Pack Leader

I have been fascinatedly reading a book by Cesar Millan on dog training. Being the proud and happy owner of two dogs, I have belatedly recognised I have been baby-ing my dogs when what they need is a pack leader. I was transferring my emotional needs to them and it was not bringing out the best in either myself or them. It is not that I did not realise that I should be alpha dog, but that I never realised how far I had to go and what exactly I needed to do to maintain my status as alpha dog. And most of all, that I had to let them be dogs. And that I had to be me, but clearly in charge.

I have tried training a previous dog formally before in an obedience course, but I suspect some trainers do not actually know much more than I do. At one point, the trainer took it upon himself to demonstrate how I *should* be doing it. I saw my dog yanked so hard on a choke chain he literally spun around in mid air, and the trainer who did that, did not even realise this had happened as he had made a U turn and the dog had continued to walk in the other direction. Fortunately the dog wasn't hurt but I dropped out of the course immediately simply to save my dog from further mishaps. I decided that although I may not be a so-called expert, I had probably do better trying to discipline my dogs myself at home.

But as I devoured this book by Cesar, I realised that through the marketing hype, he was actually a keen observer of not just the dogs but the human owners and the bond that exists between dogs and human beings. And it was this that really persuaded me to try it out.

So this morning, I took his advice, ensured my dogs were calm with their leashes on before I opened the gate to take them walking. And that I exited first and that they ran behind me. And I have to say, it worked like a charm. They simply accepted it, much to my astonishment.

So I'm going to keep trying new ways of working with my dogs, to test this method and see if it continues to work or if I just got lucky this morning.