Who's The Head Of Your Household? (Part 1)

A lesson in becoming Alpha

"My dog just tried to bite me! All I did was ask him to move over so I could sit on the couch as well and he snapped at me.”

"My dog got into the trash and when I scolded her, she growled at me. What's wrong with her? I thought she loved me!"

"Our dog barks all the time, drags us down the street while walking her and even potty’s in the house.  I thought she was housebroken and well behaved.  What happened to our precious dog?"

What do these three dogs have in common? They are examples of dogs that think they are in charge of the family who loves them.  Instead of taking orders from their owners, these dogs are giving orders! Your dog can love you very much and still try to dominate you or other members of your family.

Dogs are social creatures and believers in social order. A dog's social system is a "pack" with a well-defined pecking order. The leader of the pack is the alpha, supreme boss, Top Dog. He gets the best of everything, the best food, the best place to sleep, the best toy, etc. The leader also gets to be first in everything, he gets to eat first, to leave first and many times, he gets attention first. All the other dogs in the pack respect the alpha dog's wishes. Any dog that challenges the alpha's authority gets a swift physical reminder of just where his place in the pack really is.

Your family is your dog's "pack". Many dogs fit easily into the lower levels of their human pack's pecking order and don't make waves. They do what they're told and don't challenge authority. Other dogs don't fit in quite as well. Some of them are natural born leaders and are always challenging their human alphas. Other dogs are social climbers.  They’re always looking for ways to get a little closer to the top of the family ladder. These natural leaders and the social climbers can become problems to an unsuspecting family who are not aware of the dog's natural pack instincts.

Some families encourage their dogs to take over the "pack" without realizing it. They treat their dogs as equals, not as subordinates. They give them special privileges like being allowed to sleep on the bed or couch. They don't train their dogs and let them get away with disobeying commands. In a real dog pack, no one but the alpha dog would get this kind of treatment. Alpha doesn't have anything to do with size. The tiniest Chihuahua can be a canine Hitler. In fact, the smaller the dog, the more people tend to baby and cater to them - making the dog feel even more dominant and in control of his humans.

Alpha dogs often make good pets. They're confident, smarter than average and affectionate. They can be wonderful with children and good with strangers. Everything seems to be great with the relationship - until someone crosses him or makes him do something he doesn't want to do. Then suddenly, this wonderful dog growls or tries to bite someone and no one understands why.

In a real dog pack, the alpha dog doesn't have to answer to anyone. No one gives him orders or tells him what to do. The other dogs in the pack respect his position. If another dog is foolish enough to challenge the alpha by trying to take his bone or his favorite sleeping place, the alpha dog will quickly put him in his place with a hard stare or a growl. If that doesn't work, the alpha dog will enforce his leadership with force. This is all natural, instinctive behavior - in a dog's world. In a human family though, this behavior is unacceptable and dangerous.

Dogs NEED and WANT leaders. They have an instinctive need to fit into a pack. They want the security of knowing their place and what's expected of them.  Most dogs don't want to be alpha - they want someone else to give the orders and make the decisions.  If no one provides leadership, an alpha dog will take over the role himself. If you've allowed your dog to become alpha, you're at his mercy and as a leader, he may be either a benevolent king or a tyrant!

If you think your dog is alpha in your household, he probably is. If your dog respects only one or two members of the family but dominates the others, you still have a problem. The dog's place should be at the bottom of your human family's pack order, not at the top or somewhere in between.

In order to reclaim your family's rightful place as leaders of the pack, your dog needs some lessons in how to be a subordinate, not an equal. You're going to show him what it means to be a dog again. Your dog's mother showed him very early in life that she was alpha and that he had to respect her. As a puppy, he was given a secure place in his litter's pack and because of that security, he was free to concentrate on learning, playing and loving being a dog.

Happy National Dog Day

Do some thing special with your K9 today.  August 26 is National Dog Day.  Hope you and your furry friend have a great day.  Fill us in on how you spent this day with your canine companion. 

Training Tips To Live By

1. Get your new puppy/dog to bond with you.  Take him with you as often as possible and if you live in a multi-dog household, make sure you do things with the new dog/puppy at least 70% of the time. If given the opportunity, dogs will bond tighter with each other than with a human.  Make sure your new dog understands you are the key to everything and the key to success is through you, not through the other dog in the household. Give your new dog time to bond with you. Older dogs might take longer to bond and when I am speaking of bonding, I’m not just talking about a dog that follows you around. I am talking about a dog that truly “TRUSTS” the owner. The success of your training truly depends on a strong bond between you and your dog.
2. If possible, break your training up into small sessions (5 - 10 minutes each) and do these sessions a few times throughout the day. Determine what commands you want to work on during each session. You do not have to do ALL your commands in a session. A dog learns much better with his training broken up into small sessions. Focusing for an hour is difficult for even the most seasoned competition dog, non-the-less a puppy, so break your training up. 
3. When your dog is losing his head, the last thing he needs is for you to lose yours. Be calm, be assertive and don’t yell. If he is not doing as you commanded (once, perhaps twice), walk over to him and correct him. Don’t get louder and louder. He isn't listening anyway and you don’t want to teach him that this kind of communication (yelling) is the “norm”. If you are always yelling at your dog, what kind of voice are you going to use in an emergency situation? You have nowhere to go (voice-wise) when you yell at your dog all the time.
4. Success of your training depends on being able to make your dog understand what a command means and what our expectations are related to that command.
5. A slight amount of stress in your dog is to be expected when starting a new training program. A lot of stress is UNPRODUCTIVE and many times, harmful.  The moral of the story is to read your dog and know when to put the pressure on but most importantly, know when to take the pressure off.
6. Be decisive, firm, fair and most importantly be clear. This sounds like a very easy lesson but it can be very hard to do.
7. Let the punishment fit the crime. Correct the unwanted behavior but don‘t be a nag.  Encourage the desired behavior and move on. Anger, holding a grudge and getting even are human emotions. If you are angry and upset, don’t train. Put your dog away until cooler heads prevail. 
8. Keep it simple stupid (KISS). It is ok to analyze your daily training… don’t OVER analyze.
9. Reward every thing that is done well. We are good at discipline…many times we are not so good at rewarding. You must reward and you must let your dog know when he has done something correctly.
10.  Always finish a training session on a good note. Never stop a session if the dog has just done something wrong. If you are having problems with an exercise and don’t know what to do or where to go with it, stop that exercise and end on something your dog does do well. Get advice or help with the problem exercise and go back to it later.
11. Do not continue a training session for too long. As I said earlier, keep it short and sweet (hopefully). You don’t want your dog to become tired and/or bored. If this happens, you have wasted your time. You always want to end a session with your dog wanting more.
12. One, two or even three mistakes may not constitute a problem.  A problem is a repetitive event/behavior that occurs over a period of time. That doesn't mean ignore the times a problem has occurred. Make a mental note but don’t immediately change your training program just because those mistakes have occurred. Dogs have good days and bad days, just like humans. You could screw your dog up more by trying to fix an issue that wasn't really an issue to begin with.
13. Use your day to your advantage. Don’t teach the “stay” command first thing in the morning when your dog is fresh. Work on a high energy exercises like “come” when your dog is fresh. Work on a command like “stay” when he is tired.
14. If your dog has a favorite toy or treat, use it only when training. If you are having difficulty with an exercise, try that exercise only when your dog is VERY hungry. A hungry dog is a trainable dog. 
15. Control those training issues that you can control… pick your battles. An example of this is a dog that gets into the trash.  You could spend your days, nights and your life trying to keep your dog out of the trash… more than likely, you will be fighting a futile battle. A simple solution is to; move the trash, get a trash can with a lid, velcro the lid down, whatever. By controlling this issue (a controllable issue), you can focus your training efforts on those issues you cannot control. PICK YOUR BATTLES WISELY. You will have plenty of them to fight
16.  Dogs will repeat those behaviors they find successful. Hopefully, those behaviors will be ones you approve of. Sometimes they are not.
17. Remember, there are a million ways to train a dog. Find what works for your dog and stick to it. If you like what you see, don’t let someone else tell you to “stop” or that it “won’t work”. You know your dog the best and if you are seeing good results, you must be doing something right. On the flip side however, you must be critical of your training program and be willing to adjust things occasionally. Even the best trainer needs to do this and even the best trainer needs help occasionally. Ask for assistance from someone you trust and only do things you feel comfortable doing. Also, if you make adjustments, give those adjustments time to work. Too many changes will confuse everyone, especially your dog.
18.  You are your dogs’ voice…be his advocate. Speak up. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t or at least it requires a bit more explanation and research. 
19.  Teach, evaluate, modify, and reinforce. Keep an open mind and patience, patience, patience.
20. Don’t link commands together until your dog has a thorough understand of each and every command. I want an owner to initially reward for each command that the dog does correctly. For example, when you tell a dog to come and he does, reward immediately upon him coming to you. Do NOT make him come, sit then reward.
21. VERY IMPORTANT:  Remember your commands, as well as your command tone. Before you use a formal command, ask yourself the 3 following questions:

•  Am I willing to discipline my dog if he does not do the command?
  • (Are you on the phone? Are you too tired to follow through on a command? Don't use a formal command until you are prepared to follow through)
• Do I have the ability to discipline my dog if he does not do the command?
  • (Is there a leash/long line/citronella collar/something on him to discipline him if he doesn't complete the command? If not, don’t use a formal command)
• Does my dog have the training to successfully complete the command, especially given the current conditions?
  • (Don't be unfair. If your dog is a puppy, is it fair to make him "Stay" for long periods of time?  Is it fair to ask that same puppy to "stay" when company comes over? "NO!". The attention span is still being developed in a puppy, so psychologically they cannot focus as long as an adult dog.  If the puppy can't focus and we repeatedly say, "stay", what is going to happen? The puppy learns to ignore you, as well as ignore the command you are repeating.

One final note, THERE IS NO PERFECT DOG. Every dog has problems.  There is no perfect trainer. Every trainer makes mistakes. The trick is to minimize the mistakes that typically lead to the problems.

GOOD LUCK and HAPPY TRAINING!!!!!