Who is the "Leader of the Pack" in your home?

You or your pet?

It is vital for you to understand that your dog views all his interactions with other dogs, with you, and even with other animals in your household in the "pack" context. When a puppy is born, the first pack leader is his or her mother. From birth, puppies learn how to be cooperative members of a pack-oriented society. At about three or four months after they're weaned, they fall into the regular pack structure and take their cues from the pack leader, not their mother. In packs of wolves and wild dogs, the leader is often a male because the hormone testosterone - present in male puppies from the time they are very small - seems to be a cue to dominance behaviors.

Most dogs, like most humans, are born to be followers, not leaders. Being a pack leader isn't only about dominance, it's also about responsibility. If you wish to be the leader of your pack, you have great responsibilities to insure your pet knows his or her place in the pack. Let's start with a few basics and if you enjoy this article, wait till my book is finished!!!

1) Think like a dog

Consider a wolf pack to be a broad guide to dog behavior, but remember: Due to their many years of domestication, dogs have developed a different slant on their wolfish tendencies. "By domesticating the dog, we've made major changes." Now understand a dog's survival isn't in constant jeopardy like a wolf in the wild, so he doesn't need to adopt the wolf's rigorous pack system. However, dogs are still pack-oriented animals, and for many, separation from their pack is perceived to be a traumatic possibly life-threatening situation.

Your dogs definition of a pack can be highly flexible. His pack members might include you, your spouse, roommates, other family members, other dogs and other household pets - or it might not, depending on the dog and the dog may or may not see the humans in the household as his leaders.

A dog has four basic, instinctual reaction modes: prey, pack, fight or flight

1. Prey drive includes hunting and food gathering behaviors such as stalking moving objects, stealing and stashing food, and catching and "killing" toys.

2. Pack drive determines a dog's social needs. A highly social dog needs lots of interaction with people and other dogs, including petting, grooming, and playtime.

3. A high fight drive dog is extremely confident and will stand fast; he tends to be dominant. In addition to protecting his family and territory, the dog may also guard toys, food, and other valuable resources.

4. A high flight drive is at the other end of the scale, which means the dog has little confidence and doesn't handle new experiences with aplomb; he tends to be submissive. He may hide behind his person and dribble urine in scary or unfamiliar situations.

Each dog shows distinct and varying levels of these four drives and frequently switches back and forth depending on the situation. Some breeds naturally show more of one drive than another.

Proper choice of training collars

Let's now evaluate the different collars that are used by our company, and maybe we can help you find the right choice.

1) Prong training collar - I train dogs with prong collars. I tell all my clients that the use of this type of collar not only gets your training point across, but saves your dog a lot of throat damage from choke collars. There are very few dogs that I would not train with this type of collar.

The biggest problem with a prong collar is that most people do not know how to fit a dog correctly with this collar. Prong collars allow the owner to give a mild correction during training and gain complete control during training. Miracles can be achieved when this collar is used correctly.

2) Choke chain collar - This type of collar is the most popular and the one that does the most damage to your dog. See when you use the choke chain and go to give your dog a correction, the collar is designed to choke your dog. Repeated choking of your dog will cause panic and distress as well as lack of oxygen, which causes the dog a lot of pain and confusion. We never use a choke collar.

3) Flat collar - We use a flat collar after the dog is under complete control and when we teach protection work. When a dog is fully trained with the prong collar, then we move to the flat collar, then to off-leash training.

4) Electronic training collars - These are to be used only by a trained handler and I would never suggest using one without proper education.

5) Bark training collars are a safe and effective way to stop this very annoying habit. If you can not train your dog to stop barking, then your next choice is to seek a trainer or buy a bark training collar. We sell these types of collars. If you are local, we can help with a rental.

We offer all the above collars for sale. Visit our product page at www.mydogneedshelp.com and place your order today.

Training collar videos are available

specify also.

HOW TO PICK THE RIGHT BREED OF DOG FOR YOU

Many people come to us yelling “MY DOG NEEDS HELP!!!” because they did not research the breed of dog that would be best for them and their families. Here are 5 major points to follow when choosing your next dog.(If you already own a dog and are in love with that certain dog, more tips on how to retrain that dog will follow)

1. Ask yourself: “Why do I or we want or need a dog right now?”

• A companion for another dog?

• A guardian?

• An exercise partner?

• A pet for the kids?

• A best friend?

Once you have picked one of the above, we can start to focus on the breed of dog.

2. You need to research the breed of dog as well as the dog breeder or dog importer. If you choose dog adoption, try and research the dog you like beforehand. Place a hold on the dog until your research is done. We will do free research on any pure breed dog and email our report to you within 3-4 days. Or, if you are in the Harrisburg, York, or Lancaster, PA area we will be happy to examine the litter with you for a fee.

3. After you have completed steps 1 & 2, we now need to ask ourselves, “Can I provide adequate time and exercise and of course, training for my new pet?”

• What are the exercise requirements for the breed I have chosen? If you don’t exercise and active dog, the dog will bounce off the walls and drive you to yell, “MY DOG NEEDS HELP!”

• Is the breed you’ve chosen going to be able to exercise with you? Example: You are a runner and you have chosen a Chihuahua. This is not going to work very well.

• Not all breeds can be trained the same way. Your dog trainer must know the dog breed you have chosen. Why you chose that breed and what you expect from your dog training experience.

You have now considered why you want a new dog, the breed of dog you are considering and have thought through the time commitment for your new dog. We can now go to the next step:

4. Researching a breeder that deals with the dog you are interested in and also finding out when they will have pets ready for sale or adoption.

Next comes the final exciting step of this process!

5. Going to look at the dog or the litter to find that one special friend or maybe more. Not all puppies in a litter are the same. Here are some things to help you in your decision:

• All will have different activity levels, aggression levels, mobility levels and temperament levels.

• Spend time with the parents and observe them

• Talk to the owners about the puppies and how they interact amongst each other.

• Separate the one you think is the right one and see how the puppy or dog interacts without the rest of his pack.

Now this is the moment you have waited for. You have followed the steps and now you can choose with confidence the pet you first set out to find!