April 28th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
“I named my dog ‘Stay’… so I can say ‘Come here,
Stay. Come here, Stay.’” – Steven Wright
______________________________________________
A few years back, I was teaching classes at an animal
shelter in New Bedford, MA.
Classes were going well until one night when a
new student joined the class. The dog was a beautiful
shepherd mix with a nice temperament.
Every time I went to the dog, he would wag his tail and
smile with his eyes. I thought, “What a nice dog.”
Then something strange happened.
The dog would not do a single command for the owner. She
would say his name, give commands and the dog would completely
ignore her.
I thought it was strange so I went over and took the leash.
Within seconds I had him doing sit, down and stay. I handed
back the leash and asked her to give her dog the command
sit.
She said the command in Portuguese, which is not strange because
there is a large Portuguese population in the area and a lot
of perople teach their dogs in that languauge.
Her dog completely ignored her. I asked her to give her dog
the command sit again but this time I heard her give the
command in German.
I stopped her and asked her why she gave the command in Portugese
and then switched to German.
Her answer floored me…
She told me that she wanted her dog to know the commands in
Portugese, German and English.
Speechless, I asked why?
She said that she had done it with her last dog and wanted to
do the same with this one.
At this point, she became angry with her dog and started getting
rough with him. I tried to explain to her that she should pick
one language and stick with it, that her dog would learn much
faster and it would be fairer to the dog.
She became irate with me and I had to ask her to leave. I felt
for the dog as I watched him walk out but…
…there is a good ending to this story.
The owner brought the dog back to the shelter about a month
later.
The dog was showing signs of aggression but had not gone completely
to the dark side.
Within a few weeks, he had turned around and was adopted out to a
nice family.
One of the most important parts of training is consistency, the more
consistent we are with the training, the easier it is for the dog to
learn.
More on this in future installments of this email newsletter.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. To get real consistency with your dog training, check out
The Dog Training Inner Circle.
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.”
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.”
