Living with wolves

 Yesterday I discovered the most inspirational set of videos about a couple who studied and lived alongside a wolfpack for several years.  I recommend anyone to take the time to watch this film, it reminds us of the profoundness of the moment when an animal gives

it's trust to a human, the complexity of pack dynamics and the incredible beauty of the wolf in it's natural environment.  Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qEwoCu9aMc





I am now looking into the possibility of getting further training as a dog whisperer/psychologist.  In the UK it's incredibly hard to find anyone who actually teaches  Cesar's methods, much of it strays into traditional behaviour training which I don't really want to do.


My dream is to have my own dog training facility where people can come and receive the support and help to deal with the problems that stress them out with their dog and maybe to work with rescues and foster and rehabilitate dogs myself in some small way.

This is the start of a new journey.  I am doing lots of research on the internet at the moment and I will let you know how it goes....

The quiet life

The last few weeks have seen me recovering from an operation. It's given me the opportunity to do  a lot more of listening and observing of Sonny.  Here's what I've noticed about this nervous dog.  Training:  will do the 'sit, stay' stuff no problem, but his mind is always anxious and active.  Opening the back door to the garden illustrates this beautifully.  Under a normal regime I would get the dogs to sit and wait before I let them out, but once released Sonny would still bomb out at a rate of knots at which Holly,  my other smaller and more confident dog, would be chasing and barking at him to tell him to calm it down.  Not only is it not a good idea for any dog to be rushing out of a door for safety reasons but, particularly for Sonny dog, who seems to be developing a wobbly back end, this sudden spurt of movement seems to make him wobble even more so I am worried he could fall and really hurt himself.

So, here's what I've been trying:

1.  Open door
2. WAIT and breath in a relaxed and calm way (that's me not the dogs)
3. Holly the confident gets it quickly and lies down
4.  Sonny,  always anxious and worried when the door is open takes much longer to get it, so I stand and I BREATHE and I look at the birds and I think about anything, eg  my shopping list for tomorrow.  I don't focus on him as this can get me anxious for him to hurry up to calm down.  If he's standing I don't tell him to sit, he needs to work this out on his own.  You can see him thinking it through.  What does she want from me?  EVENTUALLY he sits and looks at me, at this point I say nothing but release Holly who is lying down in a relaxed manner.  I look at Sonny's expression, does he have paw raised, a wrinkled brow or is he shaking? all signs that his mind has not relaxed yet.  If any of these signs are still present I wait longer.  The close observation of your dog's body language and demeanour gives lots of subtle signals as to where his mind is.
5.  CALM SUBMISSION achieved (soft eyes and ears, relaxed body posture), he is allowed to walk out with me, CALMLY.  Now you see the difference in him, instead of bolting out, he trots gently and sniffs.  As a result Holly, who is already outside (she was rewarded for sitting and relaxing first) has no need to correct him so there is no frantic barking or chasing from her.  Everything is much calmer and the dogs are displaying no behaviour that is likely to annoy the neighbours.

How long does this process all take?  I haven't timed it yet but I think it is only a matter of minutes.  What is clear to me know is that if you are in any kind of a hurry or, feel impatient with a 'why don't you hurry up' thought in your head your dog will instantly pick up on it.  So with Sonny dog this all leads to a reinforcement of his anxious mind which is not good.

What is this dog teaching me? PATIENCE, calmness.  This is what he understands, he speaks dog, he does not achieve a relaxed response with anything verbal.  Training?   Sure, he'll sit and stay because he's a bright boy but his mind set has not changed at all.  You have to wait longer for that.

I am learning a lot by just by staying quiet and being around my dog, watching and being with him.  I notice that when he is anxious I feel anxious to, we mirror eachother.  Who knows where it begins.  He has been brought to me to help me deal with that part of myself, of that I am convinced.  When you communicate with your dog using his language, it works and you get that 'Aha!' moment, it really is a magical process!

You learn a lot at the vets

Since discovering 'dog psychology' I take every opportunity to observe dogs when I am out and about and more to the point their owner's behaviour with them.

Sat in the vets the other day (the poor old boy having developed some wobbliness in his back legs), I was struck by just how much owner's unwittingly reinforce their dog's levels of excitement and how much they humanise them.

A Minature Schnauzer is delivered back to her owner following having some stitches out, she is perky and excited, busy barking at everyone and everything. the owner talks to the dog saying, 'yes are you better now and feeling good about having your stitches out?' this reinforces the dogs excitement and she continues to bark and prance about.  Some would say cute and others would say that the dog is over-excited and if she bumps into the wrong dog right now this could lead to a fight.  This owner is not meeting the dogs needs, her role should not be to induce excitement in this situation and she should be working on keeping things calm.  This is particularly true in a small space like a vet's waiting room when there are all sorts of hazards, lots of different animals, people and children.

Sonny is a different kettle of fish, he positively hates the vets and visibly shakes when he's in there.  He is so scared in fact that he forgets all about his distrust of other dogs which is good in one way and not in another.  We are working on sitting it out with him, not allowing him to climb up in our laps, although he tries and keeping a short but slack lead.  If we stayed in the waiting room long enough eventually he would calm down as they cannot keep up that level of fear indefinitely and it must burn itself out.  However unfortunately there is not really enough space for us to sit there for that long.

Up ahead there is a young Boxer.  These are high energy dogs at the best of times and he is busy sitting there lording it over his owner, he tells another dog off as it passes him, the owner laughs.  Still being a dog behaviour novice, I'm not sure whether that was aggression or not but I do think that as owners we need to take our dog's behaviour seriously whenever it interacts with another dog.

It's easy to say all this with hindsight of course.  A few years ago I was one of those people doing all of those things with my dogs.  It may well be that these owners will have a stress free life with their particular canines or they may go on to develop more problems.  When does a dog that barks incessantly become a pain rather than cute, I think it's probably when you are in the middle of an important phone call and you realise that it would have been quite useful to teach your dog to stop barking.

One of things that I have realised most recently is how much a gift being CALM and PATIENT with your dog can be.  For one thing when we are calm we are in a place to notice much more the subtle behaviours that our dog is showing us which tell us more about their behavioural problems.  Secondly, how can we teach our dog to be calm if we are not.  Cesar said dogs don't listen to excited, aggressive or, nervous energy.  Pack leaders are CALM ASSERTIVE.

I'll keep practising...

Paws for thought

Hi y'all, Sonny Dog here,

We haven't spoken to you for a while have we?  I am minding the blog whilst She Who Shall be Obeyed is recovering from surgery.  Not much to report recently.  I have been very good and not causing the Pack Leaders too much trouble, except when I try to sneak into the kitchen to steal various treats from the kitchen worktop, although not had much success in that department recently.  I think they are onto me :(

My female Pack Leader is a bit worried that I am going to get all protective now that she is a bit under the weather because I may realise that she is in a weakened state.  She hears so many stories from owners who tell her about how their dogs of protective of them but this is not good guys.  We dogs usually only do this when we are confused about the pecking order in the home and it means we see ourselves as above you in the pack, which really means that you are not exerting enough or maybe any authority over us, get it?

Like my friend Cesar said the other day, I cannot support you allowing your dog to get away with ANYTHING , not barking, not jumping on the sofa... because that is not being a good parent.  He's right you know xxx

It's Christmasssss!!!

Twinkly lights, santa hats and that's just the owners!! Some people will be dressing their dogs up this Christmas.  I our house we go for a discreet bow or 2, not much more.  Dogs can look forward to a turkey dinner tomorrow with all the trimmings, it's the one time of year they get something other than their normal dog food.

I don't think they particularly like the Santa Hats but it makes for a good picture

.

I remember when my aunt's dog rang off with the remainder of the turkey after sneaking into the larder during the afternoon zuzz, this was after frightening everyone to death by hiding under an antique table and then getting up taking the table and its' contents with her. 

What's the worst your dog has ever done at Christmas?