fully prepared, unless you both know how to take obstacles in stride.
That is, IMO, what you should expect from any dog training session, a preparation for life, life-long lessons that enrich you, your pets, family and anyone around.
