Comparing Dog Training To Trust Technique.

There are those that push dog trainers like Beckmans. Ok, dog training videos fascinate me, and I’m not here to bash trainers. I watched this video, and how he dealt with a scared reactive dog and even at the end of the video, she’s still lunging at things. And people cheer this on.

Can we put away training for a moment, and at least look at things a different way? Scroll down. Same issues, worse dog, different solution.

Take Mini for example, she’s one of 4 dogs and they are all scared and reactive – but deemed aggressive. Mini was leash reactive, not anymore. It was pitiful to see her scared in a moving vehicle, she sleeps in the car now. When I first met her she was teeth and slobber at the fence, but this is a bluff. Didn’t take her long to run, she knew my intentions faster than the rest. She knew I was coming into the back yard. She never offered once to bite, and I’m not forcing anything. The poor dog is scared, and I need to wait for her to calm down. I spent probably a good half hour or more in the back yard gaining her trust before taking her for a walk. Her owner came out and made me a friend. She’s not an aggressive dog, I could put my hand in her mouth and she was give me paw. On leash, she had a few episodes, but I waited calmly until she calmed and she chose to move forward. She’s pretty fragile but choosing to trust me, if she didn’t, this walk wouldn’t be going very well at all. Whenever she started to pull, that’s excitement, the fear is taking over – I squat down, be calm and redirect it to me. Get her back into a calm state. That’s why time in the back yard is important to earn trust. She would come to me because she’s starting to feel secure around me. The rest of the walk shows you the outcome. This is what calm and giving a dog the choice to overcome fear gives you – and results happen fast. I am not using treats or tools of any kind and I’m not using force.

I’m asking, not telling. It’s about cooperation, not control. When she flips out, I’m simply being calm, waiting for her to calm down, get her brain back in gear and let her make the choice to move forward.

Mini is majority pitbull by the way. We don’t need to be killing these dogs, we need to help them. You can’t judge a dog by what you see on the other side of a fence.

I ended up taking Mini alone for 24 hours, took her into the deep end of the pool. Watch how fast she chooses to overcome fear because she’s trusting me.

And as an update – she is now choosing to invade peoples space without encouragement, she is seeking out affection now without encouragement from her owner. This is a huge leap for her – and the last choice she needed to make on her journey to being social.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nFd-1iPyq0&list=PLkuHNrluG97c9jzF4Shs27WZ3GK0z-o7L