The Relationship between You and Your Dog

Cesar Millan, famous as National Geographic’s dog whisperer, recently released his latest book entitled Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog . . . and Your Life. Intended to build a positive relationship between you and your dog, the book highlights the importance of good pet behavior and positive or negative reinforcement. Most of us hear positive and negative and we think “good” and “bad”. This is not the case. Positive reinforcement is adding something, whether we add something good for good behavior or add something bad for bad behavior. Negative reinforcement is taking something away, so we can take away something bad for good behavior and take something good away for bad behavior. Acting out of anger when working with your pet is never effective and only serves to make your pet fearful of you or even escalates the bad behavior to a higher level. Keep a level head, Cesar calls this “calm, assertive” and your pet will feel this attitude and will become “calm, submissive”, ready to behave.

Proper training can assist with:

• Crate Training
• Destructive Chewing
• Dominant Dogs
• Fearful Dogs
• Separation Anxiety

Millan has focused on an issue vitally important to the dog world: good behavior. While it might seem inconsequential, the truth is the majority of dogs surrendered to pet shelters today are due primarily to poor behavior. An alarming amount of people purchase puppies, yet choose not to properly train them. As these dogs grow older and display undesirable behaviors, many owners turn them over to humane societies.

At any age, your dog can be guided to maintain good behavior – although it’s admittedly easier when younger – it just takes time and a dedicated effort. Dog trainers are available throughout many communities to help. Many books, including Cesar Millan’s, can provide owners with the tips and techniques necessary for training your pooch through proper reinforcement and good attitude.