What Is Natural Dog Training?

[Lee Charles Kelley]

This excerpt from a radio interview with Kevin Behan pretty much sums it up:

Glenn Brooks: Can you give people a feeling of your work in Natural Dog Training?

Kevin Behan: Basically I want my dog to be as alive around me as possible, and I don't think that gets in the way of him being obedient either. For example, if I were with a puppy, and we were to come upon a young deer, and he gets all full of energy, I don't tell him no, or 'bad dog'... or sit or behave or anything... I start to pet him and say 'good dog'... and as soon as he starts going towards the deer, I will turn around and run away as fast as I can. After he goes a short distance, he'll soon realize I'm not with him... and then that same energy he felt for the deer, he'll invest in searching for me. Finally when he finds me, I pick up a stick and we'll wrestle, and that's what catching a deer feels like...

The philosophy [of Natural Dog Training] is essentially not saying 'I know what my dog should do now'. Five millions years of evolved instinct is telling the dog that this is the way it has to be: when a wolf sees a deer, guess what, he should go catch it! So I'm not going to try and override that. I'm going to work with it, redirect it, and channel it. And it has to feel as good to the dog as it would naturally. That's the key.

Glenn: So what about conventional dog training?

Kevin: Conventional dog training says positives are positives and negatives are negatives. Positives reward [the dog], and negatives correct the dog. So conventional training says, let's distract the dog and give him a cookie. But Natural Dog Training says, well there's energy going on here and that deer could be worth 200 thousand volts of energy, and that cookie you gave him is only worth 50 volts. So the dog may eat the cookie and be temporarily distracted, but there's an emotional calculus inside a dog, and after awhile, he does the math, and he says, 'this is not computing; I'm not getting a return. I'm still stuck with 150 thousand volts that's not getting grounded'. That's why dogs get tons of positives and cookies in their puppy-hood, but then a year later, they will still chase the deer.... Energy doesn't go away, it gets conserved. It gets internalized as its equal opposite, which is stress.

LCK

[neilsattin]

I'm always looking for good ways to "sum it up". As more and more people ask about Natural Dog Training, it's going to be important to answer with a definition that's to the point (i.e. concise) and still makes sense.

I have about 4 versions now that I'm working on.

[Lee Charles Kelley]

One of my favorite definitions, and maybe the simplest, is that we don't focus on being in control of the dog's behavior. If we set things up right, emotionally, the dog will happily control his own behavior so that it's always in alignment with our wishes and desires.

That's one of my favorite definitions.

What are yours?

LCK

[neilsattin]

I like that. It's simple.

Here's one:

In Natural Dog Training, you learn how your dog processes the world, emotionally, and then you learn specific techniques that make you the center of your dog's emotional universe. You learn how to work with your dog's most social and cooperative instincts, their hunting instincts. And your dog learns to trust you, to turn to you for an answer to the question of "what do I do...now?" (i.e. what do I do with my energy?) in any situation, no matter how challenging.

[Drea]

Originally Posted by Lee Charles Kelley

One of my favorite definitions, and maybe the simplest, is that we don't focus on being in control of the dog's behavior. If we set things up right, emotionally, the dog will happily control his own behavior so that it's always in alignment with our wishes and desires.

That's one of my favorite definitions.

What are yours?

LCK

I love this! I don't want to control my dog or turn him into a circus pup. I want him to be happy being a dog (hopefully staying out of trouble) and being around me.

I'm new to Natural Dog Training, but already I feel so connected with it. It's the missing piece of the puzzle I've been looking for.