She couldn’t believe it. And to be honest, neither could I. “It’s like he’s a different dog,” she said. I mean… I’ve seen people get some fantastic results with my dog training techniques. But this was just ridiculous.
Normally, it takes about an hour for me to explain and demonstrate my techniques and get the dog owner comfortable working with their dog. But this dog and owner responded almost instantly. This was a big Germans Shepherd dog. And with a big, beautiful coat, he was a beaming, confident dog now listening to her every command. But not 20 minutes earlier. When she brought Hank out of the car, he was lunging and pulling on the leash… barking and acting otherwise obnoxious. She didn’t know how to control her own dog. Which is actually fairly common.
See, it’s not that her dog didn’t know how to behave. He did. It’s just that he chose not to. But Hank was a smart dog. And a good dog. He really wanted to please his owner, but his owner didn’t know how to communicate with Hank in a manner that Hank understood.
At times, dog training is almost like learning a foreign language. (But trust me… as a struggling Spanish conversationalist, I can tell you… learning a foreign language is a lot harder!)
The other thing that enabled my client to get incredibly fast results with her dog was by understanding the role that respect plays… in any relationship. But especially in her relationship with her dog.
** Shameless plug: I actually had a great advantage with this client, as she’d already read my book, “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” (which you can read more about at: http://access.dogproblems.com/sl.cfm ) … but she was waiting to meet with me before trying any of my techniques. Understandable, I guess, when your dog weighs almost twice as much as you do! ** Maybe you’ve had a friend who constantly interrupted your conversation by answering their cell phone? Yet, do you think they would behave in such a rude manner if your name was Robert Deniro? Or famed British actress, Judi Dench? I doubt it. They’d turn their cell phone off and listen to what you were saying with respect and admiration. And that’s exactly what Hank needed to learn. He needed to learn respect and admiration for his owner.
Fortunately in this case, the owner was a quick study. Almost like a fish to water. (I’ll bet you already know it’s never the dogs that take long to train… it’s their owners!)
“It’s like he’s a different dog,” she said as she walked back towards me, with Hank– a full 160 lbs. of muscle and pride– prancing along at her side. “Look,” she said, “One finger… just like in your videos.” She was now walking Hank with just one finger through the loop at the end of the leash. “Okay… it’s probably a little premature to be showing off,” I responded. “I know, I know, ” she replied. “but it’s like he’s a different dog.” And that’s what we strive to do with Dogproblems.com – we teach dog owners how to get respect and admiration from their dogs. Because in most cases, that’s all our dogs really want from life, anyway. To respect and admire us.