Have you ever wished you had more control of your dog?

Do you wish he didn’t get overly excited for visitors, constantly barking when they come to the door, or jumping on them when they come inside your home?

Do you wish he would always listen to you… even when he’s heavily distracted or excited?

What if I told you if you changed just one thing in your dog’s life, you’d have a more manageable dog who behaves himself ALL the time.

Would you want to know what to change?

Let me explain…

You see, every animal in this world comes from a long genetic background that heavily influences how the animal thinks.  Some animals have evolved to be self sufficient and can survive on their own; where an animal like a dog isn’t genetically coded to do well on it’s own.

Dog’s live in packs.

And centuries of breeding and evolving have given dogs the tools they need to stay alive in a pack situation.  They’ve learned skills like:

How to tell what dog in the pack calls the shots

Who’s going to lead the hunting party for food tonight

Social skills at reading their pack members moods

When to leave certain dogs alone.

So thousands of years of breeding has taught your dog a thing or two about the best ways to stay alive in this world and maintain order in a pack situation.  In a VERY real sense this skill set is a “Pack Language” and…

… all dog’s know THIS “Pack Language”

And one of the most IMPORTANT principals of the “Pack Language” that your dog is genetically programmed to follow, is the concept of following, obeying & respecting the leader of the pack.

So here’s the deal… all dogs get confused when their humans, (YOU) don’t ALSO know and understand at least a little bit of this Pack language.

And if you don’t make an attempt to learn a few words and concepts of this “Pack Language” you’re probably going to run into some problems controlling your dog.

Because you’ll be sending him mixed signals!

You’ll try to use HUMAN words to get him to do things, instead of using “Pack Language” words, behaviors and mannerisms to get obedience.

Here’s a few examples of what I mean…

Example #1) The leaders of a dog pack all sleep together, while the puppies and other dog’s do NOT.  So just the act of letting your dog crawl in bed with you every night to you means that you’re being nice to your dog…

… but in “Pack Language” it means he’s a pack leader too

Example #2) In the wild, a hunting party of Wolves (where all dog’s originally came from) will let the leader of the pack lead the hunting party.

He runs at the front of the pack.

So if you’re letting your dog walk through a door, or always pull on the leash, in “Pack Language” you’re sending a VERY clear message to your dog that he’s the one running the show… NOT you.

Example #3) One of the roles of a leader of the pack is to protect the pack from danger.  He protects the packs territory, and scares off or attacks intruders.

So when your dog is barking, snarling, or growling at intruders, in Pack language you’re letting him take on the role of the leader of the pack by LETTING him PROTECT your home.

And the REAL problem is…

That by letting your dog be the LEADER of your home, he automatically behaves more defiantly.  Leaders lead, they don’t follow orders from others.

So what can you do with your dog to start regaining the leadership role in your home, get your dog to let go of his leadership roles and finally let you take the reigns?

What I recommend to most of my clients, and the strategy that seems to help transfer leadership of your home BACK to you and away from your dog is teaching your dog “there is no such thing as a free lunch”.

And I call this the “No Free Lunch Plan”

What is a No Free Lunch Plan?

It means that VERY literally, for your dog to get ANYTHING it wants it has to earn it.

If it wants to go outside it has to learn that it CAN go play outside, and even get extra rewards and play time outside… but only if he waits at the door UNTIL you give him permission to go outside.

It means that in order to go to the bathroom he has to ask you if he can go outside by rining a bell.

If he wants to be pet, he has to sit or lay down first.

It means that you shouldn’t let your dog have access to a full food bowl all day long… instead he should have feeding times, and he should have to sit, or hold a stay or perform some other type of behavior to earn the right to eat.

I realize this may sound a bit more disciplinarian that you might like, or be comfortable with.

You might not want your dog to be handled this way.

You may like being able to greet an excited dog by giving him a hug, or kissing his face or wrestling with him.  You may think it’s mean to leave him hungry and not have food all day.

But you NEED to remember that your dog does NOT speak ENGLISH as a 2nd language.  He speaks “Pack Language”… and he’s not really good at learning new languages, especially ours.

So we need to get better at learning their languages.

We need to start realizing that dogs will either treat you as a pack leader or they’ll BECOME the pack leader.  And you can either leave this to chance, or you can take active steps to determine which kind of dog yours will be.

You’ll find that some dogs will let you take charge easily, while others will be more defiant.

But just be observant.

Watch for your dog taking the leadership role.

And do your BEST to learn how to stop these behaviors before they start. And of course, you could start learning how to do this in my Hands Off Dog Training Program:

Hands Off Dog Training Program

Hope You Found This Helpful!

Happy Training,

Chet Womach

I’m thinking about releasing one of two different advanced video coaching/consulting programs for you this January, and I’d like to get your feedback on whether or not they’re something your interested in, and would like to participate in.

The programs are going to be specifically geared towards getting your dog to:

1. Greet ANY stranger in a friendly manner — whether out in public or at your front door
2. Training your dog to sit calmly every time you or friends go to pet him
3. Behave Perfectly on walks, whether on or off leash… and completely stop pulling
4. How to walk your dog through a crowd of people and maintain complete control
5. How to stay sitting or laying down in one place when you REALLY need him to
6. Strategies for getting him to come WHENEVER he’s called… no matter how much he doesn’t want to
7. Training drills to teach your dog to be NICE to other dogs
8. How to get your dog to pay attention to you… and NEVER get distracted… even in chaotic environments
9. Plus strategies for teaching your dog to behave himself in your home when you are NOT there.

I’m REALLY wanting to make this program HIGHLY interactive.  So I’m thinking about making the format of this program webinar based (where I do an interactive coaching call once a week on each of the above topics), and then do a follow up call to answer your questions a few days later.

And to spice it up a bit, I’m wanting to not just answer your questions via email, or over the phone, but send you a free video camera (like the new $130 Flip Video Cameras) so you can video tape yourself working with your dog, easily upload it to YouTube, and that way I can watch you practicing with your dog and offer individual pointers for your dog’s unique situation… instead of just general advice.

Ideally I’d like to get a group of about 50 dog owners who would want to commit to working with me for 6-8 weeks in a way where we could all share our videos with each other and learn from each others mistakes and successes.  So all of the dogs can perfectly pass the obedience objectives I listed above.

So if this sounds interesting… please leave me a comment below to let me know if it’s something you’d like me to move forward with, and if it’s something you’d be willing to pay for.  Along with anything else you’d like me to add to the program that I haven’t mentioned.

Do you like the idea of sharing video with me for a critique?

Do you have 30 minutes a week to commit to a 6-8 week program?

And are you comfortable with uploading to YouTube?

Would you like me to target this at dogs under 2 years old or OVER?

Any feedback you have on this idea would be appreciated

3 Steps for Teaching Puppies
What NOT To Chew On

If you’d like to learn the specific training routines ALL puppies

should go through to learn how to NOT chew on things he shouldn’t, you can find those lessons in this training program: Hands Off Dog Training Formula

Today I’d like to introduce you to a concept that I don’t hear anyone else talking about for how to get your dog to stop his destructive chewing.

I call this dog chewing concept: “Cataloging Chewables”

What lots of dog owners don’t realize is that over a 90 day time span you can help your dog build a mental catalog of all the items in your house that he is ALLOWED to chew on… … plus a list of all the items he’s NOT allowed to chew on.

You have to realize that to your dog… a creatures who’s natural instinct is to chew on things… that it would be VERY hard to be able to tell the difference between chewing on something you allow him to chew on like a rawhide bone; and something you don’t want him chewing on like your expensive leather shoes.

Or what about the difference between a ‘Stuffing Filled’ plush toy, or down pillow? Or a rubber Kong toy, and the rubber on the bottom of your tennis shoes. You can see how this can be hard for a dog to figure out.

And the technique that most people try to use to fix this behavior is simply a ‘reactive’ behavior. If they see the dog chewing on a shoe they yell at the dog or swat the dog.

So picture what that must be like for the dog who doesn’t really understand the difference between leather shoes and rawhide bones. Or the difference between down pillows and stuffed plush dog toys.

The dog thinks both objects are basically the same… and can’t tell the difference in the beginning between two similar objects… and on top of that, so he often times just doesn’t understand why he gets swatted or yelled at for chewing on something sometimes, and NOT in trouble other times.

All your dog thinks is that you are VERY inconsistent… and he wishes you wouldn’t yell at him randomly like you do for no reason at all

If you doubt what I’m telling you here, and you think your dog really can tell the difference between similar good and bad chew toys, let me tell you a story that helped me finally believe this concept.

How To REALLY Train Dog’s To
Discriminate The Difference Between Objects

I had just ordered a new Advanced dog training DVD and it was talking about how to teach your dog what is called ‘Object Discrimination’… or how to train a dog to bring back an object to you that you call by name.

In this drill the end goal was to be able to place three very different objects out on the floor each a few feet away from each other; call the object by name and have the dog bring that object back to you.

First the DVD talked about how to train an animal to bring one object back when it was sitting by itself… which was fairly easy for my dog Bauer to learn how to do.

But then they had me put 2 different objects out on the floor and it was MUCH more difficult for Bauer to figure out which object to bring back.

I had to call an object multiple times until he brought the right one back, and then give him a treat for doing so. Then I’d call the other object and only reward him when he brought that one back.

And the most amazing part was watching the dog try to figure out how to do the task right. You could literally see the wheels turning in his little brain.

He was constantly experimenting with different possible solutions for getting a treat. First he tried bringing back the toy he last brought me, then he tried alternating between which toy he brought me.

He’d try only bringing back toys on the right, and then only toys on the left.

And it took several days for him to figure out the names of the toys and what I was trying to get him to do.

And I share this story with you to help you realize how much harder it is than YOU realize for a dog to tell the difference between different objects. And how unrealistic it can be to just expect your dog to know the difference without some conscious training effort.

So what you need to start doing is take the next 90 days and start teaching your dog and help build up a mental Catalog in his mind of all the objects it’s OK to chew on and all the ones it’s not OK to chew on.

How do you do this?

Dog's need to practice resisting the urge to have things they want

Step 1) First teach your dog the “Leave it” command like I show you how to teach in my Hands Off Dog Training program with my then little Golden Retriever puppy. As well as the Drop It command.

Teaching your dog to “Leave it” is NOW going to be your way to tell your dog to NOT touch something. And the training process of teaching him to Drop It automatically instills in your dog a realization that when he obeys your command he get’s rewarded.

Step 2) Once your dog will willingly leave an object he was chewing on alone or drop it from his mouth, you now need to give him a reward.

And the best type of reward in this situation is a reward that satisfies his chewing urges… and more specifically you want to give him a toy with his preferred texture of chewiness at that time.

So how I taught my dog to stop chewing on rubber shoes, was first tell him to “Drop it” or “Leave it” when I saw him chewing on a shoe… which he would eagerly do, because he knows he get’s rewarded for that.

Then I would grab an appropriate rubber dog toy that I thought might be similar in texture, walk it over to him, remove the rubber soled shoe from his environment and place the rubber toy in his mouth, and tell him he was a good dog for chewing on the ‘Appropriate’ chew toy.

If you’ll do this consistently, and always tell your dog to leave certain objects alone, and always replace them with an appropriate ‘Chewable’ object, your dog will start to develop a mental catalog of

all the items it’s OK to chew on in your house, and leave the NON ‘Chewable’ objects completely alone.

And if you’re interested in learning about all the ways to put this principle of Cataloging Chewables into action, like how to do it when you aren’t home, and how to do it when you can’t see your dog, then I highly recommend picking up a copy of my Hands Off Dog Training Formula program.

Hope that helps, and please send me any questions or feedback you have so I can answer your questions or share your success story with other subscribers to this newsletter!

Articles About More Traditional Techniques:

How to Stop Puppy Chewing | Only Dogs and Cats – Do and Don’t training your puppy stop chewing. Use puppy or dog toys.

Ten Tips to Stop Puppy Chewing Before Your House Looks Like a … – You can’t stop puppy chewing by punishing him for something he did several hours ago. Dogs live in the present. Your pup can’t connect the fact that he chewed up your shoe two hours ago with your being upset now that you’ve just found …