June 26th, 2012
By Eric Letendre
Read an article yesterday about aggressive dogs.
The article stated that disagreeable people prefer aggressive dogs.
It has been my experience that aggressive people tend to own aggressive dogs.
NOT all aggressive dogs belong to angry people, but the type of training and the environment will develop the dog’s behavior.
When a dog that is in a house that has owners that use force, hit, slap and use heavy discipline, there is a good chance that the dog will develop an aggression problem.
Once a dog goes to the dark side, your friends will quickly decline any visits to your house. If your dog bites your friends, there is a good chance you will hear from their attorneys.
So, if you want to WIN friends it really comes down to HOW you influence your dog.
The type of training you do will effect your dog. There are a LOT of aggressive dogs here in America and one of the main reasons is the type of training that is done on our dogs.
Luckily, in the last 20 years there has been a big movement towards positive training which is good but…the positive trainers strongly believe that you should never, under any circumstances, use any type of negative consequence.
I disagree with that line of thought because you are not going to stop unwanted behavior with positive consequences.
You can’t reward a dog for stealing off the counter or for peeing on your carpets. You have to provide a negative consequence.
What the all positive crowd does not understand, is that simply giving your dog a verbal correction and then rushing the dog out the door IS a negative consequence.
So using negative consequences will not ruin or develop aggression in your dog if you know what you’re doing.
It’s one of the reasons I developed the Good K9 Manners course, to show dog owners how to stop unwanted behaviors using negative consequences without harming your dog.
AND, you can get it for the next few days for $10.00 off. Just use the coupon code 10-OFFK9MANNERS
If you’re ready to stop unwanted behaviors get started here:
All the best,
Eric
April 27th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
On a beautiful spring morning a few years back I found myself sitting in a small classroom listening to “The Evil Russian,” Pavel Tsatsouline discuss flexibility training.
There were about 25 people in the room and they were all there to learn techniques that Pavel used to train the elite Russian Special Forces Unit, Spetznaz. Everyone listened intently as Pavel shared his secrets with us, but one person, me, was really amazed at how some of what he said applied to dog training.
Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes such a dramatic difference in the way a dog behaves? It isn’t always the person training the dog. It isn’t that one person wants a well behaved dog and the other doesn’t. Keep Reading…
October 16th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
Tiny Dog Has Been Barking Nonstop For 6 Years
Funny little video a friend sent to me. My friend sent it to me because he has a little eight month old beagle that likes to bark all the time. He sent it to thank me because I helped him bring his dog’s barking problem under control.
You see, when he contacted me a few months ago I sent him to the Good K9 Manners course which has a section on how to fix any barking problem. Barking is no longer a problem.
In case you missed it you can still get the Good K9 Manners course for less than you think.
Go to Good K9 Manners and type DOGTVMANNERS to get the complete course at a special price but it won’t last much longer.
April 5th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing
look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically
dogs think humans are nuts.” – John Steinbeck
______________________________________________
Hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather here in
Western MA was awesome and the Red Sox beat the Yankees on
opening day – It doesn’t get any better than that!
Anyway, Rach and I had a pile of people over for Easter
Sunday and we had four dogs here to share it with us. Our
two, Rachael’s parents brought their dog and we had my
friend Ted’s beagle.
The subject of dog training always comes up and Rachael’s
cousin started asking me questions about punishment. He
said that all of this positive reinforcement stuff is good
but every once in a while you have to “teach a lesson.”
I informed Rachael’s cousin that you don’t have to go
negative to “teach a lesson.” Lessons can be taught using
positive or negative reinforcement.
I added that the problem with negative reinforcement is
that when we use it, it usually confuses the dog.
For instance, let’s say the dog has a chewing problem. Every
time we leave the house the dog finds something to chew.
When we come home and find that the dog has chewed our shoes,
couch or some other item, we punish the dog. We yell, maybe
smack the dog’s bottom and become very threatening.
The problem is that OUR timing is all wrong. We are punishing
the dog long after the behavior occured. The dog will start
to associate the punishment with homecomings.
The dog watches you leave the house. When you come home he
knows that you are going to turn into a raving lunatic and
start yelling and screaming.
This will cause stress in the dog. Guess what dogs do when
they get stressed?
THEY CHEW!
Now the very behavior we were trying to prevent gets worse.
We get madder and madder, increasing the amount of punishemnt.
The dog basically thinks we are nuts.
Punishment can be very effective when you want to stop a
behavior, but it has to be used properly. Used improperly,
you can confuse your dog.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. If you’d like to learn more about the correct way to
use punishment, check out: Dog Training Inner Circle
February 28th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
“I once decided not to date a guy because he wasn’t
excited to meet my dog. I mean, this was like not
wanting to meet my mother.” – Bonnie Schacter, Founder
of the Single Pet Owner’s Society Singles Group
I saw the above quote and thought of a girl I once went on
a date with. Half way though the dinner the discussion of
dogs came up and she said, “I really don’t like dogs.”
Stunned I asked why. She said that people that have dogs
are kind of crazy. She couldn’t understand why some dog
owners buy clothes, gourmet food, doggie beds, toys, etc.
In the middle of her extended speech on why she doesn’t
like dogs I held up my hand and asked her to stop. I also
called the waiter over and paid the bill.
I politely informed her that this would never work out
between us. Stunned she asked why. I told her that I
have four dogs at home and they all have their own closets
for their clothes.
I was kidding about the closets but she felt the same about
me and we parted ways.
Anyway, I was thinking of her the other day when I saw the Magic
Poop trap. You won’t beleive this video. If you have one minute
check it out. I don’t think I’ll ever use one for my dogs but who
knows – maybe they’ll catch on.
Check out this video
All the best,
Eric
P.S. Housetraining can be a big problem for a lot of dog
owners but not when you have the Housetraining Handbook.
Can you let your dog off leash?
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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 techniques 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.”
