The foundation to any relationship should always be built on trust and respect. Trust and respect go both ways in a human/canine relationship! Your companion needs to know that you have their best interest in mind. Trust and respect go hand and hand when dealing with behaviors as well. Without these two building blocks, you will NOT have a healthy or reliable relationship

Dogs heavily associate memories with emotions and feelings. From positive to negative, the impact is imprinted in their memory. Any negative feeling can have a remarkable impact with memory association ( you tend to see this with shelter dogs that have had an abusive or negative past ). The simple tone of your voice and the posture you have when communicating with your dog can make the difference between learning and intimidating. There is absolutely No need to ever posture up on a dog or try to intimidate. This is pure bullying. NO ONE LIKES A BULLY!

The speed of how we approach our companions with our hands and body also makes a difference on how they feel and comprehend what we are doing. If you are trying to influence calmer behaviors in a dog, use calm and soothing praise and gestures. If you are trying to get more energy out of the dog you are handling, then you can bring out that inner cheer leader voice and bring the excitement out!

The 3 main keys we must use when communicating are Emotional Energy, Mental Energy and Physical Energy!

“First, you make habits, then those habits will make you!”

Dogs learn through repetition and consistency. By constantly showing your companion the undesired behavior and the desired behavior, there will be balance in the learning process. Without balance, a dog will only get confused and be pushed further away from your goal. Some undesired behaviors take more time to eliminate than others, be patient and keep your heart in it!

Be very sensitive to your emotions and how your communicating with your companion. Keep in mind that our dogs pick up on our physical senses, our body language and our tone of voice. If you get fearful or anxious yourself, your dog can sense this and it could be enough to make him/her uncomfortable. 

Balanced Dog Training methods and techniques can be an extremely great and humane way of training and communicating. BALANCE being very important in all aspects! A lot of Balanced Dog Trainers like to say “90% Praise and 10% corrections” but the concept and goal is to out weigh your corrections with praise and reward! You, as the handler and leader, must start out by always influencing and guiding your companion to show them what it is you are asking, before an effective “correct” can be made. It is unfair to expect your companion to comply if they have no idea what you are asking or looking for out of them.

By influencing and guiding first, our dogs will get the consistency and repetition they need to learn.

RESET. REDIRECT. PRAISE.