Dog training through Leadership | Competition and Pet Obedience

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Fair dog training methods - Boundaries through leadership

How one chooses to show leadership Dog training heel position - Alfred av Stavanger with Michele Hansen

varies greatly from dog trainer to dog trainer. Often what comes to mind when one thinks of showing a dog leadership, is the use of control through compulsion. In human society this form of control is shown through over bearing power; common to how a dictator rules. This form of training most certainly works for a variety of dogs. But not always shows the prettiest of pictures for sport obedience.

Judging dog sports is constantly evolving. The current trend leans toward rewarding the K9 team who show a harmonious picture while working together during competition. Only through fair leadership is a team able to develop a strong working relationship, necessary for the synergy to really come through on trial day.

To bring out the best in our dogs we show the dog leadership through boundaries rather than relying on compulsion alone. As an example we can take a look at a functional family. Children are shown leadership through good parenting. Some of us may remember the threat of the wooden spoon. It was very effective for controlling the children when they got out of line and it served a good purpose. However, what really kept day to day living at an optimum was a show of leadership through limits set by parents.

We should keep in mind that as handlers we show leadership by controlling what happens in our dog's daily life. We teach them boundaries just as we do in parenting. We tell them when they can eat, sleep, sit, stay, and play, etc.The same thing happens on the obedience field. We are leaders by our actions.

Teaching the dog boundaries through fair leadership We control the dog's environment by showing the dog boundaries. We basically tell the dog, "now you follow me, now you must sit, now you must down etc." Until finally we tell the dog, "you are such a good dog...now you can play!" Remember, we do have rules and when we say play is over the dog must go back to work. After all we are the leaders.

A caveat to this whole role of leadership concept is that we take advantage of it even further by working and breeding dogs that are from proven bloodlines that take leadership well.

They show a strong willingness to work, are strong in character and must be solid in nerves. Majority of our leadership is shown through teaching boundaries to the dog; but, not always. Our dogs must show resilience to a good old fashioned correction. Remember the wooden spoon? We have not thrown out what has worked for decades. But we have implemented new methods to bring an edge to the K-9 sport field.

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