Whatever your dog is doing, it is ALL about the relationship that you have with your dog. And the relationship that you have with the significant people in your life. And the relationship that you have with yourself.
The obvious relationship that matters here is how you are with your dog. Are you nervous? Rigid? Harsh? Grounded? What are you communicating with your body language? What is your emotional state communicating to your pup? 99% of the time, what your dog is doing is “right” - meaning that your dog is simply taking in all of the information that you’re giving (and primarily the physical and emotional information - NOT the intellectual or conceptual information) and doing what makes the most sense to a canine under the circumstances.
Guess who else’s behavior doesn’t exist in a vacuum? YOURS! You are affected by your self-image and beliefs, and the relationships that you’re having with those around you. One of the biggest challenges that I’ve had over the past 10+ years of working with people and their dogs has been helping the PEOPLE change their habits. I would see, over and over again, how the emotional atmosphere of a person’s life - their stress at work, or in their primary relationships, or their view of themselves - was affecting how they lived their lives. Their habits. And this is important, because...
A little over 5 years ago I decided to branch out and get some training, as a coach, from the Robbins-Madanes Institute for Strategic Intervention. For me it was an opportunity to not only focus on shifting my own habits of being, but to also develop more skills at facilitating change for the humans with whom I was working. In the time since then, it has truly been an honor to not only be helping people with their dogs, but also to be helping them with the overall quality of their lives.
During that time, it became a passion of mine to work with people on improving their romantic relationships. You may notice that my original site (yes, this existed BEFORE Naturaldogblog) www.neilsattin.com has been revived. There’s a lot of great content there, and more in the works, that’s focused specifically on improving relationships. I’m also about to launch a podcast, called Relationship Alive, focused on helping you have amazing relationships (or easeful breakups - should that be the path that you choose). So stay tuned for more information on that.
In the meantime - think about it this way. Your dog is an emotional creature, picking up on everything that’s happening in the environment and responding from a place of heart - not head. What’s going on in your world? Where is the stress? Where is the tension? Where is the anger? Where is the love? Now look at your dog’s behavior, and ask yourself “how is my dog giving a voice to everything that’s happening in our world together?” I look forward to hearing what insights you uncover.
]]>The article is entitled "Push Away Stress" - and I think it does a great job of zeroing in on one of the central principles in how we interact with our dogs - that the key to establishing a rock-solid connection with your dog is to recognize that life for your dog, especially in a human world, creates stress. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to give your dog ways to relax that tap into their innate mechanisms for releasing stress. By doing so, you are teaching your dog that no matter how the world makes them feel, you are uniquely capable of helping them get through it.
This might all sound a little mumbo-jumbo-y, but I've seen it now time and time again, how tapping into your dog's primal circuitry changes things for the better. My DVD set (and this website, and Kevin's books, and Lee Charles Kelley's articles, and…) gives plenty of examples of how once you're plugged in with your dog you can turn that relationship into enthusiastic "obedience."
Note that the reason that I put the word "obedience" in quotes is because the concept becomes almost moot. Your dog doesn't "obey" you - because there's no need. What happens is that you learn how to communicate with your dog in a language that they understand. So your dog listens, and responds.
Not because they are suddenly blindly obeying you, or because you've become the "authority" in their lives - but because they care what you have to say. It makes sense to them. Even more, it FEELS good to act in harmony with your desires. Because now you both want the same thing.
If reading the Dog Fancy article is your introduction to Natural Dog Training, welcome! I'm sure you're intrigued to know what "pushing" is all about - as the technique was essentially the focus of the article, without any detailed instruction on how to actually do it! As you might expect, I do explain thoroughly how to do it on my DVDs - but I also provide written instruction here on my website on How to Push with Your Dog (and the follow-up - Why to Push with Your Dog).
Thank you to Dog Fancy magazine (and writer Susan Chaney) for an open-minded article about what we do. And thanks, once again, to all of you. It's your attention, questions, and feedback (yes, keep sending emails with your stories of your success!) that help remind me why I'm doing this in the first place.
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