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
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States and has been training dogs for over 20 years, teaching regular, average, every-day owners all over the world how to get the training results they want as fast as possible. Eric is also the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
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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.”
a dog that charges out the door in front of an owner may be closing the distance to his/her next great play session OR may be expressing dominant behavior, and, without more observation of the dog’s OTHER behavior patterns, the reason would be impossible to determine based on that one action alone. so rather than argue about it, it would seem a lot more productive to recognize the potential dangers involved with allowing that behavior to strengthen and condition itself until any number of BAD results happen and STOP it. the mere fact it is excited is absolutely NO excuse for allowing it to continue, and in fact an EXTREMELY excited dog can still be completely under control if the owner trains it properly. in fact getting a dog extremely excited is an EXCELLENT way to get your dog’s attention so that he/she will learn that much faster. on the opposite side of the coin, a laid back, calm dog is oner of the hardest types of dogs to train to do anything ! the key is to motivate the dog to WANT to try their darndest to do what you want them to do – and then get rewarded for doing so. there are MANY absolutely NORMAL behaviors of dogs just being “dogs”, and many are potentially dangerous, not just annoying. the key here is to teach them what “normal” behaviors you will accept and which ones you won’t. an owner who can’t do that should just allow their dog to live with other dogs, not people