Dear Old Trainer: I thought I read that you said you never hit your dogs, but in your column on barking you said to hit the dog on the muzzle. Will you please clear that up?
Confused, Houston, Texas
A: If you will go back and read the column, Confused, you will see that The Old Trainer said you should TAP your dog on the muzzle when he refuses to pay attention to you, not hit him.
The dog in question had developed the habit of barking endlessly and refused to pay any attention to the owner. Breaking a bad habit is harder than any other part of training. The secret when you are in this situation is that you must force the dog to look at you and pay attention to you instead of his desire to engage in the harmful habit.
Most of the time, whacking your leg with a newspaper makes a loud enough sound that the dog stops what he is doing and looks at you. If that does not work you tap him -- TAP him, not hit him -- on the muzzle. That will get his attention and you can proceed, step by step, through the instruction.
Dogs do not mind being disciplined by the leader of the pack. It is part of canine psychology to expect that the leader will enforce his orders. The leader of any canine pack does what he has to in order to get the attention of the members of the pack. If you do not do the same thing -- and getting the dog's attention is the most important step in conveying the order -- he will enforce his own pack discipline on you. Just what the barking dog in that column was doing.
All trainers have determined which tactic works the best for them. The Dog Whisperer jerks on the leash and makes a hissing sound. It makes no difference what you do as long as the dog stops what he is doing and pays attention to you.
When he does, it breaks the psychological linkage that is part of the habit, at least for a moment. That moment is when constructive training can occur.
Dog show review
The Old Trainer and his pack of five border collies watched both nights of the Westminster Kennel Dog Show and the dogs outperformed the handlers by a wide margin.
The herding class, judged by a Hefty Lady in a costume right out of a Harry Potter movie, is the only one that the pack cares about. All the border collies looked exactly alike, and none of them looked like a border collie is supposed to look.
Maybe that is why none of them made it to the "best of show" final group.
A Scottie won that one, but the real news was that he and his handler set a new record for Dog Multiple of Handler (DMH), a formula that determines how many of the dogs it would take to weigh as much as the handler. A Scottie weighs 20 pounds, meaning the DMH was an astounding 21.
TOT and his pack have one question: When will the authorities step in and put a stop to the insane haircuts that owners insist on inflicting on the noble poodle? What madness drives these people?
Congratulations to the genius who came up with the idea of having all the commercials feature dogs. The pack enjoyed that more than the show.
Pack Rating: Four Paws Up (low score because judges dissed Border Collies).
Send questions for The Old Trainer to: theoldtrainer711@yahoo.com.
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