It’s never too late to start over with your dog! Creating an enjoyable relationship in which you can proudly take your dog anywhere and know s/he will be calm and compliant is what everyone wants! The goal is for your dog to have freedom while following rules.
Rules are in place to keep everyone safe and at peace. Just as people follow rules for everything in life including social rules, your dog must also follow rules. Dogs are happiest when they understand the rules and can rest easy knowing that their leader will consistently enforce them. We can help our dogs to make appropriate choices by guiding them. For example, we can teach the option to ignore another dog who is overexcited by guiding him/her to calmly move away.
In order to effectively communicate these rules and choices to your dog, you must learn how to speak his/her language. How do dogs communicate? They use various forms of body language, pressure and vocalizations. For example, the dog’s tail position, ears, mouth, eyes and forehead can tell us a lot about how they’re feeling. In addition, dogs apply different forms of pressure that include bumping, staring, spatial/distance and teeth all to mean calm down and/or change your behavior. When an adult dog puts his mouth on top of an overexcited, out-of-control dog’s nose with appropriate pressure, that dog instinctively goes into a calm, submissive posture because s/he understands what pressure over the bridge of his nose means. The reward simply becomes the release of this pressure.
Humans can simulate various forms of pressure using the right tool. Every tool has its place and selecting the one that will empower the human to effectively communicate to the dog to calm down and change his/her behavior is key.
As we learn to apply a tool to teach a behavior, it’s important to remember that we can unknowingly give invisible signals to our dogs that tell them how we feel. For example, if we’re tense, then this creates tension in our dogs. Therefore, we must be mindful about when to and how to engage with our dogs. In order to reinforcement calm behavior, we must be calm because we are our dog’s mirror. Alternately, when we engage with our dogs by talking or touching while they’re overexcited, we are effectively reinforcing their overexcitement. Be sure to give affection/engagement to the state of mind you want to reinforce!
Any tool that touches the dog’s body applies contact pressure and when a dog is under any form of pressure, s/he will usually respond with the following options in this order: flight, fight, avoid, and accept. Guiding the dog to acceptance requires patience and kindness.
Using the Transitional Leash as a Tool to Teach Dogs to BE CALM
The Transitional Leash is fitted loosely over the bridge of the dog’s nose and pressure is applied upwards ONLY when the dog goes into fight behavior. Fight behavior may resemble barking, biting, whining, clawing, jumping or rolling over. Pressure is released only when your dog stops the fight behavior. The goal is for the dog to go into a submissive posture illustrating acceptance such as sitting with loose, slack open mouth. Once we achieve this posture, we are able to move forward. Dogs learn from the release of pressure NOT the pressure itself! Therefore, pressure is applied until the dog relaxes and accepts.
However, if we have avoidance behavior which may resemble a tight, closed mouth, looking away from you or head down, we wait in place until we have acceptance from the dog. Again, acceptance can look like open mouth, ears back, smooth forehead and soft eyes and body. Patience is incredibly important because acceptance cannot be forced! The ultimate goal is for your dog to choose calm behavior as the preferred option.
Using or transitioning to other tools such as the Remote Collar is simply providing another form of pressure that enables us to communicate with our dogs while at our side or at a distance. The remote collar, as an example, gives us the ability to communicate using sensation as a cue to either pay attention for information or change behavior even at a distance.
There is a process to educating and conditioning a dog to respond appropriately to any tool especially the Transitional Leash and Remote Training Collar. Seeking expert assistance to guide you and your dog to start off right offers a host of long term benefits.
Remember that the goal is to create a happy, peaceful relationship with your dog. That means that your dog must follow rules just as we do. This requires consistency and patience on the part of the owner and this patience will pay off for a lifetime of enjoyment with your dog!
Getting Started
Hitting the re-set button is always an option no matter the age of your dog or how long the unwanted behavior has been going on.
A structured routine is instinctual for dogs. Just as dogs or wolves in the wild must hunt, think and migrate before food and then rest. For our pet dogs, who are semi-domesticated predators, walking is the most primal activity we can provide and enjoy with our dogs.
Therefore, by creating a similarly structured routine of work such as a concentrated walk, then rest, or work, play, eat and then rest, we are fulfilling our dogs’ natural way of living together.
When wild dogs or wolves rest, they do so in a den environment. This den provides a feeling of safety where they can enjoy down time. The crate can serve as a similar experience for our pet dogs with the added ability of providing structure to their day as well as enforcing potty rules since dogs won’t urinate or defecate where they sleep.
Providing a structured routine such as walk, social or play time, a meal, then rest is an excellent example of how to best fulfill your dog’s needs. When each part of this routine has rules that are enforced and consistently maintained along with appropriate and well-timed rewards such as affection and attention, you will have achieved a balanced relationship that is mutually satisfying for both you and your dog!
Balanced Leadership
You are your dog’s world! You control when it’s time to do absolutely everything. You provide all resources that your dog wants including toys, treats, food, space, affection etc.
Since dogs instinctively live according to a hierarchy, it’s important that we are clear about what their status is in our hierarchal relationship. How to live like a leader means you must be consistent, patient, kind, fair and enforce rules. Lead you dog and s/he will follow. You walk ahead of your dog, you enter doorways first, you sit or sleep above your dog, and you provide the toy or the time out of crate or out of the house. It’s your responsibility to enforce rules including not allowing your dog to jump on visitors. If you need help, ask for it!
Keep a balance. Too much of anything is unhealthy and that includes affection. All of this communicates to your dog that you control everything just as a leader dog would do. The result is respect not just love.
With respect comes influence and this can change your relationship with your dog from one that was stressful into the one you’ve always dreamed of!
Over time when there is clear understanding of your dog’s status within the relationship and your dog is consistently following rules with limited reminders, you can provide more freedom as your dog demonstrates his/her ability to make appropriate choices. Remember, the ultimate goal is for your dog to enjoy freedom while following the rules. It’s never too late to start over and hit that re-set button!
For more information about how to Teach Your Dog to Be Calm and Compliant and have good manners with Balanced Leadership, contact: elaine@CarolinaDogTraining.com