Dog training for the human pack leader

Dog training takes a tremendous amount of patience.  Dogs, especially puppies can be trying on our nerves and if we are not careful we will make things worse by being a poor pack leader.  Maintaining our calm assertive energy at all times is a must.  Easier said then done or at least that was the case with me.  Dogs are willing to follow us in the pack and do what we want but first we have to be trained in the art of living like a dog so to speak.  Well, we don’t have to go that far but we do have to adopt some of the behaviors of the alpha dog and of a good pack leader.  First and foremost is to keep our mood as even as possible no matter what our puppies do to drive us up a wall.  Our unstable moods or unstable energy will be acted out buy our dogs and they will not be able to be calm and stable until we learn to be calm and assertive as the pack leader. 

I was lucky enough to find 3 beautiful Australian Shepard puppies at the dog park one night many years ago and it changed my life in many ways.  In the short term it changed my house a lot too.  By this I mean so long to the new carpet, hello to the new bushes and new sprinkler drip system and hello to a major makeover of my personality. 

I already had 3 dogs that I rescued but they were getting a little older, very set in their ways and our routine was simple and low stress.  It is hard to say way I would take on such a task as to raising three high energy puppies but it might just be that they saw me coming a mile away and visions of dog biscuits started dancing in their heads.  For whatever reason I took on this challenge I can honestly say it changed my life for the better. 

It was funny that I soon realized that my patience was thin and that my dogs didn’t take well to me yelling at them after they chewed up my telephone.  It seemed to confuse them more than anything.  It was soon

there after that I became more interested in the dog whisperer and Cesar Millan way of dog training. 

I was fascinated by his control over his pack and how he was able to maintain such a calm and assertive energy under all types of circumstances.  I was also amazed at just how quickly the dogs took to his methods and how much more under control his dogs were than mine.  What I didn’t expect to learn was that my behavior was the primary cause of my dog’s energy output and placement. 

It was really a human psychology education rather than an exercise in dog training.   So was the beginning of my journey and education on being a good pack leader.  The “dog training” label just seems to be a way to draw you in until you find out that the dogs are really not the problem. 

Dogs are natural followers if they have a strong pack leader to fall behind.  It is just nature’s way and it has been part of the evolution of the dog because these instinctual behaviors lead, in part, to the survival of the species.  Wolf packs and other wild dog packs need an order to their pack structure or they would be constantly fighting one

another over limited resources and likely would have extinguished themselves thousands of years ago.     

The reality is that dogs know how to behave in the pack structure.  They just need a good alpha dog that is a strong leader.  This is where we humans come into the mix.  By default we have become the pack leader for our dogs but if we act in ways that are not conducive to being a good pack leader or if we are unable to channel our calm assertive energy our dogs will try to take over the lead role. 

Dogs and teeth Cleaning

There has been more and more concern about dogs teeth and a lot of talk about the best ways to keep them clean and healthy.  It is becoming more and more common for dogs to get their teeth cleaned at the Vet which was something was rarely done 20 years ago.  The theory is that the bacteria in the dogs teeth will spread to other areas of the body and cause illness.  Now teeth brushing is even fairly common among dog owners so the awareness of how important it is to keep your dogs teeth clean but people are much more hesitant to put the dog under anesthesia.  Even though the teeth cleaning procedure may seem fairly minor there is always the risk of complications when putting your anesthezing your pet. 

However, fortunately for those of us who have a little difficulty getting Fido to sit still while brush their teeth and who would rather not have their dog in for unnecessary surgery the standard procedure is lots of chew treats that hopefully will help reduce the tartar and plaque build up.  There are assortment of treats that can be good for your dogs but only if they are chewers.  If your dog doesn't like to chew on the raw hides or nylabones you can rely on milk bone biscuits.  If none of those do the trick you might have get your dogs teeth cleaned by the vet in order to prevent complications later in life. 

Dog teeth cleaning is one more good reason to always consider dental insurance as well.  Some insurance plans may cover certain preventative maintenance procedures like teeth cleaning or yearly check ups.  If you have more than one dog or cat you will definitely want to look into a couple of different types of insurance policies to keep the rising cost of pet care under control.