> Training
How to
"Build the Bond" With Your Dog
Adam G. Katz
www.dogproblems.com
Copyright 1999 By South Bay K-9 Academy
Building the bond
with your dog is really quite easy. If you recognize that you have
a relationship with your dog, then building the bond comes down to
nothing more than increasing the strength of that relationship.
And as with any
relationship, building a bond requires:
1.
Spending quality time together.
2.
Getting out in the world and experiencing life together.
3.
Establishing and promoting a level of mutual respect.
4.
Developing a way of communicating so that both individuals
understand the other's needs. (Hmmm... maybe I should be writing
self-help books for humans???)
Let's take a look
at each of these key points to see how they can have a positive
affect on your daily dog training:
1. Spending
quality time together
Spending quality
time together does not mean sharing a beer with Fido while the two
of you lay in front of the television. Well, okay... maybe it
does.
But more
importantly, it means committing to a series of rituals and
behaviors that you and your dog can look forward to.
For example, I
often throw Forbes (the Pit Bull) in the back of the truck when I
wake up in the morning and we go for a drive down to the local
McDonald's Drive-thru. For most of the drive, Forbes is either
still wiping the sleep out of his eyes, or he's doing the guard
dog routine if someone walks up to the back of the truck.
But the highlight
of this morning ritual begins when we get home. It's Forbes' job
to hop out of the back of the truck and take the empty McDonald's
brown paper bag in his mouth, walk down the drive way, around the
gate, into the back yard, and then over to the trash can... where
he drops the bag.
Sure, it's a
stupid pet trick. But see how disappointed the dog is when *I*
insist on carrying the bag to the trash can!
From the dog's
point of view, it's the 30 or 40 little things throughout the day
(that he can help me with) that make his life worth living. And
for the dog, this is spending quality. It all boils down to being
an active participant in each other's lives.
2. Getting out
in the world and experiencing life together
It had been years
since Bud and Janice's kids had grown and left the house for
college and later, corporate jobs. Bud had wanted a dog for
several months and Janice finally gave in.
They decided to
adopt a beautiful 5 year-old Golden Retriever and proceeded to
train "Mac," using many of the techniques I describe in
my book, "Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!"
Janice got scared
when Bud came back from his first walk around the neighborhood
with "Mac" and ran into the house yelling, "Janice!
Janice! You won't believe what happened!!!"
"Oh my gawd,"
though Janice, thinking that perhaps "Mac" had bitten a
child, or run away.
"What
happened?" Janice questioned her husband.
"You won't
believe it, Janice," said Bud, "I took 'Mac' for a
walk... AND PEOPLE ACTUALLY CAME UP AND TALKED TO ME!!!"
Imagine that!
Here's a guy who had lived in the same neighborhood for eight
years and didn't know any of his neighbors until he got a dog and
started taking it for walks. Dogs are a wonderful excuse to get
you out of the house and interacting with the world around you.
It's also one of
the many reasons that handicapped people like owning service
dogs... because it makes it easier for other people to come up and
start a conversation.
And do you think
that "Mac" minded all of the attention? Absolutely not.
As a matter of
fact, I think that my dog Forbes is happiest when we're out in the
world, meeting new people and experiencing new things together.
Two best friends, out on the town.
You should see
the look on Forbes' face when two or three beautiful women walk up
and start rubbing his belly.
Even better...
you should see the look on my face!
3.
Establishing and promoting a level of mutual respect
Just like with
any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect.
Trust comes with
time, and proving to your dog that you will keep him safe and
happy.
Respect, just
like with human relationships, comes from establishing boundaries
and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and
fairness. Without enforceable boundaries, there is no respect. And
when there is no respect, your relationship with your dog will be
out of balance. And trust me, when your relationship with your dog
is out of balance... nobody's having fun.
4. Developing
a way of communicating so that both individuals understand the
other's needs
Developing a way
of communicating gets back to laying a proper foundation with your
dog training. And this relates specifically to making your praise
and your corrections motivational.
Once your dog
understands clearly when he's doing something RIGHT... and when
he's doing something WRONG... a magical thing starts to happen.
You find that you are actually COMMUNICATING!!!
And being able to
communicate with your dog is what allows you to go anywhere and do
anything with your dog and know that he'll listen to you.
There are four
primary ways that dogs communicate with us, and with each other:
1.
Body language.
2.
Vocal tonation and voice inflection.
3.
Touch.
4.
Scent.
All of my dog
training techniques try to incorporate as many of these elements
as possible. In sum, you can think of dog training as a word that
can be easily substituted for the word, "communication."
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