The dog I used as a “demo” for the Workshop that we held last Saturday was a German Shorthair Pointer x Labrador Retriever. He was around 10 months old and had, shall I say, lots of ‘zest’. His owner had one, main request. I don’t want him to pull me on the lead, anymore. I understood why. The dog was strong and unruly. He barked and whined at the other dogs in class. He jerked at the end of the lead to move towards them. For about 30% of the time, during the initial 90 minutes of the course, the dog’s owner had to stand up to control the dog, rather than remain seated in her chair.
So, I did what I always do when it is time to show the techniques we use. I fitted a dog her dog with a training collar. I allowed the dog to learn about getting a collar correction – essentially, “leash breaking”. I used the owner’s position outside the door, as a draw for the dog to want to charge out the door. I approached the door, told the dog to “wait” as it neared the threshold, then delivered a correction for racing out the door. People tend to think this process is a miracle of some sort, since the dog usually, within two or three approaches towards the door, learns to stop at the threshold without any restraint. In essence, it learns “self restraint”. Helping dogs become self-restrained is my goal. I can only accomplish that if I provide clear information about the boundaries in which I expect the dog to behave and then give meaningful feedback if the dog attempts to cross those boundaries.
In general, I have found that people want very much for the dog to stop pulling on the lead. However, they cannot seem to assimilate the concept that they must stop restraining the dog to accomplish that task. The dog should not have constant tension on its neck. If the owner maintains tension on the dog’s neck, she is sending a message that she does not trust the dog to remain calm and self restrained. I suppose it is a long standing habit, but even once a dog has learned to remain calm at the end of a loose lead, many people pull back on the leash, lift their wrist above their elbow (or sometimes even up to their shoulder), to “hold back” the dog and leave the dog with constant tension on its neck. The method we use teaches the dog that pulling isn’t acceptable, and nearly all dogs can learn this lesson within a few minutes. However, the owners still revert to putting tension on the dog’s neck, even when the dog has stopped actively pulling on the leash. It is my greatest pet peeve.
The lab-pointer mix dog was a bit hard headed, and it took him three times to learn “wait at the door”. Not four, not eight. Three. Many dogs learn in one correction. Two is probably the most common. There is no yelling, no anger, no frustration. There is just learning. Immediately after the lesson (which takes one to four minutes, usually), the dog that was once unruly and focused on everything but the owner, sits calmly (without my asking), and looks up into my eyes. Essentially, at that moment in time, I have stolen the dog (psychologically) from the owner. I have valuable information for the dog – the owner has been but a nagging nuisance to him. So, he prefers my company to hers and looks to me asking if, pretty please, I could be his new master. On Saturday, this dog’s owner immediately recognized that. She commented on how much the dog was focused on me in a positive way. She saw that he had switched alliances. I did not want to tell her this, but he never had an alliance with her. She was but a thorn in his side. That was obvious by the way he behaved with her.
After the wait at the door, I taught the dog to walk on a loose lead, even as we passed another dog for which he had great attraction. Then, we addressed “no jumping up”. It was a matter of minutes and the dog was transformed, no tension on the lead, no frustration. While we discussed what had transpired, the dog sat (not because I told him to but because he felt comfortable doing so) at my side on a loose lead. In fact, at one point I just dropped the lead because I knew he was not going to go anywhere. He was so calm and relaxed that his eyes began to shut and he nearly fell asleep. He had finally been granted permission to be a dog, to relinquish all that control he thought he had to have over everything and everyone, to me. I had been fair and clear and he could relax for the first time in his life, it seemed. I call it de-tox; when all the endorphins that the dog has pent up are released and he can finally just unwind. It was a beautiful thing.
Sitting on a bench about 10 feet away, watching her dog exist in tranquil bliss under the umbrella of my authority, his owner cocked her head and winced. “What is it?” I asked, knowing that she just wanted to make some sort of comment but wasn’t sure it would be acceptable to do so.
She stated that she wasn’t certain she liked to see him so calm and relaxed. She suggested that she would prefer if he would show his “old zest”. She worried that he would not be able to have fun, any more.
Let me assure you: Excessive exuberance is not happiness.
The word “submission” gets a bad rap. Subordination to a human’s authority is not unhappiness. In fact, I told the woman that I probably just added 18 months to her dog’s life because, as we all know, stress can contribute to an early death. Clearly, her dog was stressed feeling responsible for assessing and addressing all the potential threats in the world. That is what happens when the owner doesn’t play the leadership role. The dog assumes it, but muddles it all up because that is what it means to be “dog” rather than “wolf”. While dogs are described as a subspecies of the grey wolf, they are obviously not wolves, and one of the differences is that domestic dog does not possess the genetic code to truly lead a pack. But, they do still feel a strong need for leadership.
In fact, most breeds have an enhanced need to subordinate to a leader over their wild counterparts. Take a Retriever, for example. The hunter shoots a pheasant. It drops to the ground, warm and bloody. We send the dog to fetch it up. The dog races out, picks up the bird with great care and delivers it directly to his owner’s hands. Why did he not take the bird into the woods and eat it for himself? He is, after all, a carnivore. Domestic dog has been developed (through judicious selection) to subordinate to man to do his bidding. This subordination is, in fact, unnatural. What wild canine would not take advantage of access to fresh meat and gobble it right up? We have created a beast that cannot help but subordinate to humans to such a level that it’s difficult to refute that domestic dog needs a strong, competent leader in its life to feel complete. And, yet, we have removed the code that allows them to assume a true leadership role, if they feel an absence in that regard. When a wild wolf senses weakness in the leader, the leader is typically killed and a new, stronger leader emerges. We could not have our dogs feeling compelled to kill us if we showed weakness. Dog is a conflicted species; designed to hyper-submit to a leader while lacking the ability to assume the leadership role, itself. We must assume responsibility for the care and management of this very unique species. We must recognize and accommodate their need to submit to an authority figure.
For some reason most people think that a dog on “high alert”, with ears forward, eyes open as large as saucers (to take in information about all the potential monsters that might be approaching), tippy toe cocky – high tail flagging behavior is displaying “happiness”. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A dog on high alert is under stress. To allow him to feel comfortable submitting to us, we must behave in a way that allows him to trust us. To be trustworthy, we must be predictable, we must be fair, we must be clear in setting limits for the dog’s behavior so that the dog can self-regulate and live unrestrained, yet self-restrained. That is a recipe for doggie happiness.
I’m not certain if I will ever be able to communicate that concept effectively when people perceive a dog with ears folded backwards as unhappy. That dog will still run as fast and fetch the ball with the same amount of zeal. He just won’t think it is appropriate to run into the person to whom he is retrieving the ball. How could that be a bad thing?
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