Leadership
If your dog is showing any type of aggression, please read this. If your dog is particularly fearful or nervous, this article is for you too. We believe the vast majority of dogs with these symptoms can be helped by their people strengthening their leadership.
The word “leadership” has become a popular sound bite, which is kind of good. However, some people misinterpret the meaning, which is bad. This article summarizes the meaning of leadership related in the context of dogs.
Why
Leadership is hard-wired in a dog’s mind. A dog takes note of the leader in every situation. A dog follows the leader. If there is no leader present, a dog does its best to lead.
The Disconnect
People rule our world. Obviously, right? Ultimately people decide what’s right and wrong. The problem is, what makes sense to a dog is not always acceptable to a person.
The Solution
Dogs don’t need to understand all of the rules. Heck, the rules are not always consistent anyway. Dogs just need to follow us. They will follow us if we present ourselves effectively as leaders.
What a Dog Looks for in a Leader
The following characteristics of a leader are from the dog’s point of view, which is all that matters in the context of this article.
1. How to Be: Confident.
- Posture – straight and tall
- Energy – calm
- Noise – quiet
- Aloof – let the dog sniff you and do not fuss over the dog.
- Conviction – follow through – if you say left, go left.
2. What to do: Guide.
- Communicate – think of your dog as someone who speaks a foreign language. How do you communicate with someone who speaks a foreign language?
- A lot of body language. (Learn more about body block, calming signals, using a marker.)
- Only use sounds/words you are sure the dog understands.
- Tell the dog what you want (not just what you don’t want) – please read this again.
- Teach, teach, teach – teach anything. This is automatic leadership status.
- Stay connected – if the dog is over-stimulated and unable to focus on you, do something to change this. (Put her on leash, go to a quieter place, get her attention back on you).
- Stay under threshold (both of you) – do not do something that is going to upset either one of you.
I am not claiming to be the perfect leader myself, but I do claim many achievements since I started understanding, and practicing better leadership. Countless times I have reflected on how much calmer we all are, and how much happier too. (Thanks to my trainers and the authors of the books I’ve read for teaching me these concepts!) The point is, just TRY. You will improve, at least somewhat, if you follow these principles.
Many times, by the time we start searching for help, some bad habits have formed. Reading this article may not be enough. For an aggressive dog or fearful/nervous dog, it is definitely a good idea to seek the help of a professional trainer that believes in positive (reward-based) training methods. If you can’t afford a professional trainer, turn this article into a training guide for yourself. Make each item from the above lists into a homework assignment for yourself. Get out one blank piece of paper for each concept. Write down your objective and track your progress. Train like you’re going through school – start easy, like at a kindergarten level (e.g. inside the house) and slowly advance after you “graduate” from each grade. Score yourself along the way.
Joey & Sage
For those of you with strong-willed dogs – I call them “natural born leaders”. They are less inclined to follow a poser. They need a real leader. They will help you become stronger 🙂 The more I have reflected on nature, and the rules of the jungle, so to speak, the more I have appreciated what a natural born leader my dog Sage is. She is stealthy when pursuing food, she’s a doting mentor/teacher, she starts/stops play with other dogs, she is very athletic yet rarely breaks a sweat, she keeps herself clean, she prefers calmness, she is alert to things outside the norm, she asserts control in the face of instability. Most of these characteristics have gotten her into some trouble in our peoples’ world! I shudder to think about how much grief she would have had in a household that didn’t work to understand her. Yet, she is very happy now and she certainly helps us smile, laugh and relax on a daily basis.
