There are a lot of people that I really admire, past and present. Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Mohammed Ali, Napoleon Hill, Dr. Ian Dunbar and Sylvester Stallone are just a few. I went to see Sly’s new movie, The Expendables, yesterday and noticed that he wrote and directed the movie.

I like to do research and study people that I admire, and I came across this video about Sylvester Stallone’s dog, told by Tony Robbins. I liked Sylvester Stallone before I saw this video. After watching the video, it COMPLETELY changed the way I thought of him. There is a lot to learn by listening to this. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

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Well, I just wrapped up shooting this morning’s edition of MassAppeal. I had the pleasure of speaking with Ashley Sattler about dog training and behavior. It was a lot of fun and I wanted to share it with you.

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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

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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.

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I want to share a little secret with you.

Every day I get email from all over the world asking me training questions. There is a common question I get all the time. The question usually goes like this: “I have a boxer and I know they need to be trained differently than other dogs. Do you have any boxer training tips?’

A lot of dog owners think that training is breed specific. Here is the secret:

Training is NOT breed specific. In fact, it isn’t even animal specific.

A dog, cat, horses and even chickens are trained using the same principles of behavior. Check out this video on chicken training. Please leave your comments and questions below.

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