Having Confidence for Your Dog

I do a lot of volunteering for Guide Dogs for the Blind. I raise puppies and I help the leaders with making sure the group is training their dogs how Guide Dogs wants them trained. A lot of what we do for Guide Dog training is much different from what I would do with a client’s dog, mostly because Guide Dogs work much more. What similarities there are between house pet and service dog training lie mostly in what is expected of the dog handler. What the leaders of the group look for in other members, what I look for in clients, and what dogs look for in people is confidence.

Confidence revolves around three things, three essential things that dog handlers need to have. Or at least fake having for the sake of their dog. Those three things are knowledge, posture, and ego.

When someone is knowledgeable about dog training it’s plain to see in how they perform. They know how to move their hands, how to use their body, what tone of voice to use, etc. This is the easiest point, I feel, in making a dog handler more confident. Reading books and watching dog training videos online, for example, are all easy ways to increase a dog handler’s ability to participate in training discussions. The dog handler can also practice more, gaining experience in dog handling. The main point about developing confidence through knowledge is that it is the factor a dog handler can control the most. There is very little to do with the unconscious because the dog handler is taking steps towards eliminating ignorance.

My second point, posture, could be seen as an extension of knowledge. Though I feel because of all the unconscious factors at play with a person’s body language, this point is its own hurdle. When I talk about confident body language with dogs it is actually quite comparable to confident body language with people. The biggest interview tip I’ve ever received was about handshakes. “How am I going to get hired with wet noodles for arms?” I was asked. Instantly I thought firmness was the way to go. And many smooth job interviews later, I’d say that’s right.

Now how do we transfer this to how we handle dogs? When I shake a client’s hand, I most certainly will not make either of our knuckles white from my grip. That’ll hurt us and then all my client will think about is that instance. That energy will be there the whole time. Imagine now, instead of your boss’s hand, it’s your dog’s leash. Your dog knows you’re squeezing the hell out of that leash and that the energy level is up in the clouds. And he’s going to respond with his energy level up in the clouds.

Let’s consider a very common posture that I’ve seen in every non-professional dog handler I’ve met: leaning over your dog. I see handlers bending at the hips for every command. This begs the question of why a handler does this to their dog. My explanation would be that they don’t believe their dog will do anything they ask unless they force their dog to do it. I feel this attitude stems from a very long history of dog training being about dominance and forcing a dog to do something.

Just try this with your dog. Teach your dog long stays easily with confidence. Instead of telling your dog to sit and stay with an angry voice, then creeping backwards with your hand out telling him to stay 8 or 9 times before he gets up and you run to him frantically, try telling him to sit and stay. Calmly say the command, calmly hold your hand out once, and calmly take 8 or 9 steps way. Don’t make eye contact, don’t talk, and hold your back and chin up. If he gets up, don’t talk, don’t run, just put him back where he was.

This is confidence through posture and it takes a lot to overcome our preconceived notions of how dogs want to interact. Take a moment to think about what body language you show and how it could be more effective.

The last point about showing confidence for your dog is understanding your own ego. A lot of handlers and owners get defensive about how their dog behaves. There are a lot of comments such as “he doesn’t do this at home” or “he knows better than to do that,” as though those are valid excuses for a dog’s behavior. What I see with comments like those is a handler who is not putting the dog first. They are comments from a handler who has put themself on a pedestal above the dog. This attitude takes no responsibility and in fact tries to absolve the handler of the dog’s actions.

The reality is that, outside of medical reasons, the handler is in control of the dog’s behavior and is in charge of maintaining it.

None of this is actually a problem until something bad happens. A child gets bit, a dog fight happens, or property gets destroyed. An ego is a good thing until it blinds you from taking care of your dog.

I was told when I first started training dogs at 14-years-old that “in order to make a good dog trainer, you have to be willing to make an ass of yourself.” This quote didn’t sink in until 6 years after I was told it. To me, it means doing whatever it takes to take care of and train your dog.  That means putting what you think is right on hold and changing that to what is right for the dog.

Now go out there and make asses of yourselves. Your dogs will be all the better for it.

Feel free to join in the discussion on here, on my Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/concentricdogtraining) or through email at michael@concentricdog.com