Leave it Alone, Pooch!

How well behaved is your dog?  Is he a "One word from me and he does as he pleases" type of pooch?  If your dog is aggressive or barks excessively or if it chases other animals or just won't leave visitors alone when they arrive there is a 'one word' command that can change all of that.

I advise many of my clients to use "LEAVE" command for these behaviours.  It needs to be used precisely but it is not very difficult. In the simplest of terms, you train your dog to leave people, other animals or visitors alone because if they do, good things happen.

But remember that your dog does not know English!  He or she knows Doglish only! So the trick here is to convert those words you understand into the Doglish your dog understands.

How do you do that?

It's done with something we call pulsed, reward-based cognitive therapy.

That simple means create a short routine your dog loves that ends in a clearly-defined, absolutely measurable, target behaviour. The pulse that again, and again, and again until both you and your dog know he routine.

The process involves two simple principles - perfect timing and proper voice control and it is a method based on positive reinforcement training.

In my dealings with dog owners and their pesky pooches, I commonly see folk who have great difficulty in getting their dogs to do simple things and usually it's because they are not using the right type of voice and the right type of words.

If you are trying to change a dog's behaviour, you will need to have three different voices in your armoury.  If you use them properly, you can throw out the rolled newspapers, the electric shock collars and even the citronella anti-barking collars too.  These are too old-fashioned for Sensitive New Age Pet Owners (SNAPO's) such as you!

Contents of Page 2

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• "Leave" Training 
• Video of the leave routine
• The "Good Dog Routine"
• What to do if it doesn't work
• Techniques for back yard barkers
• Techniques for over-attention to visitors
• Techniques for dogs that chase other animals