To Correct is not mean!

At Crystal Dogs - Correct is to change and control with care! Punish is to penalize!

OK so some may think only positive techniques should be used when working with dogs, but how do they go about discipline, without which even us humans can run riot! Reward wanted behaviours of course being sure to get your timing right - else may inadvertantly reward the wrong response and have a very confused dog. We must step-in and correct those we don’t want - unless we wish to live with a “bully dog” who may use aggression at any time to back-up their demands or a dog who gets their way through being fearful or possessive or territorial!!

I caught an episode of “Dog Borstal”on TV this last week….supposedly a school for unmanageable dogs. Unfortunately it really did seem to have the negative feeling about it that the name suggests!

All the show did for me was to make it so clear that there is a world of difference between "correcting a dog" - with calm assertive energy and “punishing” a dog - with angry forceful energy! The former is how Cesar does it and how I’ve had excellent results working with my pack, Peter in particular. The latter is how the trainer on this programme put a dog into a submissive roll, it made me cringe even I backed away! I had to see it to believe it…“bad” human energy is no way to handle a dog and may well provoke an aggressive response, so I beg that we all see the difference. This show made it so obvious - when I actually saw it done with wrong energy then watch Cesar at work. Clearly demonstrates that Cesar does rehab dogs with the right emotional energy, even with very aggressive dogs his energy is always the same - Calm Assertive.

I shall not be watching such a programme again - I don’t want to pick up any bad habits! I always have to check my emotional energy…as I’m not naturally calm, but with all this practice I can get calm pretty damn quick now :-)

Calm assertive energy will get you respect and achieve goals …angry forceful energy will only get you …..aggression….fight…induce fear…..a forced reaction , so without the use of force the response will not be repeated…..no respect!

When I'm talking "assertiive", I do not mean in any way aggressive - even if some dictionaries would have us believe it means aggressive! Assertive in this context is an emotional energy meaning firm, fair, confident, in control of our environment - owning our space and dog!

Coming up I'll describe corrections I use and "how your dog can tell you if you have used "correct" or "punish"!!

So what have my dogs taught me? To apply this positive emotional energy when dealing with human confrontations as well!!!

ps. Monty still hasn't caught up with time moving forward an hour - he's about half hour out!!