It's Not About Being A Drill Sargent; "Dominance".

Dominance in dog training is a very overused word. Some trainers explain every behavior as some type of "dominance", the dogs jumping on you, leaning on you, running out the door so he must be 'Dominant' . No; The poor dog just needs to learn some doggy eddiquite aka Manners! 

When your dog jumps on you, ask him to sit, ignore him, ask him to go get a toy.

If the dogs leaning on you chances are he just wants body contact and likes being really close to you! If you don't like that behavior ask them to "settle" or give him something else to do.

If he is a door dasher, simply teach him what "Wait" means. 

I think dogs need a teacher/guide not a drill sargent and Boss. Your dog already respects you as his teacher and the one who controls the resources ex. food,water,walks,attention,playtime. You don't need to be harsh and aggressive to have your dog understand that you have everything they want as I stated above. 

It's not about being dominant and alpha/pack leader it is about having a mutual bond and respect between dog and handler. Train with the most up-to-date training methods and bond closer with your dog.

No matter how you train be consistent.

Diana 'N' Kallie. 

Second Agility Class- Done. Ready for Third!

We went to our second private agility lesson yesturday. It went great. We worked on getting Kallie to love the tunnel which wasn't hard at all. She learned quickly that I was at the other end with treats- typical cattle dog. Then we worked on the teeter with just the noise the other end was supported with a chair so she didn't get hurt. Again, Kallie was jumping up on it to hear that bang right away. 

We also worked on some Stays and Recalls in the facility because it's a huge space that is safe,secure and a great place to train. She did so good, only broke her stay ONE time in all the times we worked on it which was a good 10-15times. 

Our agility trainer also happens to do DiscDog with her Cattle Dog and I want to also get into the sport. She showed us how to do "rollers" with Kallie and she loved it. We took our disc skills home and were working on it in the basement and outside off and on all afternoon. She was one happy and worn out cattle dog. 
All in all I think our training at the center and at home went really well. Not bad for a 4month old puppy. 

See you in the next post:

Diana 'N' Kallie