Training your dog can be heaven or it can be hell. The reality is, it’s up to you. Once you understand how a dog thinks, communicates, reacts, and learns, training becomes a simple set of repetitive tasks and rewards.

This book takes you through a complete set of training routines through the eyes of your dog. You can build a close and personal relationship, and end up with a dog whose only goal is to do what you want him to, if you’ll just take the time to practice what we are about to teach you.

The process is going to be simple. We’ll teach you, and you’ll teach your dog. Ready? Let’s get started.

The most important reason for training your dog is to ensure the dog’s health, safety, and well-being while, at the same time, keeping your dog under control during its interaction with humans. Without training, a dog can injure himself or cause other animals and humans to be injured.

While wild dogs do not undergo “performance training”, you can bet the Alpha male ensures the laws of the pack are obeyed. In your dog’s case, you are the Alpha male and your family is the pack. Your job is to show the dog where he fits in.

You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks.

Bull! As long as a dog has normal mobility, hearing, and vision, he can be taught. Of course, it’s easier when they are younger, but they can be taught effectively right up until they approach senility. When is the best time to start training your dog? Today, so let’s get started.

Understanding Your Dog’s Mentality

Dogs are pack animals. They have a social hierarchy complete with rules, leaders, and discipline. When you own a dog, especially a puppy, and do not provide the equivalent of this pack environment, you are doing a grave disservice to your dog. Although dogs have a distinct social environment, it is very different than a human’s in key ways. Once you understand these differences, and learn how to take a “supervisory” role in your dog’s life, half of the hard work is out of the way.

Dogs do not really make a distinction between other animals, humans, and themselves. If they have daily close exposure to another life force, one that eats and sleeps with him, then that life force is part of the dog’s pack or family. It’s where that other life force fits into the pecking order of the family that’s critical to him. Every pack of dogs has a leader known as the Alpha male. He is truly the “leader of the pack”. His word is law and he enforces the rules of behavior and conduct. He eats first and has his choice of females.

Right below the Alpha male comes the Beta male. The Beta male might be thought of as the heir apparent, or the next in line when the Alpha mail retires or dies. At some point in his life, the Beta and Alpha male may fight for the leadership permission. If the Beta wins, he becomes the new Alpha. If he loses, he might remain the Beta, or he may fall further down in the pecking order. And, so it goes from Beta on down to the weakest dog (Omega), every dog has his or her place in the pack.

Just like not every human wants to be a manager or business owner, not every dog has aspirations for being an Alpha dog. If you establish yourself as the Alpha, your dog will likely be very happy being somewhere further down the food chain. Keep in mind, that if you have a spouse and children in the “pack”, you definitely don’t want the dog thinking that he is the Beta either. He should rank below the humans in the pack. He should be the Omega. We’ll look at this more closely later on in the book.

During the training process, and at other times during your relationship with your dog, your dog is likely to test you to see if you are still worthy to remain the Alpha. Just as in the wild, you rule for only as long as you are fit to rule. Dogs relate to each other via a series of dominant and submissive actions. In order for a dog to be emotionally adjusted, he needs a dominant male, a leader, in his life. He will remain submissive to the leader (you) for as long as you maintain leadership traits.

Me Alpha, you Omega

The Alpha dog has many responsibilities. He determines when and where to hunt, where to spend the night, and who is welcome in the pack and who is not. When you own a dog, these responsibilities fall to you. Once you establish yourself as the Alpha you will notice marked changes in your dog’s behavior. Not only will your dog start to respect you, he will respond to your commands, and he will establish a closer relationship with you in general.

Understanding how dogs communicate

If I were from another planet, and I did not speak your language, you and I would have to find some way to communicate so could understand that I wanted you to take me to your leader. Well, to your dog, you might as well be from another planet because he darn sure doesn’t understand a word that’s coming out of your mouth. Fortunately for both of you, there is a Human-to-Dog and Dog-to-Human dictionary available (well, not really a dictionary), and I’m going to share its contents with you right now.

Talking to your dog and trying to have a rational conversation by saying something like “Now Rex, you know that daddy doesn’t like it when you pee pee on the rug”. Is about as ineffective a way to communicate as you’ll ever find. You know when your dogs sits there, apparently listening, and cocks his head back to the side in that cute way? Well, what he is actually thinking is “What in the world is that noise?” because that’s all it is, noise.

Body Language

The primary method that dogs use to communicate with each other is body language. Dogs read body language as intently as you read the newspaper. They draw conclusions about your mood, intentions, and your ability to remain the Alpha dog by carefully noting how you are standing, holding your head and hands, walking, and what your eyes are focused on.

When you stand tall over your dog, you are taking a dominating position, a position of authority. If you squat down to be at the dog’s level, then it appears that you are taking a submissive posture. This empowers your dog to assume that you are handing the Alpha role over to him. When a dog is being submissive he will crouch down and posture his body as close to the ground as possible. He will put his tail between his legs, drop his ears and may even roll over onto his back and tuck his legs in.

Rolling over is the ultimate submissive posture. The dog is putting away his paws and claws, and opening his soft underbelly up to attack by the Alpha male. In effect he is saying “I submit to you oh great leader. You may take my miserable life if I’ve done something that makes me deserve to die”.

Voice Inflection

Dogs yap, yelp, bark and growl in various pitches and volumes to verbally communicate with pack members and enemies. A high pitched yap, yelp, or bark usually means that they are happy or being playful; a low pitched growl or bark usually indicates just the opposite except, sometimes, in the case of puppies. Puppies don’t really have the pack mentality down pat yet. They experiment at playing, hunting, and fighting. They may run through a whole range of body language and sounds without really understanding what effect they have on other dogs in the pack. They are just imitating what they see around them and learning as they go. But trust me, if a puppy ambles up to the Alpha male, take an aggressive posture, and tryy to snatch El Heffo’s dinner – that puppy will learn a bit about submissive posturing very quickly.

Touching

Believe it or not, dogs are very touchy-feely animals. While better known for peeing on tress than hugging them, they are still a pretty politically correct species and understand good and bad touching. The problem is, we humans don’t have the same touching rules as dogs do and we need to if we are to be a successful Alpha male. Just as there are a wide range of sounds and tones that a dog emits, there are a wide range of communicative touching that a dog understands. Let’s look at the basics:

Dogs kiss, snuggle, touch noses, rub up against other dogs, paw, slap, wrestle, nip, bite, and sniff butts. That about covers the range of dog touching, but it is only the beginning to understanding why they do those things. We will examine the nuances associated with these different types of touching in later chapters.

Sense of Smell

Scents are a major communication vehicle for dogs. Just observe any dog out on a leash, or running free, and you will see that they stop often to enjoy some delicious odor that has attracted their attention. Using their sense of smell, dogs can identify food, of course, other pack members, enemies, strange dogs that have passed by, and what a rabbit had for lunch yesterday.

Dogs find scents that are on the ground, left behind on bushes or other objects like the light pole that they cannot seem to pass by without stopping for a whiff. There is much more to a scent than simple identification. Scents are used to mark the end of one pack’s territory and the beginning of another’s; scents warn of danger, and even help to keep a dog in his proper place in the pack’s social order. A dog’s sense of smell is an important part of who he is.

Using These Communication Tools

Now that you understand how a dog communicates, and the various “languages” that they use, you can take advantage of this knowledge to shorten the training cycle while you earn and keep your dog’s respect. Throughout your relationship with your dog you should never lose sight of these basic rules:

• Keep your body language in mind and ensure that you are not communicating something to your dog that you do not intend to.
• Use the proper voice, tone, and volume to communicate verbally.
• Touch your dog in the appropriate way, and at the appropriate time.
• Use scents to reinforce your training and your role as the Alpha male.

Of course, just telling you to keep these points in mind isn’t much help. In the next chapter we will start showing you how to use all of these communication skills effectively. Unless your dog has some severe psychological problems, he wants to be a good dog. He wants to have a strong leader, and he wants to feel secure in his position in the pack. Since you have removed him from his original pack, his mother and siblings, it is going to be up to you to establish a new pack and show your dog where he fits in.

The best way to do that is to simulate the actions that the Alpha male takes by combining all of the nuances of body language, voice, touching, and scents. The more of these you use at the same time, the more your dog will understand what you are trying to convey to him. Earlier I said that your dog may test you to see if you deserve to remain in the Alpha role. He may also test you to see if you are really serious about what you are trying to train him to do. Repetition is one of the keys to successfully training your dog. Not only does repetition reinforce the desired behavior modification, but it shows the dog that you are drop-dead serious about having him do what you say when you say it.

As I’ve mentioned several times already, it is important to establish yourself as the Alpha male. And, as I also said, if you are going to be the Alpha male, you’d better act like one. During the time that your dog is in training, and from time-to-time throughout his life, he is going to exhibit negative behavior. After all, he’s only human, er, you know what I mean. If you’ve ever seen a mother dog correcting a puppy’s negative behavior, then I am sure that you have never seen her grab a rolled-up newspaper and whack her pup on the nose. Nor is it likely that you’ve seen her come up and kick her puppy or cause any real pain. Mom’s don’t hit puppies, and Alpha dogs don’t either.

When a submissive dog is being corrected by a dominant one, the dominant one generally dishes out a quick nip, or a snarl, or stands over the offender, looming large, and gives a sharp bark. This is the way that minor infractions are handled in the pack, and this is the way that you must discipline and correct your dog.

How to Bark

Since there is no advantage to hurling long sentences at your dog that he can’t understand anyway, a deep and throaty “NO”, of sufficient volume to get his attention, is as good as an Alpha male corrective bark as you will find. Add to this some positive body language enforcement, such as standing tall over your dog, and leaning slightly forward so you are towering over him, while making direct eye contact, and you’ve completed the correction with maximum effect.

You don’t need to belabor the point or extend the correction lesson. Alpha dogs don’t nag and go on and on when a pack member drops the ball, so you shouldn’t either. On the other hand, when giving your dog positive verbal reinforcement, using a higher, sing-song tone and a friendly “Good Dog”, combined with a less threatening body language, and a quick and gentle pat on the back, or top of the head, will convey the good news to your dog that he has pleased you. Remember to be consistent. If you start out barking and growling a “No” as your corrective “Bark”, the don’t constantly change it or vary it. He’ll get used to the “No” bark and he’ll begin to know exactly what it means. The same goes for the “Good Dog” bark.