When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [83]
Most trainers no longer use the “alpha roll” as it is called, but many still advocate programs that stress assertion of “dominance” over the dog by making the dog feel uncomfortable, either mentally or physically. An easy-going dog will probably put up with this, but you can easily push a less forgiving or more frightened dog to the point where he will get fed up and bite you. As I said in the section on aggression, the first rule is that no one gets bitten, and anything that puts you and your dog in danger of conflict is an unnecessary and poor training choice for the average pet owner.
It is completely immaterial who goes through the gate first. The important thing is that your dog has been trained to wait politely for direction on either side of the gate.
The scientific definition of “dominant” is “in control of resources.” Dominant animals control access to food, water, and space. When your dog learns how to drive to the grocery store and buy dog food, you can start worrying about who is dominant in your house. Until then, just have fun training your dog and build a relationship based on cooperation instead of conflict.
Aside from the prospect of damaging your dog mentally and perhaps creating real defensive aggression, the overriding problem with dominance theory is that it prescribes voodoo-type rituals to establish, reinforce, or change dominance over the dog or between two dogs, rather than focusing on the actual behavior and taking training steps to change that behavior. By voodoo rituals, I mean things like, “always go through a doorway first” or “always eat your dinner first” or “never allow your dog to win at tug games” and so forth. By all means, you should train your dog to wait at the door until you release him, lie quietly in a down stay while you eat your dinner, and release a toy on cue. Those things, if trained without the use of aversives, will reinforce your position as the giver of all good things and teach your dogs that you control everything, so they need not try to get around you or squabble among themselves for resources. The path to resources is through you, and by doing what you like, not by “beating out” you or another animal in the household. There is nothing inherently educational for the dog if you just jam your way through the door first or actually put food in your mouth before they do because “you can’t let them win.”
I suspect that people cling to dominance theory like a life raft because they desperately want to believe that there is some way other than training to get their naughty Pigs Fly dogs to act like the nice, biddable ones. There are no magic wands or dances that you can do to transform your dog into a model pet. If you want to eliminate problem behaviors for good and keep you, your dog, and anyone else, no matter how small and weak, safe, you have to know your ABCs and train your dog to behave nicely.
I hope I have coaxed you to let go of thinking of your dog as unintelligent, untrainable, and having a bad attitude. Now you need to let go of thinking of your dog as dominant, too. Well, what is left, then? Just you, your dog, a clicker, and anything in the world you would like to teach him.
Why Bother?
Your Perfect Dog
Billy the Cattle Dog can be running dead out after a squirrel and all it takes is one word for him to snap around like a boomerang and race back towards me. Honestly, sometimes it is so fast I can’t actually see him turn—I just see him running away from me and then I see him running back towards me. He will stay with me all day off leash as I ride the tractor around the property and do chores. If