March 24th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
Friday night I had just sat down and was getting ready to crack open a new Stephen King novel I just bought when I got a call from my good friend, Geoff.
Geoff invited my wife and me to a night out to the Paper City Brewery in Holyoke, MA.
Paper City Brewery is located on what feels like the top of the 80th floor of an old, dusty factory building. After walking up eight flights of stairs, you walk into a large room filled with old motorcycles, flags from different countries, a replica of a large great white shark and one bathroom for about 200 people.
Anyway, as I walked into the room to begin the night’s festivities, I accidently bumped into a guy and spilled his beer.
“What the !#$% is your problem dude?”
As I looked into the eyes of the guy standing about four inches taller than me, I quickly judged that he was not a student of, “How To Win Friends And Influence People.”
Between the tattoos covering his arms and neck and the steel earrings that covered his lips, nose, cheek, and I think I saw one on his tongue, I could tell he was not happy with me.
“Sorry about that.” I said.
“!@$% that, you got beer on my shirt, %@@*&%$.”
I thought the beer stain was an improvement, but kept that thought to myself and again apologized.
Standing there, I thought how interesting this situation was. You see, as a dog trainer, I have dealt with aggressive dogs for years.
I have studied aggressive behavior from every possible angle. I have volumes of books on aggressive behavior and have had some tough cases over the years.
The big mistake that I see beginning trainers make is trying to deal with aggression by using aggression – HUGE, HUGE MISTAKE!
When you use aggression to deal with aggression, it escalates aggression.
An inexperienced trainer will use a leash correction when the dog shows any signs of getting nasty. This usually results in the dog getting madder, which results in the dog trainer getting harsher, which results in the dog… you get the picture.
It can quickly spiral out of control.
Dealing with my tattooed, perforated friend was going to be tricky.
The first step with aggression is finding the trigger.
What is it that causes the dog to become aggressive?
A good dog trainer will find out what the trigger is and start the training process from there.
In this situation, I was the trigger. This dude was ready to brawl because I bumped his beer. I knew that if I said some choice words in response to his comments, it could quickly escalate into a real donnybrook (I’ve always wanted
to use that word in a sentence).
I wish I could say that he shoved me and I did my best Chuck Norris moves on his sorry butt, pinned him to the ground and forced him to say, “Uncle.”
But it didn’t happen that way.
My job was to diffuse the aggression and not escalate it. I apologized again and offered to buy him a beer.
I also offered to have his shirt dry-cleaned. I wouldn’t say we departed friends, but it never turned into a physical altercation.
As you can see, ego also plays a huge role in dealing with aggressive behavior. My ego was screaming at me:
“Tell this guy to shove it.” “Tell this guy the beer stain is an improvement,” ”Tell him to get stuffed.”
But…
…my training and good sense told my ego to take a hike. I have seen first-hand what ego can do in this situation.
In my next message, I’m going share with you the time I was attacked by a dog named Scar. It happened because a trainer’s ego got involved in the training process and I ended up paying for it.
See you then!
Eric
P.S. If you really want to learn about aggressive behavior check out The Dog Training Inner Circle.
August 5th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
I was sitting at home yesterday when I got a phone call from the local new station. They were calling to ask if I would be willing to go on the afternoon show and talk about dog training.
Never one to turn down an opprotuinty to go on TV, I agreed to be there on Friday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
They asked me to share with the audience some tips on dog training and behavior. She also asked me to send some key points on what I was going to talk about, so I decided to share with you first what I am going to talk about.
You see, I have been teaching for years that the focus should not be on the dog. The real focus has to be on the owner.
Years ago while attending a seminar, the great dog trainer John Rogerson stated: “If you want a good dog, learn how to become a good dog owner.” That one simple statement changed the way I looked at dog training.
I had been taught that the dog was always at fault if the training did not go well. Your dog won’t sit, down or stay?
The dog is being stubborn.
Your dog is pulling on leash or won’t come back when called?
The dog is being dominant.
Your dog won’t pay attention?
The dog is neurotic.
Everytime the dog did not perform, the dog was blamed.
Here’s a question for you.
Is it the dog or the trainer?
I was orginally taught a dog training method that was very popular in the 1950′s. Put a choke chain on the dog and give a correction. If dog does not respond, increase the intensity of the correction. If correction does not work, increase the intensity of the correction, If the hardest correction you give does not work, label the dog as dominant, stubborn, neruotic, genetically defective, or make up a label.
As you can imagine, this led to a lot of problems; dogs that developed aggressive behavior, dogs that became scared, dogs that developed destructive behavior and dogs that simply shut down.
The amazing thing is that there are still trainers out there training the same way.
Anyway, I am going to share the four steps to becoming a good dog owner on the show.
The four steps are:
1. Good management skills
2. Exercise
3. Leadership
4. Train using positive reinforcment
I will expand a little further in my next email. I’ll also let you know how the TV show goes, so stay tuned…
All the best,
Eric
P.S. If you really want to learn how to become a great dog owner, check out: The Dog Training Inner Circle
July 28th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
This morning I had a meeting with a potential client
and met him at the trendy $5.25 cup of coffee restaurant
when I witnessed something that shocked me.
I had just ordered my coffee and I knew the women serving
me was new. She was very polite but messed up my order.
I told her it was no problem and took a seat to wait for
her to make a new cup.
As I was sitting there, she told her boss that she had messed
up – this is where it got interesting.
The “Boss” started to royally chew her out. She ripped into
her telling her all the mistakes she had made that day. The
boss added that she had better “get it together – FAST!”
I felt bad for the lady and asked her how long she had been
working there. She told me that it was her first day.
I handed her a very generous tip and walked away.
As I sat at the table, I thought about an email that I received
a few days ago.
In the email the person said that she had recently adopted
a dog and she was having a tough time. She said that she
went to a trainer who informed her that he never uses treats
and the dog learns who the leader is.
The email went on to explain how her dog is now starting to
show signs of aggression.
I’ll never understand why anyone would think negative motivation
would work better than positive motivation.
The employee serving me the coffee is eventually going to
become aggressive with her boss. She’ll put up with it for
a week, maybe months, but eventually she is going to give
the one finger salute and scream some words unfit for this
Rated G family friendly email.
In short, she is going to hit her level of tolerance and become
aggressive.
Every person, every dog has a tolerance level. My wife has a
much longer tolerance level than I do.
She can get cut off while driving, sit through rude behavior at a
restaurant, long lines at the department of motor vehicles and still have
a smile on her face.
I run a little hotter.
My tolerance level is much shorter.
When it comes to training, if you use negative motivation it is
just a matter of time before your dog hits his tolerance level
and becomes defensive and aggressive.
It is much better to approach training with a positive attitude.
I’ll never understand why anyone would think treats would be a
bad idea when it comes to training.
I’ll guarantee this – using treats will NOT put your dog in a bad
mood. Using force, pinch, shock and choke collars will.
Anyway, start using positive motivation to train your dog. You
won’t have to worry about your dog going to the dark side.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. One last thing – When a dog does go to the dark side, it can
be verrrry difficult to bring them back. If you want to make sure
your dog never goes to the dark side check out The Dog Training
Inner Circle.
June 28th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
My dogs are dragging their butts today.
It’s hot, humid, and all they want to do is lay on the cool, tile floor.
I can’t blame them. I feel like doing the same, but instead I am sitting here tapping away on my keyboard to share another entertaining, information packed nugget of training that will help you with your dog.
Just the other day, I was working with a dog that had developed a problem with other dogs while out for walks with his owner.
Spending a few minutes with the owner and dog, I quickly discovered the problem and informed him how to fix it.
Check out this video to discover what happened:
All the best,
Eric
August 27th, 2009
By Eric Letendre
Not too long ago, I was with a client helping her with her dog. She was convinced that the dog was "dominant" and it was the source of all her training problems. As I watched the dog, I observed a friendly, active little guy that just wanted to have fun.
When I asked her why she thought her dog was being dominant, she stated:
"I was watching a dog trainer on TV and he said that a dog going through a door in front of me is displaying dominance."
I tried to explain that going through a door is not a sign of dominance – it’s a dog that wants to get out and party. I informed her that I had a book for her to read and that it was written by one of the smartest dog trainers in America.
I dropped the book off later on that day with one of the pages dogeared. The book, "The Culture Clash," by Jean Donaldson, explained one of her favorite myth’s on page 19…
"My favorite myth is the going the doorways first thing. What deranged mind came up with the notion that a dog would understand, let alone exert dominance by preceding his owner out the front door."
She goes on to explain:
"When dogs are rushing through doors, they are trying to close distance between themselves and whatever is out there, as quickly as possible because they are excited, because they are dogs."
The dogs owner refused to believe that her dog was doing it for any other reason than dominance and fired me. I was okay with getting fired, but I was worried about her dog. You see, the best way to train a dog is to understand dogs for what they really are. A dog that is labeled "dominant" is often subjected to harsh training methods. The whole dominance idea has been blown way out of proportion, which as Ms. Donaldson states:
"This is dangerous. Not only does it mean that incredible amounts of abuse are going to be perpetrated against any given dog, probably exacerbating problems like recalls and biting but also real issues, like well-executed conditioning and and the provision of an adequate environment are going to go unaddressed, resulting in an a still untrained dog, prepatuing the stupid dominance program."
As you can see, she does not pull any punches but it is a great book. Check it out if you get a chance.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. Then again, another great dog training book, "The Amazing Dog Training Man," by yours truly is included with a membership into the
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Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States. For more than 20 years, he has been developing dog training "hacks" that have worked for dog owners all over the world. Eric operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling and draws on his experience and passion for dog training to show others how to develop a dog that is truly “Man’s Best Friend”.
Eric is the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Hack Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
