Training isn’t just for Puppies

Did you just adopt an older dog or do you have an older dog who just won’t listen to you?  As you may already know, it is National Train Your Dog Month, and in honor of that we would like to assure you that just because your dog didn’t come home with you as a puppy (or maybe learned a few bad habits since puppyhood) doesn’t mean that he is not just as capable of learning new tricks.

Ersula Gomez of Corona adopted her Miniature Pinscher for the Riverside animal shelter when he was already 2 years old. "He was taken from the home of a hoarder.  I give him extra love every day to reassure him that he will never have to go back to that life or the pound." Unfortunately, that extra love has led her little pup, Ace, to believe he runs the house.  "When he is with me, like on my lap, no one can touch me.  I know it's a problem when my kids are around but I just feel so bad for him after all he's been through.  He's my little baby." 

As Cesar Millan and any other trainer will tell you, dogs live in the now (the present).  They aren’t thinking about the life they use to have before you adopted them, or how they got in trouble last week for digging; all of that is in the past.  So, the first step to getting a well-behaved dog is to change the way you think about your dog. Think about your dog in the present.  What is he?  Is he a child? Is he a war veteran? Is he a nurse?  No, he is a dog.  While he may depend on you like a child, may have been rescued from an abusive home, and may stay by your side while you are sick, none of that matters in the present.  Those are experiences that have happened in the past and not the dog that stands in front of you today. 

I know a lot of pet parents do not believe that their dog’s past life does not affect him.  But I can tell you from experience, it only affects your dog because you hold on to it, not because your dog does.  If you want to see real changes in the way he behaves, you have to let go of his past and start from scratch. Sometimes dogs do become psychologically skewed (and not just from abuse) and that damage needs to be undone before you can move forward.  So, if you want your dog to become the perfect model citizen (which you should) then you have to be willing to put in the time, energy and effort it takes to go back to the basics.  Join me as I go back to the basics next week.

Hint to treating your dog like a dog: Your daily walks should not include a dog stroller.