Natural Dog Training

The following is an excerpt from Kevin Behan's book, "Natural Dog Training":

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Our loyal friend the dog is totally misunderstood. As evidence, let's consider the state of affairs in this country as it concerns the dog.
On the one hand, the American dog has it better than perhaps any other dog in the world. A multi-billion dollar industry looks after his medical needs, his nutritional requirements, and his education; reflecting an intense committment of love, energy, and money that the American dog owner willingly invests in his pet. When we hear people say, "In my next life I'd like to come back as my dog", there is a wisp of truth to the statement as the life of the american dog is quite cushy. But, in stark contrast to such love, millions of physically healthy dogs are destroyed each year. Are our dogs at fault?
Clearly not and I think trainers and behaviorists would agree with me on this point. I've met tens of thousands of dogs in my life and can only recall a few which could be called unsound, and these rare misfits were the result of faulty breeding practices, once again the hand of man not the influence of nature. So it would seem that the smoking gun can be found in the hand of the dog owner. But a simple indictment of dog owners isn't warranted either, after all, upon their good intentions the dog industry is supported. Certainly most dog owners can't be accused of wanting anything less than the best for their pet. Dog food manufacturers recognize this demand as they compete to be recognized as purveyors of the finest and most premium of dog foods. Pet stores and catalogues keep pace as well, dazzling the canine consumer's insatiable desire for more equipment, accessories, and of course toys to keep "scruffy's" day joyful. Additionally, dog owners invest their time as well as their money in an effort to get their dog to behave properly; they buy books and consult experts. Nevertheless, few dogs are well trained or calmly adjusted to their owner's lifestyle and so the ranks of the unwanted swell yearly. Our animal shelters and dog pounds aren't overflowing with dogs ruined by outright abuse; normal dogs are being killed, and they have been discarded by average families because neither party could learn to get along over the simplest of domestic issues.
Given this wide gap between the best of intentions and the results we obtain, is there a uniform rule for success that the typical dog owner is ignoring?
If so, it's not apparent by surveying the informational marketplace on dogs and their behavior. When the American dog owner turns to the experts for help he has to sift through a dizzying blizzard of methods and theories about how to raise or train a dog. In the warehouse of training books, theories, and advice, there seems to be considerable disagreement in the basic formula. One book says, "love," the other says "dominate". One system of training will prescribe food as a positive inducement for learning and another will decry the use of food as tantamount to bribery, a wholly corrupting influence. Even within any one given method, an owner will find techniques which don't support the governing theory. For example, an expert may claim that dogs can be motivated to behave properly through a desire to please their owner, and yet this same trainer will then advocate the use of a crate in housetraining. Why has the crate now become a more reliable motivator for cleanliness than the supposed desire to please? Another book will state that a prong collar is cruel and inhumane, however if a dog is bad enough, the owner is advised to throw a can filled with marbles at him to make a hellish racket. I wonder what the dog's definition of cruelty might be in this matter. Another book suggests that making a dog submissive as a superior member of a wolf pack would do to an inferior, is the most positive way to engender respect from one's dog. But then in the later chapters, we read that pack leaders are destined to be violently deposed - and that fights over bones and status are commonplace; so why would we want to live in a wolfpack as a packleader? Besides, what wolf is expected to come on command when in full stride after a rabbit, to hang around the den, to admit strangers into his territory, or to tolerate a vet's exam?
Our national pattern of misunderstanding runs so deep that in addition to the yearly carnage of euthanasia; dog owners are advised to spay bitches at six months of age, to lop off a male dog's testicles, to give female hormones to aggressive dogs, to sedate rowdy dogs for behavioral problems, to remove the vocal chords in noisy dogs, and even to remove the canine teeth in some cases of aggression! How ironic that in a country given to endless romanticism and sentimentality about dogs, we fail to consider his whole being. It is as if we think of the dog as an appliance, and that we can pick and choose from a list of optional accessories to machine tool a dog precisely to our lifestyle. Besides, is this to be the height of understanding and knowledge that we should dare to strive for? What's the next high tech step, lobotomies for offensive dogs, or surgically hobble those dogs who might attempt to run away from home?
If this kind of confusion existed in the air industry - no one would fly. How would we feel as our jet is taxiing towards takeoff if we knew that the designers at Boeing, Lockheed, and McDonnell Douglas disagreed on the basic physics of flight? On a bumpy flight it's reassuring to know that there is a concensus among scientists on how planes fly and what they can fly through. So by comparison, what standard does the dog owner have to go on?
With so many conflicting messages, it isn't surprising that dog owners are confused, and out of misunderstanding we get misinterpretation, and finally, we end up with myth: dogs want to please, dogs need discipline, dogs roam to breed, dogs can turn on their masters, vicious dogs, stupid dogs, etc.. Being misinformed, the worst tendencies in handling can take root as it is so easy to lose faith in a dog if our view of him is based on an illusion.
Unfortunately science, at least in the popularized form that reaches us lay people, serves to perpetuate myth and deepen the gap between dog and owner. Because science can describe the genetic and hormormonal influence on behavior and the learning process, it is assummed that behavior and learning is understood. I beg to differ, behavior is a mysterious process and terms such as intelligence and instinct have been hackneyed into oblivion in their everyday use. Other terminology such as drive, emotion, feelings, dominance, submission, personality, temperament, character, disposition, "hyper", high strung, and the like, are bandied about without any overall coherency. In such an atmosphere of inconsistency, what can a dog be expected to learn from his human masters?
In an attempt to unify this discussion I'm going to be introducing many concepts which at first the reader might find difficult to accept. My ideas directly contradict more familiar ones which are currently in fashion. But don't let an initial sense of resistance distort my message. If you've bought this book then you're already determined to succeed with your dog or puppy. All you need now is dog sense.
There are two irresistable forces in our favor. First of all, Americans love dogs and that's a powerful ally. Secondly, there is a wealth of training talent available to the dog owning public which can get dog and owner back on the right track. My point is that these professionals and owners aren't speaking the right language to each other. The techniques which may indeed be effective, are driven by a native talent in the trainer, but they are couched in old, outdated frames of reference. So we have the paradox of the right techniques being housed in the wrong philosophy. Out of a love for the philosophy, many counterproductive techniques can coexist with effective ones and their downward weight goes undetected. Therefore, the trainer isn't able to correctly articulate the real reasons for his areas of success. The danger here is that an owner without an inner sense guiding him or the means of cultivating it, ends up with the wrong attitude. He may attempt to imitate the trainer, but he has only the explanations to go on and can never learn to understand the subtleties of a dog's learning process. He and his dog will never be on the same wavelength. My greatest hope is to redefine the discussion so that the public can start to appreciate the dog's point of view and then methods which don't work, can be painlessly discarded. Towards that goal, I would like to offer a much simpler model to account for the diverse and complex ways that dogs behave and learn.
First, we must recognize that everything a dog does, whether it is a simple or complex behavior, is emotional. There are many who might like to debate whether or not dogs have emotions and feelings, however, I'm going to assume that my reader has little problem with this concept and we needn't spend much time on the matter. It is plainly obvious that a dog is an emotional animal. In order for him to act; the mere feat of putting one paw in front of another, or the pricking of an ear towards a distant sound, requires the energizing effect of emotion. We witness these effects daily. Upon our return home, our pets bound with the joy of overwhelming ecstasy. The opposite, but equally emotional reaction of stress can be evoked by the prospect of a bath, a nail trimming, or a veterinarian's needle. If dogs didn't reflect our emotions and express their own, they couldn't have emerged to become man's best friend in the first place.
Secondly, we need to see that emotion is linked to instinct. A term such as instinct can sound a little intimidating at first. I've noticed that trainers and behaviorists tend to club questioners over the head with it. Why does my dog do this or that? one might ask: "Because it is an instinct", or, "it is survival of the fittest"; the discussion ends apparently to everyone's satisfaction. But there's no reason to be threatened or appeased by the clinical and scientific sound of the word. To call a behavior instinctive, the result of hormones, or influenced by genetics, is not the bottom line in our understanding of behavior. There is a reason why dogs snap, growl, chew, jump up, etc. beneath the biolgical and psychological processes and these underlying motivations are what the owner is groping for as he seeks answers. By merely explaining a dog's behavior by relating it to instinct and evolution does nothing to explain the dog's actions in any meaningful way. What is the dog's instinctive point of view - what is in his mind?
The basic function of an instinct is to provide a pathway through which emotion can flow, like a pipe carrying a stream of water. A dog has a distinct point of view based on whether or not his emotions are flowing through the "pipe". The next question for the dog, is how much water is moving along, the more being the merrier. We can recognize when a lot of water is flowing because the dog will be acting excitedly and experiencing pleasure. Conversely, when juice isn't circulating, the dog will be under pressure and will exhibit stressful or forceful reactions.
The interplay between emotion and instinct can get very complex, but it is always following a natural plan delivering unto us a dog which is born incomplete. His instincts make him a social being needing others of his own kind. On the lowest level, an instinct connects him to that which he needs to survive, and once connected, the dog becomes in balance. However, there is a much more profound aspect to behavior beyond mere survival. When emotion flows through instinct at full strength - the dog becomes whole.
Now since the dog descended from the wolf, and the wolf earns his living by killing, we will find that not surprisingly the prey instinct, the desire to chase and bite that which is moving, is the mainspring in the dog's internal mechanism. This means that the prey instinct is the faculty which can accomodate the full gush of an emotional outpouring. It's like the main pipe which brings water from the well to the house, or the high voltage line which transports electricty from the utility pole to the circuit panel in the basement. And even if your dog seemingly displays the predatory impulses of a couch potatoe, the mighty heart of an arctic carnivore roars somewhere in the deepest recess of his temperament. If you listen closely, you can hear its faint murmur. Understandably until you read the next few chapters, this connection may initially be hard to find. But if you step outside the traditional ways of looking at the dog, you'll notice that what leaves your dog feeling totally fulfilled are those times when his prey instinct is completely exercised rendering him emotionally exhausted. For your dog, this may mean a game of fetch, or putting a flock of geese to flight, or play-predator games with his dog buddies. Perhaps you've seen a hunting dog sacked out after a full day in the field. The glazed eyes, the tongue lazily and carelessly dangling from a slack jaw, indicate a mood of complete contentment. Fulfillment is the condition of wholeness. This is vital information to anyone interested in training or living with a dog because the prey instinct does more than fetch a meal, it puts the dog into harmony with anything or anyone which can lead him to the natural bliss of wholeness. The prey instinct does more than reinforce behavior, it determines the dog's perspective and range of responses. Its effects cannot be overstated as it is the agency through which the dog learns self-confidence and calmness or the negative counterparts, unsureness and anxiety. Everything that a dog feels, acts, and learns, everything that he is about, is due to the overwhelming influence the prey instinct has on the canine species.
We will be exploring this connection in great detail as we go on, but for now let me say that when this linkage is ignored, the dog cannot be trained in a manner consistent with his natural process of learning. He is destined to become stressed, and this nervousness in turn will activate defensive and survival instincts; reverting him to a state of near wildness! The key to success in raising or training of a dog is to know the rules by which the prey instinct influences a dog's emotions and behavior. It is virtually a mechanical process. This realization shouldn't diminish for a second the degree of affection we hold for our canine companions. The spirit of a dog, that essence towards which we are emotionally attracted and wish to befriend, is trapped within this instinctive mechanism. But by working with his wildness, we can truly set our dog free.

"Natural Dog Training", Kevin Behan's landmark book is currently back in production and will be available through Xlibris. com and other sources such as Amazon.com in late spring 2002. Please check back for more details.

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