Walking Your Dog to Pack Leadership

The walk for your dog is more than just a fun event in his life. The walk signifies something very primal in the dogs life. In the wild dogs walk to survive, each day they set out to find food. The pack leader (Alpha Dog) leads them on this trek for food. They follow his lead because they trust in his calm and strong leadership. Each dog in the pack understands that if they follow their leader and do their job within the pack a meal will follow. All dogs instinctually feel this primal need, and you can use this need to show your dog that you can be the strong leader that he desires.

The way you start your walk is extremely important to the concept of pack leadership. Never start the walk excitedly saying “Fido you want to go for a walk”, the dogs mind needs to be in a calm and submissive state before you put the collar and leash on. Once the leash is on, the dog should never be the first out of the door. Make you dog sit at the door as you step out, then call your dog outside remembering to remain calm and assertive. This will immediately tell you dog that you are in charge of this activity and your dog will happily follow you.

During the walk be sure that your dog is at your side or behind you. If the dog is out in front pulling you along this signifies that he believes he is in charge and he is the leader. Take control of the walk with the energy you project. Walk tall, walk proud, your dog will pick up on this and follow happily along with you. The more structured the walk is the better your dog will respond. The first part of the walk should be a good aerobic walk for both you and your dog. Keeping him at your side or behind you. In the middle allow time for the dog to urinate and/or defecate (remembering to pick up his mess) and just wander around and smell his environment. Make this part of the walk no longer then five or ten minutes. Then take another aerobic walk back home.

Finish the walk the same way you started by entering the house first then inviting your dog in. This now is a great time for some affection and a treat or even a meal. To fulfill your dogs primal needs. If you can do this structured walk for a half an hour to an hour once or twice a day you will see a change in your dog and your relationship with him.

Understanding Psychology Of Dog Training: Pack Behavior & Establishing Control By: Moses Chia

Dogs are descendent of wolves. To study the psychology of dog training and understand the pack hierarchal system of dogs, we must go back and examine their ancestor - wolves.

Wolves live naturally in packs of at least 2 and more... They live in a dictatorship system with strictly defined hierarchies of males and females. In their system, a leader - usually always a male, the biggest and toughest wolf also known as alpha leader would be in charge of the pack and will have the right to everything. The rest of the dogs in the pack would be followers and follow their leader willingly. This hierarchy system is not static and would change when another dominant member challenge the leader's authority and win.

For your dog, your family is the pack and every member is part of the hierarchy system. From the moment a new puppy or dog is introduce to the family, the new dog will start to pick up signals and indicators to figure out his own status in the family and who’s in charge. If your dog see you as a "alpha leader", he will follow your commands willingly and this will allows you to train him easily.

On the other hand, if your dog is very dominant (because you allow him to pick up the wrong signals) and starts to challenge your "alpha leader" position, he may refuse to follow your command and turn aggressive against you easily. This situation usually happens in children where dogs see their chain of command higher than that of them. This also explains why children suffer more dog bites than adults do.

If you would prefer to own an obedient dog that pay attention to your command, assuming the role of the “alpha leader’ and establishing control over your dog is extremely important!

Your dog must learn that he is the lowest ranking in the family, subordinate to you, to the children, and must recognize you to be the leader. If such hierarchy is not set up properly, the dog will try to take charge and assume the role of the leader. This’ll eventually lead the dog to turn into “dominant dog” and thus tend to misbehave. If this happens, you’ll face an uphill task to properly train your dog.

As we live in a democratic society, most of us will find it hard to understand the dog’s concept of dictatorship. Nevertheless, it is necessary that we adjust ourselves to understand how the dog live and think. By being dictating, you would think that this is cruel or even inhumane to the dog. If you think so, you are very wrong!

In fact, dogs are more than happy to be a follower and taking instructions from a leader. You have to give your dog directions, organize his space and activities for him, and he’ll be more clued-up and know his boundaries of life, which means knowing what is expected of him when he’s indoor or outdoor.

Your dog will be able to lead a less stressful and happy life and so will you.

Moses Chia is the webmaster of DogsObedienceTraining.com. He provides more helpful information on dog obedience training, dog training book reviews and dog illness symptoms interpretation that you can learn in the comfort of your home on his website. You are welcome to reprint this article if you keep the content and live link intact.

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Pack Leader First – Training Second

Becoming your dogs pack leader is the single most important process you should be going through with your dog. While simple obedience training happens almost simultaneously during the process of displaying your calm leadership to your dog. The leadership qualities you display to him/her are much more important than the actual training. Once your dog understands that you are worthy to be his leader, the training after that will become much easier. Your dog needs a calm, strong, and assertive leader to follow, to help balance his life.

To become a true pack leader for your dog it must first start from within yourself. A dog will sense your emotions. If there are problems in your life your dog will be affected by your vulnerabilities. Dogs will see these issues as weakness, and they will not follow a weak leader. You need to always project strength to your dog. At times you may be acting this strength that your dog desires; because lets face it there are times we are all vulnerable. This is how your dog can help you through tough times. As you project strength to your dog you will start feeling strong and less vulnerable. This can only be a positive for you in your life.

Your dog will sense your energy be it positive or negative. That is what will tell him/her if you are truly worthy of pack leadership. Your energy is how you carry yourself; your energy is what you outwardly project. It is how you feel and how you act. Dogs respond more to energy then any other single thing. Dogs do not understand your sentences, nor do these listen to reason. It is all about the energy you project. Always project a calm strong and assertive energy so your dog can feel relaxed just to be a dog, knowing the leadership issue is in your hands.

The training methods and tools you use after you establish your calm, strong, and assertive leadership are up to your personal preference. The real work will already be done and your dog will follow your lead to becoming the best dog he/she can possibly be.

The Most Important Dog Training Tip By: Mylar Skye

When it comes to training, you would think that there would be more than one dog training tip to use; in fact, you would expect to get several. This is true; there are tips from experts that can make the entire training process easier, and certainly more effective.

Is there, however, one dog training tip that can be the foundation for all of the others? Actually, there is. The tip that needs to be understood first is to remember that your dog is not human. That may seem like an obvious point, but so many people approach the task of dog training thinking that they can “reason” with their dog, or that their dog will understand when told that it has done something wrong, that the issue definitely needs to be addressed.

Your dog does not think like a human. He responds to you, but not in the way that you think. Therefore, the dog training tip that makes the most sense when it comes to every aspect of training is simple: treat your dog in the way that he will understand. For example, before you ever start the training process, you need to establish dominance. Dogs understand the concept of hierarchy; they need to know where their place is in the “pack”, and you need to establish yourself as the leader of the pack in order for him to want to please you. Your dog will always think in terms of pack mentality, so don’t think that just because you are the “human” that he automatically sees you as leader. Whether you obtain your dog as a puppy, or as an older dog, start first with the rules of hierarchy. You, as leader, always walk slightly ahead. When you are eating, don’t feed your dog from your plate; rather, feed him when you are done. This dog training tip sets the stage for your dog to want to follow your lead for all other things to come.

For More Information on Dog Training Please Visit Dog Training Network Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mylar_Skye

Your Dog Doesn't Hold Grudges By: Barry Mcgee

We love our pets so much that sometimes we think of them as human. One of the things that we have to remember is that, no matter how much we love them, our pets are not human. In some ways, however, this is a very good thing. Take, for instance, dogs. Dogs live in the here and now. They do not hold grudges, and they do not get angry today about an incident that occurred yesterday. Say your dog chewed up part of your furniture and had to be disciplined. Three hours later may show the very same dog climbing onto your lap, comforting you when you are sad.

This is something that is very important to remember, especially when you lose a pet. You need to realize that your pet does not hold any grudges against you for anything that occurred before. Sometimes, when our beloved pets pass, we find ourselves thinking about all the things we didn't do for our pet, rather than the things we did do. We think that we didn't spend as much time with them as we should, or that we should've taken them to the groomers more often.

One of the best ways to help work through grief and the feeling of guilt is to talk with other pet owners who have lost their loved ones. They will often be able to help you realize that as long as you loved your pet, they loved you as well. They are not on the other side thinking about all the things you did not do for them, but rather, are on this side of the rainbow bridge waiting to spend time with you once more.

Article written by Barry Mcgee

Helping you cope, move forward, and cherish the memory of your loss pet at http://www.pet-loss-memorial.com

"A Message From Rainbow Bridge"

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Training Your Dog Starts with You as the Leader of Your Pack

All dog training needs to start with one very important premise. That is that you and not the Dog is the leader. Dogs are instinctually pack animals; they are happiest and more relaxed when they are in a defined social structure. If your dog does not see you as a calm and strong leader he/she will try to take over as the pack leader. Dogs are not equipped to lead a human being; as a result the dog in effort to lead develops all sorts of unwanted behaviors.

Some keys to tell if your dog may consider himself your leader:

1. If your dog is out in front of you during your walk; he may be the leader.
2. If your dog jumps on you when you return home; he may be the leader.
3. If your dog is the first to greet any guests that enter your house; he may be the leader.
4. If your dog while barking incessantly at a stranger in an effort to protect, will not stop on your command; he may be the leader.
5. If your dog does not respond to your commands; he may be the leader
   

When your dog believes that you are his pack leader he will be very calm and submissive to you. This, as some people think, is not to say that you need to be a totalitarian ruler over you dog. What is needed is very calm and strong leadership. Accomplish this and you will see a marked change in your dog. He or she will be calmer more relaxed and much better in social situations with dogs and humans.