Some SAGE Advice on Training your New Puppy
Training is a MUST for new puppies and their owners, no question about that. But that training also requires some key behaviors by the human half of the equation to make it work ideally.
To make my point here and to identify the source of this “wicked” good advice, I would like to introduce you to a young man named Jas Leverette, from Oakland CA. Jas has a show on Netflix, short lived, for now at least, but very powerful. The show is called Canine Interventions.
A Quick Story
Jas is a world renowned trainer and “fixer” of dog behavior and in the case I want to talk about, he fixes owner behaviors too. The one show that really underscores his understanding of dog behaviors, was the “Heaven” episode. Heaven was a cute little Malti-Poo (Maltise/Poodle) who was just adored by this 12 year old young boy. The dog just loved the boy as well and that relationship did not necessarily need fixing.
The problem arose when his mom would try to take Heaven for a walk on the leash, and the dog would become unruly and rebellious. Watching this episode, both Linda and I were familiar with the behavior of the dog, as well as the behavior of the mom. She treated this dog like a little “Human” baby, putting on a coat, and booties and using a baby carriage/stroller for the dog/baby!!
Mind you this was in California and there were no freezing temps or snow on the ground. She wanted the dog to wear the booties so that it would not bring dirt into the house after the walk. The idea being she would take the boots off at the door and the dog’s feet hit the floor perfectly clean as they were when it left the house.
Listen to this Sage Advice
Watching Jas’s response to this behavior was classic, as he was really intrigued by it yet he understood exactly what was going on and WHY it was going on. He gave the mom the lowdown, saying you cannot treat a dog like a human baby or else you get this type of behavior. The mom wasn’t buying his advise and then he told her the bottom line when he said “If you treat your dog like a human, your dog is going to treat you like a dog!!”
OMG that was so perfectly put and I had never heard it put that way before. The mom got it after he said that and she seemed to want to make the change. I mean he had been summoned to her house to try and make this situation better, so I think she would be open to his “SAGE” advice. Advice that is so very true.
We Treat Our Dogs Like Family but Not Like Humans
Now understand that we do not want you to think that we are mean and demoralizing to our dogs, far from it. Some of our dogs sleep with us and all of them snuggle with us. Just not all at the same time mind you. They ARE family to us, but we do command them to do certain dog things in their daily workings around our house/farm.
Like kenneling up and sitting, walking sanely on a leash, basic obedience and some agility and sports that we generally teach them as a puppy. We have a very loving relationship with our dogs, all of them our adults and our puppies. Although our puppies are only with us for 8 weeks, and then go to their forever homes. We DO make quite an impact on them in just 8 short weeks.
It’s funny how when we get the chance to see one of our puppies as an adult 2, 3, 4 or even 5 years after they have left the farm. We stay in touch with the owners through Email or FB or letters/cards etc, but the dog itself has not seen us. Then we arrive at their house, and the dog barks for a few seconds, sniffs a couple of times and then BAM, the tail is wagging the dog all over the kitchen!
That’s when the owners remark, somewhat surprised “OMG he remembers you!!” To which we say, if you could only see what we do with these little guys in 8 weeks, they certainly do remember us and are very happy to see us.
But enough about us. We are writing this for you to understand that you MUST NOT treat your dog like a human or else it WILL treat you like a dog!!
