Quote:
Originally Posted by Barnes
Practice running around in your underwear through your flower gardens at midnight trying to track down a brown dog in brown dirt in the dark who doesn't want to come back in.
I would also recommend a book called The Dog Listener.
http://www.janfennellthedoglistener.com/
Cesar is great but his theories are general in nature get pretty repetitive once you grasp his methods. In our case, his books and show did not address the issues we had with our dog because of our situation.
For example, Cesar would say that you need to eat before the dog does. Fine, I understand that the pack leader eats first. In practice though, I never eat breakfast and we eat supper kind of late. Our dog eats at 6 and 6. Am I expected to change my eating habits for my dog?
The dog listener says to make the dog sit while you pour food in its bowl and place the bowl on the counter. Either have a plate of crackers or pretend to snack on the dogs food out of the bowl while looking at him/her.
The difference in behavior after we started this is unbelievable.
The book is filled with great tips like this for people that have actual jobs and lives outside working at a dog rehabilitation centre. |
This is a really good hint, I never pretended to snack out of my dogs bowl or ate around it, but I'd poke my fingers in the food as my puppy ate it and made sure he knew that I was boss and had control of his food.
As for the sitting before eating thing, I think that's key for just about every scenario. I had Loki sitting before we went outside (make sure you step out before your dog does), before he ate, before he'd get a toy, basically before everything. They learn very quickly that they have to sit down and wait for you before they can do anything.