Through Secret Portals & Passageways
I'm always telling my dog training students and clients that dog communication comes from the inside of you- not the outside. What I mean by that is animals are much more responsive to our thoughts and feelings than we give them credit for. If you've ever owned an aggressive dog and feel a sense of nervousness before your dog attacks, you know what I'm talking about. If you hand over the leash to a different person, you may find him not to be as aggressive because that person was feeling calm and relaxed.
Everyone is always amazed when I take a dog (whom I've never met) and get him or her to sit, lie down and submit to me without saying a word. I do this because I'm communicating effectively and directly- from my gut. If I make myself feel dominant on the inside, using my energy, the dog submits. If I think and feel a dog to do something, they usually will.
The power that you hold within side of you is a direct portal to animal communication. This along with body language, is instinctual and at the very core, the most natural way to get your dog to understand what you're asking of them.
Humans are very much affected by thoughts, feelings and energy too. We all know what it feels like to have someone invade our personal space or get a gut feeling that something isn't right. The problem is that people nowadays operate so much from the outside that they forget the power of knowing and feeling from the inside. I've always known I was going to be a great dog trainer so that's just what it is. There are no doubts because it's a feeling and feelings are from the gut and your gut creates your reality.
Dogs operate this way. Fido may be faced with a situation and uses a feeling associated with that to set the stage for their behavior in the environment. This is how you can spot a true alpha dog. An alpha will never get in a fight because they don't have to. Their energy is enough to communicate to the rest of the pack members that they're in charge- without a doubt- Don't mess with the alpha dog. That's just how it is.
Recently, I was up at Mission: Wolf and I was talking to the owners about horse mimicry and how natural horsemanship relates to the dog & wolf. The idea of touching an animal and backing off is prey related. Once you back off, they come forward. This is how we train protection dogs. I will be in their space but then retreat quickly having caused more reaction to my moving away. So what if we went beyond dogs, cats, horses and other domestic animals… A researcher not too long ago tried to do this on a deer in the wilderness and it worked. There is a lot to be said about horse mimicry & movement and it's use on other animals.
If you copy a dog's movement (i.e.: dog runs, you run along side, dog stops, you stop with it) but then take it to the next level- Dog runs, you run. Dog stops, you stop and then retreat- dog follows.
There's a lot that goes on in a dog's secret language and we've only just been able to scratch the surface. More insight is being gained everyday but just think about how dogs are alerting patients to on-coming seizures. They talk without talking. Their last form of communication is the bark. Humans use too many words to their dogs. Why are we constantly trying to get them to understand our language and not even try to understand theirs?
I've solved many more problems by non-verbal communication than acting like a human. Who's the smart one around here? If you asked me, it would always be the canine- not the guy holding onto the end of the leash. Stop talking and start communicating effectively with your animals- from your gut… They'll thank you for it!