pack leader and dog whisperer make for a special bond between man and dog

They look so innocent. 

Becoming a dog whisperer doesn't happen over night.  As humans we are used to communicating everything through speech or the written word.  Our energy is important but people are less perceptive than dogs in reference to our energy.  We may be able to to pretend we are strong and assertive to humans and they might to for it, but our dogs can sense what is behind the facade.  If our energy is not calm-assertive our dogs will know right away and will not willingly follow as part of your pack.  But humans may believe what you tell them.  We all have been fooled by someone who was a smooth talker that later turned out to be a cheat or a fraud. 

Our dogs can read between the lines better than we can but we have the potential to use our intuition more.  We have instincts and senses that we have let go dormant for years.  As we evolved we learned to trust our senses less and less and it often has left us vulnerable to the "smooth talkers".  But as we become a better, stronger pack leader we will be projecting calm-assertive energy as well as developing our intuition.  As pack leader we will be using our intuition to assess the health and energy of our dogs.  They won't be able to tell us what is wrong.  But the more we get in tune with our pack and our dog training becomes more of a partnership, we will be able to tell things about our dogs that no one else would ever know. 

I could see something wrong with one of my dogs several years before she died.  I had spent a great deal of time with her for 5 or 6 years and I could tell if something was wrong.  The problems arise when our special bond with our dog can not be matched by the vet.  I noticed one of her eyes seemed to be drooping or bulging out and I took her to the doctor right away.  They assured me that it was nothing and it was normal for Labradors and it was totally fine. 
I knew it wasn't totally fine had her checked several times and everyone seem to placate me but never really give me a good answer.  I don't think modern medicine can account for intuition and vets tend to see most people as overly nervous about their dogs.  But about a year or two later the vet said it may be glaucoma in her eye and started her on daily eye drops.  This went on for a few years and I knew it wasn't working and that something just wasn't right  but I deferred to the doctors expertise.  I have sense changed my philosophy on that with my other dogs and cats. 

More to the story here. 



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Dog Walking as Part of over all Dog training

It is hard to over estimate the importance of walking your dog during training. The dog whisperer way is big on dog walking and using this exercise as a way to reinforce your bond with your dog. It is also a chance to act like the pack leader and be in control of your pet. The biggest issue that has to be corrected on the walk, which is having the dog walk you, can be fixed very quickly if you can take over the role as the calm assertive leader.

A lot of dogs are trying to fill the void if their masters are not behaving like the alpha dog. As I mentioned before in a previous post, dogs want structure and they are very willing to follow the pack leader. They won't just follow you because you think you are top dog, you have to act like it and have the energy of the pack leader. The calm, assertive energy that displays leadership and strength to your pack must be the default energy level. As humans, we sometimes fail to realize just how perceptive dogs are and just how in tune they are with our energy. They are monitoring us all the time and they will pick up even the most subtle of cues as they will act accordingly.



Don't believe this? Think of another example when your dog knows what you are going to do about 5 minutes before you even start to move. Do you start to think about going for a walk a few minutes before you want to leave? Have you ever made the effort to get ready to go without making any mention of a walk or going out to your dog? How does the dog know something is going to happen soon?

You move up from your chair casually and try to plan your mission to get everything ready for the walk so you can then spring it on your dog just as you are ready to leave but it never works. As soon as you move from your chair with the intention of getting ready for a walk, your dog starts to get excited, barks and head for the door. They gather a lot of information very quickly without you ever saying a word.

Of course you know if you even say the word WALK your dog will go wild. You may even have to resort to spelling the word out one letter at a time, only to find out that as soon as you say W it will trigger your dog to get ready. This doesn't say anything about sensing your energy but it says something about dogs ability to learn. They are intuitive and intelligent so it is our job to be the pack leader to give them a stable and well balanced life.

Dogs have outstanding senses and will pick up on our assertion to be the pack leader if we can manage to stay calm and exude the right energy. You can make walking with your dog a great pleasure. Once you become a great pack leader you will never again fear being pulled down the street by your Rottie.

Walking your dog really can be fun.



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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.