It is one thing to have a dog, it is another thing to understand or gel with your dog.

Good work cannot happen if there is a gap in focus, orientation, language, or intention. This is a fact.

And what it comes down to is accepting your dogs energy. In other words it is learning how to work with your dog instead of against your dog.

If you talk to a seasoned surfer they will tell you that you won’t ever really ‘get it’ or be good at surfing until you accept the waves energy. You can pause on that for as long as you like, sometimes people know what this means immediately, and others, well it takes a life time.

This topic is actually a full day workshop that I give, so here is the cliff note version to give you a sampling. And I might add, you have to be honest with yourself, and answer as things are today, good, bad, or indifferent, because if you answer with who you wish you were as your dogs trainer, or who you wish your dog was, you will continue to perpetuate the problems that you are having.

You can do this little check-in with yourself and your dogs about every 6 months or so to see how you are morphing as a Team, growing, regressing, or just changing a little here and there.

NOTE TO TRAINERS – Your results will be different with each dog you work with as you need to adjust your energy and focus. Accepting the energy of each dog you work with takes shifting emotional space, and over time happens without even needing to think about it, because the timid dog will require you to work one way, while the pushy adolescent dog will require you to work another way, and so on. Accepting the energy that stands in front of you.

Let’s get started –

YOUR DOG

1 – What is your dogs orientation? – person – dog – object
2 – What is your dogs energy level? – low – medium – high
3 – Choose three adjectives to describe your dog. You are not limited to these choices – pushy – timid – shy – happy – joyful – stoic – purposeful – affectionate – curious – inquisitive – biddable – aloof – lazy – compulsive – intense – confused …

YOU AS YOUR DOGS TRAINER

1 – What is your focus? – family pet – working dog – competition dog
2 – What is your energy level? – low – medium – high
3 – Choose three adjectives to describe yourself as your dogs trainer. You are not limited to these choices – pushy – permissive – persistent – resilient – kind – stern – static – lazy – curious – inquisitive – fun – corrective – purposeful – forgiving – shy – concerned – apprehensive – go-getter – keen …

So to show you how this works I will use my one dog Rhumb Line and myself.

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DOG – RHUMB LINE
1 – OBJECT
2 – HIGH
3 – PERSISTENT, PURPOSEFUL, BIDDABLE

OWNER – NANCY
1 – WORKING DOG
2 – HIGH
3 – PUSHY, PURPOSEFUL, KIND

Rhumb and I are a perfect fit with focus, purpose, energy, orientation, and who we are as individuals. I accept her energy for who she is, and her energy matches mine. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it happens to be mine.

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Now I will put in my information and a random dog whose name will be ‘ABC’

DOG – ABC 
1 – DOG
2 – LOW
3 – SERIOUS, ALOOF, PUSHY

OWNER – NANCY
1 – WORKING DOG
2 – HIGH
3 – PUSHY, PURPOSEFUL, KIND

This would be the wrong fit for me, unless I choose to accept the energy of this dog, and learn to work with this dog and not against against this dog. Patience, patience, patience.

Because this dog is not people oriented, prefers dogs, has low energy for work, and is not biddable, it would take a giant shift on my part to create an environment for learning that also had structure. I would most likely start with working outdoors, in a more natural environment, that was structured and managed, fresh air and sunshine are helpful. And I would bring HIGH value rewards, like steak, meatballs, cooked fish, etc. NOTE – not a dog park, but rather a fenced in pasture, field, or yard.

I would need to have less expectations to start with, be patient, have purpose and a plan, a tremendous amount of structure, and to build value in me as a trainer with a reward that the dog perceives as rewarding. I wouldn’t go to a dog park, but rather choose a dog to come play at my home so I could be there and part of the occasion. I would make sure that I spent twice as much time working with my dog, slowly but surely, as my dog had with other dogs. I would find the exercise that matched my dogs motivational level, and find the room in the house that my dog enjoyed the most to start working on behaviors that were good for both of us.

There would be A LOT of work in this pairing, but when meeting and accepting energy, it really doesn’t feel like work, but rather a relationship in motion.

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Now, I will put in Rhumb Line and a random owner and the name will be ‘XYZ’.

DOG – RHUMB LINE
1 – OBJECT
2 – HIGH
3 – PERSISTENT, PURPOSEFUL, BIDDABLE

OWNER – XYZ
1 – FAMILY PET
2 – LOW (MEDIUM ON THE WEEKENDS)
3 – PERMISSIVE, CONCERNED, FORGIVING

This is not a good match, this is a bad match, very bad, and oh so common, I see this nearly every week. A high powered working dog that wants to work and comes with an incredible level of persistence, in a home with an owner that is permissive in training/management, concerned about the dogs behavior, and forgiving of all that goes wrong, a little or a lot.

This is a household that will be hijacked by the dog, and there will be frustration, misunderstanding, tension, bigger and bigger behaviors, and usually an event.

Unless the owner is willing to shift a whole awful lot, change their daily landscape, beef-up structure in the home, manage space and resources, learn how to work their dog, and create a lot more time for appropriate work and outlets for work, nothing good will come from this.

This pairing is what I call a ‘life style’ change relationship, nothing will remain the same if this is to work out. And sometimes people do rise to the occasion, and sometimes they fold, I can never tell who will do what, a bit of a mystery.

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So a cliff note version, but hopefully it helps in some way to bring even an inkling of understanding that accepting your dogs energy is the only way for good things to happen. Nancy