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| Dogs Naturally Want to Obey Us |
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What Is Natural Dog Training?
There are three basic types of training now available for the owners of pet dogs: 1) The Pack Leader Model, 2) The Behavioral Science Model (or Positive Reinforcement), and 3) Natural Dog Training, which is based on the way working dogs (herding dogs, police dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, drug and bomb detection dogs, etc, etc.) are trained. These are among the most-obedient dogs on the planet, and they're all trained through games that stimulate and satisfy their hunting instincts.
Interestingly, it's actually a dog's group hunting instincts - inherited from wild wolves - which contain the genetic code for all the positive social behaviors we see in dogs. That's because wolves only form packs for the purpose of hunting large, dangerous prey animals by working together in a spirit of group cooperation. When you use Natural Dog Training techniques, that same natural cooperative impulse found when wolves hunt as a unit, is automatically triggered in your dog. After all, obedience training actually got its start as a way of imitating some of the predatory behaviors found in wild wolves*.
Knowing this, it only makes sense that whether your dog comes from herding stock, is a retriever, a pointer or setter, a terrier, or any other breed or type of dog, even a lovable rescue mutt like Hank (pictured, above left), the best way to train him would be by stimulating his hunting instincts and then getting him to focus all that natural energy on you and your commands.
Kevin Behan - who spent most of his life training dogs for police departments and local governments all over the Northeast - is the originator and inventor of these techniques. And he says that dogs need to know two basic things in order to be happy and well-behaved: "Am I safe ?" and "What do I do with my predatory energy?" By simply
answering those two primary concerns, and understanding that your dog
sees the world through his instincts and emotions -- not through dominance and submission or "What's in it for me?" - you can begin to have the kinds of
responsiveness and obedience that you desire and that your dog actually
wants to give you. That's one of the most important breakthroughs that the natural method gives us, the idea that dogs actually want to learn and are eager to obey us, it's
part of their cooperative nature as group predators. So dog training is no longer a choice between dominating a dog or bribing him to obey.
Obedience is part of every
dog's wild predatory heritage.
The other
important breakthrough is that listening to your dog is almost as
important as teaching him to listen to you. Training is a two-way street. Your dog will teach you as much as you teach him. All you have to do is tune in to his emotions.
So come join us in celebrating the true nature of the most social animal on the planet! The family dog!
*The "heel" approximates the way wolves walk together, side-by-side when searching for prey, as well as the way they move in-synch with large prey animals, like moose and elk, while chasing them. Another example is the "down/stay." It's based on what's called the "eye-stalk," where a wolf gets very low to the ground and remains perfectly still for long periods of time. Even "the recall" (coming when called) is based on the way the sight of a large prey animal running away from the wolf, causes him to run as fast as possible toward it.
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