Hello from someone else in Denmark

[Margot]

Hi all, and especially Neil and Lee, And Jannik who is also in Denmark.

I procrastinated about looking at Neils forum but had a read a few weeks ago and decided to sign up.

My experience is similar to a number of you. I decided to get a dog 2 years ago for the first time in my adult life and was horrified by what I read about training. The general concensus seemed to be that one must train ones dog and I thought that with so many dogs around compared to the numbers while growing up in the 70s, that would probably be a good thing.

After researching many training methods I almost decided I would rather not have a dog if that is how it had to be. I did not want a treat adict nor did I want to punish or dominate my dog. I also saw no reason in the world to not allow a dog to play bite you. We would pretend to cry when our family dog play bit us, which we encouraged. She would be so concerned and we would end up covered in saliva, and as for tug..... its been said before. Anyway, all we did with her is play and she was a wonderful dog that just fit into our lives. She was also really smart and very instructable (hate the word obedient now) and took on certain responsibilities of her own accord.

Then I found natural dog training and felt much better. This made sense where none of the other methods did. I supose that when you disconnect from the dog world for a long period of time and the developments in dog training have completely passed you by, they seem alien to you. It may seem more normal if you have grown with it.

I found first Kevin and his book, then Neil and Lee and their blogs, and went out and picked up my Tibetan Spaniel puppy. I raised my puppy with play and biting, no training except for the toilet variety. As he was so small I even let him use my fingers as teething chews, I just could not find anything that fit his small mouth. He now has a very soft mouth and will not bite down, even when stressed at the vets. Wish I could say the same for Stan the cat.

Then we went through a phase at around 6 months where he started to nip my legs when I stopped play. I contacted Lee and we did some over the phone training. I learned the pushing exercise and he was cured of his nipping within a very short space of time.

I feel that because I did not train Butters, it allowed his natural desire to fit into my life in a good way come into effect. He rarely does anything he should not, and on the odd occasion he has all it took was a very mild reprimand (even that is too strongly put) and he would stop doing it, and never do it again!

This dog stops pooing in places from which you remove his poo. In the city he now shoves his bum in a hedge to do the deed.

He is so in tune with my intentions that it almost seems like he understands language.

I have tried some of the other NDT exercises with him but found that when I got too formal with his training it had a negative effect. Heel training, for example did not work well for us.

Lee's method of getting on your dogs emotional plane is very effective with Butters and my application of NDT is more on the emotional side of things than anything else. For example, when I walk him off lead I foster a feeling of being together, so we are. Hide and seek was very important in this as well, he is now as invested in staying with me as I with him. I also do not worry about him not wanting to get back on the lead, or running after another dog, or hare, because worrying will make it so. What I think is so important with this dog. I have recalled him twice now from a hare, and he always comes when called. Not always directly to me, but he rejoins the flow of our walk.

Recently Butters has shown more of an interest in formal training so I am starting that up again. I feel that he needs to do something more structured that challenges his mind and the first step in that will be getting the formal stuff down. I think he would make a good tracker dog

Margot
A Dutch Australian living in Denmark

[jojo]

Reading your post makes me want to go get a puppy.