“A dog is like an eternal Peter Pan, a child who never grows old and who therefore is always available to love and be loved.”
Dogs are creatures of habit. They learn through repetition and consistency, doing it the same way every time. Dogs are social animals and they see you as their pack or family. They do not want to be excluded from everything that is going on with the family.
Dogs don’t learn sentences. They learn one to two word commands by tone inflections. We speak to them like they understand and they are attentive and giving you a lending ear at anytime but they do not understand every word. They are fully capable of learning thousands of one or two word commands.
A dog’s psychology and a child’s psychology are almost exactly the same because if a dog thinks he or she can get away with just a little bit, they are going to push it for everything that they can. A major difference is that dogs live in the moment. Their attention span is like a one or two year old baby.
People make the mistake and think that a dog is going to hold a grudge or get upset with them for a long period of time. They do not! You can not expect your dog or dogs to fulfill the position of an absent child, lover, friend, or parent in your life.
A dog is part of Mother Nature, which means he or she is naturally wired to expect order in his life, to expect that he must work for food and water and have structure in their life. If you, as the owner do not show the dog that you are the pack leader than they will try their best to show you that they are more dominant. You can not put all of your needed emotions onto your dog or dogs.
Training your dog is very important because you are gaining dominance of your dog right from the start and you are able to stop any problems before they get worse. Training takes mental stimulation, which gets the dog more tired than running around and playing with certain toys. The best part is that it does not take long on a daily basis. Just 30 minutes everyday, split up into 2- 15 minutes or 3-10 minutes is perfect. After each session play with your dog, so they see it as something fun instead of a chore.
Dogs learn from tone inflections and they all have a sixth sense, which means they are able to pick up on a person’s energy much quicker than we can. If a bad person walks in your door, the dog will sense that and start growling right away. Automatically, they will protect you, no matter what. Even if you think that your dog is the biggest lover, they are very loyal and will do whatever it takes to protect their owners.
Also, you have to be confident that your dog will do a command and listen to you. Whatever you are thinking or feeling, goes from you through the leash and to the dog, so if you do not think your dog will do a command then the dog will fight you and not do it until you make them do it. BE PATIENT AND DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!! If you give up just one time, the dog does not know minutes but they know a time frame, so they will just wait a little bit longer until you give up and then they do not have to complete the command. Don’t let your dog win. You need to be the alpha dog.
I have been training dogs for 17 years and I have formulated a 1 day in home workshop, which will be useful for helping expectant couples learn about getting the dog or dogs prepared for a big transition in the household.
The price is $150 per workshop.
Here is a video testimonial for the workshop.
