The main thing to realize is that the real action isn’t in the head. The Big-Brain is fundamentally but one terminal in the body/mind as an emotional battery. There is something going on to be sure up there, but the main function of neurological activity in the Big-Brain is to put the individual into conflict. Conflict makes energy and the intensity of the energy accesses physical memory. A state of conflict accesses physical memory.

When a squirrel-chasing dog sees a squirrel, the first thing that happens is that it will perceive being knocked off balance, just as if its physical center-of-gravity has been suddenly displaced, just as if something has literally pushed it off center. This response was established via Pavlovian conditioning during its infant imprinting phase. As an infant pup every time its mother or litter mates moved it was knocked off balance and therefore for the rest of its life any change in its perceptual field equals a state of imbalance because it triggers this physical memory of change. The degree of displacement equals the force of attraction. The intensity of this force activates a specific layer of physical memory. A loss of equilibrium is energizing because it provokes neurological activity as neurons fire off, just like a battery being ionized by an electrical input of a charger.

So the dog is emotionally “charged” by this sudden ionizing event upon the sight of a squirrel and typically, because the mandate of balance is engaged but the little-brain-in-the-gut doesn’t yet have anything tangible to digest, Squirrel Dog’s body tenses up like a rope twisted tight.

If we could ask Squirrel Dog where exactly its sense of consciousness is centered in its body/mind, where is the absolute center of its “self,” Squirrel Dog would point to its head, as this is the epicenter of the intense pressure of energy, the physical memory of having fallen face forward because it was knocked over by something moving fast, or it was moving too fast and tumbled before it had mastered locomotion. The point in the dog’s body it references as the center of its consciousness is the basis of its mind and will determine the nature of its perception and range of likely responses. This center point determines the nature of the physical memory to be summoned up into awareness, and then what menu (electric=balance, magnetic=hunger, or electromagnetic=heart as wave) will be activated in order to deal with this memory. If we had to reduce what’s going on in Squirrel Dogs’ mind to a human concept in order to articulate what is going on inside its head at this point, Squirrel Dog would say “I am squirrel” because as far as it can know all of its attention is fixated on a squirrel and so this is the entire scope of its consciousness in this moment. A dog has no concept of its “self” relative to other points of view. It’s view of its “self” depends on what it wants and how it feels.

It is possible that a dog might reference its little-brain hunger circuitry as its center point and in this case it could be said to be “ionized” to the negative polarity (preyful) and in this mode it has energy to absorb. It will then perceive the situation as if what is going on inside its body is pulling an object of attraction toward it, even if the dog is actually moving toward something standing still. This is a virtual state of magnetism. But in the hypothetical example above with the typical squirrel-chasing-dog it is referencing its Big-Brain balance circuitry and so it is ionizing toward the positive (predator) polarity and has energy to give. It will thus perceive as if it is pushing energy out and this pushing impulse will be the basis of whatever it learns next. The balance circuitry is the electrical menu.

Sometimes in the beginning of a squirrel-chasing dog’s career, we notice its hackles raise and it might growl and then bark at the sight of a squirrel. This is a bio-mechanical response to relieve this electrical-like tension referenced above, a pushing out of energy, especially if it is unable for some reason to pursue the squirrel as when held back on lead or when afraid of first squirrel it ever saw. It is not trying to communicate to the squirrel; rather it is off/loading energy so as to restore its body to a sense of stability. In this sense it is in fact communicating energy and this can be adaptive because barking and getting excited tends to make prey run and then the dog can flip polarity to the hunger circuitry.

But for Squirrel Dog working from the balance circuitry, it is therefore pushing energy out by pushing itself away from the spot that is so destabilizing and running to squirrel as ground, terra firma. In contrast, notice how a cat stalks its prey. It is referencing its little-brain and going-by-pull. It is feeling that its focus on the prey from its little-brain hunger circuitry is pulling the mouse toward it, in other words it has imported the essence of the mouse into its hunger circuitry and is beginning to feel what the mouse is feeling and self-regulating because it is magnetized to the prey. It stalks very quietly and then waits until the mouse quite literally walks into its waiting jaws. However, when the gap between them closes to its critical distance, this feeling will collapse given that the prey is so near (and much bigger) and the only mechanism it has that can handle such energy is the striking instinct. This is also why when we excite our kitties too much, they are prone to claw, clench and bite us, but before doing so usually run away to push off from that spot. Since dogs have a much higher emotional capacity than cats, it is possible for them to flip polarities from positive to negative, even when near the prey and this capacity would be necessary to allow the feeling to elaborate into higher expressions, such as herding the prey rather than killing it, or listening to the owner rather than chasing the squirrel. Flipping polarities causes the dog to reference its heart. (We can also see that wolves in the hunt would differentiate along the hunger/balance ratio and so each would respond to large prey differently and in a coordinated, complementary way, some would be pushing, some would be pulling.)

The typical squirrel-chasing dog straining at the lead upon seeing a squirrel is completely in its head and is electric. Its emotional capacity is overwhelmed because it cannot reference its body and so it will respond to form of squirrel via instincts and habits. It cannot take input from its handler precisely because it is referencing its inner-ear balance circuitry and trying to push energy out. No matter what the handler does to the dog, even if the handler’s corrections make the dog submit, or if a food reward distracts the dog from the squirrel (which isn’t likely), if the handler doesn’t constitute the full “ground” for this energy, the need to get to the squirrel for grounding is merely being reinforced. The dog is going by the form of the squirrel and is unable to discern the subtle energetic essences of the squirrel let alone that this person shouting and jerking is its beloved human. Because the Big Brain is running the show, the dog isn’t feeling. The brain can’t feel a thing which is why gray matter can be operated on directly without anesthesia. Furthermore, the only thing tangible the little-brain is getting to digest is the tactile input from being jerked around, straining into the lead and digging into the ground, and so the dog learns that this is what hunting a squirrel feels like.

The interplay between intensity of the Big-Brain and the capacity of the little-brain to ground this intensity reveals an auto-tuning/feedback dynamic by which all interactions with the environment proceed, and thereby render the dog’s mind as a function of energy. Animals have a bipolar constitution because of a two brain makeup so as to implement the principle of emotional conductivity so that all learning factors out a networked-intelligence. The following is the logic loop that drives the network: The greater the degree of displacement: the stronger the force of attraction. The stronger the force of attraction: the greater the fear of falling. The greater the fear of falling: the stronger the urge for grounding. The greater the resistance to grounding: the stronger the Drive to make contact. The more resistance to the Drive to make contact, the more sexual/sensual energy is engendered by physical memory. The more sexual energy: the easier to flip polarity in order to connect with object of resistance.

Read more articles like this here on the natural dog training blog!

The Mind of Squirrel Dog is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog Get all of your Puppy Training Information Here!

In this article published by the BBC shows

And for good reason!

Puppy Mills take puppies and raise them in extremely cramped quarters.  Among other things, one extremely frustrating consequence of raising a puppy this way, is it robs the puppy of the opportunity for it’s mother to model the behavior of NOT pissing in it’s own bed.

Puppies raised in these tight quarters get used to peeing on themselves, and as a result are extremely difficult to every potty train, and some are NEVER able to master the habit.  I run into this problem a lot when I coach my clients on how to train a puppy, and one of the easiest ways to have a well trained dog is to make sure you don’t buy puppies from Puppy mills.

Dog breeders slam puppy farms is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog Get all of your Puppy Training Information Here!

So what you aren’t going to find in this article are any basic puppy obedience training tips like what to feed your puppy, how to potty train your puppy, or how to teach it to stay.  Those are all important topics that I cover in my Hands Off dog training course, so I’m not going to talk about them here.

Instead I thought I’d talk to you about something much more important.

But before I reveal three unconventional tips for training your Labradoodle puppy, I’d like to set the stage by asking you a simple question…

What Seeing a Crappy Doctor For a Sprained Toe,
Taught Me about Dog Training

How do you like it when you seek out an expert for their opinion, and they only tell you what you want to hear instead of what you NEED to hear?

You try to ask them intelligent questions, but sometimes you don’t know enough about the topic to even know what questions should be asked.

Most doctors are like this.

Take the doctor I recently went to see to check out my sprained toe, for example.

I’d been running on it a lot and it was really sore, like I’d strained it in someway.  So what does the doctor do?

He prescribes me some anti-inflammatory pain medication and tells me to stay off it for a while.

In this case, the doctor only addressed the specific problem I asked him about, and then tried to put a band aid over it.

One month later my toe was still sprained.  So I went to see another doctor or a second opinion.

This second Doctor was nothing like the first doctor.  Sure she listened to me complaining about my toe, and instead of prescribing me pain meds, she started searching for what caused my toe to be sprained in the first place.

She looked at the bone structure in my foot, noticed it was all out of whack, adjusted the foot back to the way it was supposed to be.  Then she explained to me that it’s common for the bodies foot structure to break down when the digestive system isn’t working correctly.

So sure enough, she checks my enzyme and bacterial levels of my stomach and discovers I am out of whack… and advices me that taking two herbal remedies should fix the problem in less then a month.

And she was right!

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know Either!

So why do I tell you this crazy story about my doctor visits for a sprained toe?

Because I’m afraid that in your search for information on how to train your Labradoodle, that you’ll make the same problem I made with my first doctor.

You’ll only get answers from people who answer your specific question, instead of answers from people who’ll dig deeper and tell you the answers to questions you NEEDED to know, but didn’t know to even ask.

So that’s why I’ve decided to write this article on…

3 Puppy Training Techniques You Must Know

Rarely Talked About Method #1: The Nothing In Life is Free Principle

The reason I’ve listed The Nothing In Life is Free Principle first, is because it can set a stronger foundation for your Labradoodle then you ever realized was possible.

Your Dog Interprets Much Of His World Through Wolf Eyes

The reason why it’s such an effective principle is because it allows you to talk to your dog’s CORE; that part of your dog that has been genetically inherited from hundreds and hundreds of years of captive breeding.

You see, whether you like it or not, your Labradoodle’s original ancestors were wolves.  And the genetic characteristics that have kept wolves alive for so many generations are embedded into your dog’s brain at some level.

Some have more, and some have less, but they’re still there on some level.

These genetic traits affect the way your Labradoodle looks at his world, and how he interprets it.

They cause your Labradoodle to make judgments of you that you don’t even realize are happening.

Your Labradoodle is assessing how you answer the door, how you feed him his food, and where you let him sleep and giving you a daily leadership grade that you probably never knew he was giving.

How good a “Leadership Grade” your dog gives you on a daily basis, effects in large part, how easy your dog will mind and obey your commands.

I give an in depth presentation that covers dozens of methods for how to get a better leadership score from your dog in my Emotion Training for Dogs program, but for time constraints here’s a good rule of thumb to follow.

Make your Labradoodle EARN
everything he wants in his life!

Make Your Dog Work For Life's Little Comforts

The more your dog realizes that everything he wants needs to be received from you, your children, and the members of your family, the less likely he is to develop behavior problems like aggression.

Start asking your dog to sit before you pet him.  Make him wait for permission before coming running out the front door.  Train him to lay on a bed before he can greet strangers that come in your home.  And my favorite… train him that the ONLY way to get table scraps is if he lays on a mat throughout the entire time your family is eating a meal at your dinner table!

By making your dog ask for permission for everything he wants in his life, you are setting a framework up in your dog’s brain where he’ll be much more willing to listen and obey your commands.

Rarely Talked About Method #2: Beware of “Emotional Charging”

You’ll almost never hear the concept of Emotional Charging talked about, but paying attention to this principle at an early stage in your Labradoodle’s life will make him soooo much calmer to live with.

Here’s how this principle works:  It is a FACT that you can trigger your dog to feel an emotion on cue.

Dogs Have Been Trained To Feel Hungry When A Bell Is Rung

The famous Pavlov experiments proved this, where Dr. Pavlov trained dogs to salivate on cue at the sound of a bell, even though NO food was present… basically training them to feel hungry.

Pavlov’s experiments are incredibly popular and almost everybody knows of them, but what nobody talks about is how we might accidentally train our dogs to feel negative emotions on cue.

You see, all that is required to train a dog to *feel* an emotion on cue is to consistently present your dog a signal of any kind, right before he feels the emotion.

If you think about it, us humans are no different either. For most of us, if you want to trigger us to feel nervous, simply tell us that we’re going to be stepping onto a stage and giving a public presentation within 24 hours. Our bodies will physically start to change at this news. Our heart rates will increase, we’ll sweat more, or brain will become less aware of our surroundings and more focused on internal thoughts etc.

Or in a more positive light, think about how Children behave the day or two before Christmas.

A Child's Excitment Is a Perfect Example Of Training Emotions

Children aren’t born with that intense excitement for opening presents on Christmas morning, it was emotionally programmed into them. And if for some crazy reason your kids hated Christmas, all you’d have to do is make sure they got everything they wanted on their lists for a few years in a row, and they’d like Christmas again. (I realize that might not possible for most of our budgets, but you get the principle)

So really, we all believe emotions can be programmed. You’ve witnessed it hundreds of times, you’ve just never taken the time to realize how to use it in a more constructive way.

The mistake that most of us make with emotions is that we let them be programmed into ourselves, and our pets automatically, without realizing that we have control over that programming.

Here’s an example…

If You’re Wondering Why Your Dog’s Hyper,
You Wanna Try Looking In The Mirror

For many dogs, people are exciting.

When a new person comes to your door, your dog stands a good chance of getting his butt rubbed, being pet, or at least some attention, right?

For many dogs, they get so worked up and excited that they have to be put outside when strangers come over, because they are simply too out of control.

But let’s look at why this is?

New people coming over is a lot like Christmas is to young children.  It’s an opportunity to get something it really wants.

Cute Puppies Can Easily Get The Wrong Kind Of Attention

And let’s face it, what person coming over to your home could resist your cute little Labrador puppy?

Your Puppies “Cute Factor” Works Against Him

Because strangers are always coming over and doting on how cute a puppy is, it conditions most dogs to get excited to see new people.

If left unchecked, the excitement that builds up inside your dog becomes so strong that he can’t control it.

Think Kids who get so excited for Christmas presents they start misbehaving.

In order to fix this behavior, you need to break this habit of strangers doting on your pup.  Remember the Nothing in Life is Free Principle?  It applies here as well.

What I recommend to my clients is that the first skill they should train their dog is not sit, stay or come… but to go lay on his mat.  And I recommend that this behavior is the behavior that require their young puppy to do when people come over.

If you’ll cue your dog to go lay on his mat and stay there when new people come over, it allows him to practice self control away from the people who come to your home, instead of getting worked up and doted on at your feet.

I recommend you train your dog to continue to lay on his mat, until your guests are situated before allowing your dog off his mat to mingle with guests.

If you can, try to help your guests ask your pup to sit before doting on them.  They might think you’re a bit of an anal dog owner, but as your dog ages, you’ll have people telling you how lucky you are to have a dog with such self control when he automatically sits in front of guests calmly… and only you and I will know LUCK had nothing to do with it

If you’d like a free video on how to teach a puppy to go to his mat go here:

Free Train Your Dog To Go To His Mat Video

Rarely Talked About Method #3: Increasing your Dog’s Social IQ

Does Your Dog Follow Dog to Dog Social Rules?

The final concept I wanted to talk to you about is vital, yet ignored by many.  I call it, Increasing your Dog’s Social IQ.

I took this concept from a wonderful book called, Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. The book was written for humans who wanted to improve their ability to get along with others.

The key concept that Daniel Goleman brings up in his book is that some people seem to have the ability to read extremely subtle facial cues of the people they interact with.  And the better you can read others’ facial cues, the easier it is for you to make friends and feel comfortable around other people.

I believe that this same concept holds true for dogs, and that their is a window of opportunity for you to teach this to your dog that will determine how Social your dog will be around other dogs.  Of course it’s not the only thing, but I believe it is a crucial skill that you need to focus on.

Teaching Your Dog To Read
Other Dog’s Body Language

The key to teaching your dog to effectively read the body language of other dogs is simple.  So simple that you might just pass over it and think it doesn’t matter.  Do that at your own peril.

The best way to teach your dog to effectively and accurately read the body language of other dogs is to make sure that you only allow him to interact with other dogs who have a hi Social IQ.

I personally did this by finding a local doggy day care that pre-screened dogs as social or un-social for being allowed into their doggy day care.

This particular facility would have about 30 pre-screened Hi social IQ dogs at a time.  And they let them all out to play in a pen with each other.  If a dog started a problem with another dog, it was removed from the group and isolated into a pen by itself.

This created an environment where I could bring my young puppy at the age of 11 weeks and let him play with these other dogs.  This allowed my dog to learn from the pack, and develop a Hi social IQ, where he can read the emotions of another dog at a distance and know if that dog wants to play, or wants to be left alone.

This allowed my dog to learn all the proper dog etiquette from dogs who already knew it!

Your Dog Can ONLY Learn
This From Other Dogs!

You can’t teach this to your dog, he needs to learn it from other GOOD dogs.

And to show you how effective this method is I’ll end with this story…

I was at the park playing fetch with my dog.  The park was HUGE and there were two other dogs there as well.

My dog was off leash and free to roam, so when he spotted the first dog he ran off to play with her at a dead sprint.

Both dogs were sprinting full speed at each other as if they’d rehearsed it for months, both dogs stopping on a dime to say hello with a butt sniff… then proceeded to play happily with each other.

I didn’t think anything of it then, until my dog spotted the OTHER dog on the other side of the park who had managed to break away from his owners leash and had also taken off at a full sprint towards my dog.

Thinking this dog wanted to play too, my pup took off towards the new dog just like the first, at a full sprint.

But instead of stopping on a dime close enough to sniff the new dogs butt.  My dog sensed something was different and came to a dead halt 20 yards from the other dog, where both dogs stared at each other.

My dog was somehow able to read the body language of this dog and know that it should not be messed with… turned around and left.

Now I don’t know how that situation might have turned out if my dog hadn’t stopped, but I’m guessing a fight would have broken out, and potentially gotten one of the dogs hurt.

Something was obviously conveyed in that dog’s body language that no amount of training could have taught my dog to see, besides LOTS of exposure to good dogs who could teach him how to read other dog’s body language, and I’m darn thankful I’d put him in an environment where he could learn it.

Here’s hoping this information helps you tremendously!

If you’re looking for additional information on the courses I provide for training perfect puppies you can read more about them here:

Hands Off Dog Training for Obedience or…

Emotion Training 4 Over reactive Dogs

3 Little-Known Tips for Training a Labradoodle Puppy is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog Get all of your Puppy Training Information Here!

Victoria hosts the radio show over their called Bite Size Cooking, and she’d recently used my “Hands Off Dog Training Course” to raise her dog perfectly, and wanted to share her story with me.

Of course I accepted, and have recorded the interview for you below:

If you’ve got a puppy or are thinking about getting a puppy and want to raise it right from the start, you need to listen to this.

Then make sure you hop on over to my site and pick up a copy of my Hands Off Dog training course.

You can get it here:
http://www.thedogtrainingsecret.com/tips

Australian Radio Host Uses “Hands Off” Method To Raise Perfect Puppy is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog Get all of your Puppy Training Information Here!