Auntie Al’s Dog Training Services
A Gentle Touch - Outstanding Results
604-868-0341
Alix Balfour - Trainer
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Auntie Al’s Dog Training Services A Gentle Touch - Outstanding Results 604-868-0341 Alix Balfour - Trainer
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"What's That Lassie? Little Billy Has Fallen in a Hole?" When I was a child I spent my days watching the animals around me. The farm animals, the family pets, the wild animals that skirted through our property. My sole purpose was to learn their ways, to understand them and in a way, learn how to be like them. I used to practice walking through the woods as quietly as possible, to not snap a twig, to be silent like my cat, Snowball. My practice was rewarded by Snowball showing me his “dining room”, a gorgeous opening in the woods flooded with fern, the fern creating a canopy under which Snowball ate his catches. The ground was littered with bird down and larger feathers, layered on top of a thick bed of pine needles. That moment is very special to me. There was no question Snowball was sharing his world with me. He had led the way, looking back over his shoulder at me as we made our way through the trees. We knew that we understood each other. My dog, Chico, and I have this communication now. I can tell by the way he comes to me whether he means "I'm hungry" or "I have to go to the bathroom" and, thanks to some of his past problems, "Hurry up, I'm gonna puke!" When we're out for a walk, I can tell if there is an attention-getter nearby by the way Chico's direction goes from relaxed and relatively straightforward to dawdling and using subtle peripheral vision. Animals do not speak human language but they do speak and to study them is to find that we're all on the same page. They, like us, don't like being abused. They, like us, become very frustrated when they feel they're not being heard. They, like us, have their own pace, their own speed of learning. I was reading an on-line pet forum one day. Someone had asked how to get a dog to stop pulling on leash. Another person wrote in and said, "Okay, I know this sounds cruel, but yank on the leash as hard as you can. It works." It kills me to have to admit this, but before I took training, I used to do that with some dogs that I used to take for walks. I would become so frustrated with the constant pull on the leash, the feeling that my shoulder socket was going to separate, feeling like the dog was purposefully ignoring me. During my childhood days, we never had leashes. Working on leash was something I didn't experience until I was an adult and the innocence and connection I had had with animals as a youth was shrouded with adult worries and distractions. Working with dogs in a professional manner and once again having pets in my life brought me back to that woodsy moment with Snowball. Why do dogs pull on leash? Sometimes it's because they want to get to something. Sometimes it's because they're just giddy with excitement and glad to be alive. And sometimes it's because they're trying to communicate to the human on the other end of the leash that the the human is being an insensitive jerk. Yanking on the leash brings an assortment of responses because dogs are not alike. Some dogs will submit, some will become obstinate, some will have you spending the rest of your days chasing them just to get them on leash in the first place. It is not the way to train or handle a dog. Handled properly, the leash is an excellent tool for communicating and if you do it right, you'll have the dog responding beautifully. You, too, will be able to walk through the woods without "snapping a twig". Take your time. Pay attention. Question your methods and never stop learning. |
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