Thanks to our readers, the Natural Dog Training site is full of fantastic questions and interesting scenarios. We are continuing to develop the site in order to nurture this dynamic, growing community, and hope to provide more and more resources to improve your learning experiences with NDT. At the moment, we realize that there are often questions or comments that don’t quite have a place within the articles, and so we’ve created this post for that exact purpose.
Please feel free to come here and leave a comment about your experiences, a question about your dog’s behavior, something that you’re stuck on, or something you’ve accomplished. In short, if you’re going through the site, and have something to say that doesn’t quite fit elsewhere – this is the place! We hope this will make your reading experience a little easier, and we’ll continue to develop the tools you need to Keep on Pushing!
~ The NDT Team
The Selbach family dog, Athos
I wasn’t sure where to post this, it is just some questions and comments about the theory that I am trying to understand better.
If there is a preyful essence (unformed energy) within every animal, then mustn’t there also be a predatory essence (pure unformed energy) within every animal, so that the animal can “sense” themselves on a prey-predator continuum?
So in a group like a wolf pack, the most “dominant” individual might not be able to sense its own preyful energy much if at all, while the most “submissive” individual would most sense that energy within itself. Those two animals would be polar opposite in terms of the “compass face,” but would actually be most alike in terms of the amount of unresolved emotion (stress) they would accrue outside of the hunt (and would release the most energy when aligned in a hunt). Life in a pack for the submissive one would be stressful for obvious reasons, but I imagine the dominant one would also be similarly stressed, because if it can’t sense its own preyful essence, it is not going to be able to access its own hunger circuitry, and it is therefore going to have to use BB to invent the most personality in social contexts (or else eat its own kind, which is not socially acceptable even among wolves). So in every social encounter except a hunt it will be left with more unresolved emotion than was released, making it most driven to connect with and ingest the actual prey. I can see how this would work out well for all the social predators except people.
In our social groups, “predatory essence” is generally labeled bad, as in a moral sense. I don’t think that is the case (but it is rightly frowned upon (unless you’re in Corporate America or politics) to “hunt” others solely for their prey value). We say people have “consciences,” which more and more I’m thinking is in most cases simply a sense of one’s own preyful essence, and that is how people feel what others feel, which is the mind-body (little brain) fashioning an automatic guide for actions – below the level of thinking. I also am thinking that in some cases BB is Nature’s way of containing predatory energy (unformed energy coming before form). When the BB invents a personality, that is also the mind-body fashioning a conscience. So even though the person might not feel as if he has one, he does, as no matter how it arises (LB or BB), if it is actually all just a function of energy.
I also had a question about how to calm a dog down around new dogs after they have been bitten. I almost had a heart attack a few days ago at the dog park when a dog walked up to Happy then promptly snarled and bit him in the face. The owner didn’t seem too fazed, didn’t say much of anything in fact. This is a good place for dog playdates, too.
The later in a dog’s life he gets whupped by another dog, the more specific the lesson. So Hessian was attacked by a dog when he was seven years old and he learned it was that dog in that context and in that place that was dangerous. Five minutes later it was as if it never happened. So Happy’s old enough so he will most likely discriminate to the specific particulars of the incident rather than generalize to other dogs. That said, you’ll have to ground out the energy with bite work so that the charge goes path of highest resistance (human handler) rather than lesser resistance, (other dogs). If these things aren’t chronic, and since there’s no such thing as bad energy, it will only deepen his feeling of attraction to owner. However, we need to protect our dogs from other dogs so I’m not a big fan of dog parks. It’s only a matter of time until you run into a dog infected with “the charge” and it gets passed along to your dog. My wife calls it “H.I.V.” (Hidden Inner Violence).
“H.I.V.” (Hidden Inner Violence)
Will definitely have to remember that one. 🙂
haha !one of my dogs has HIV. although there must be some untoward behaviour by the other dog that triggers it, it is often soooo small you cannot see it.
a small lifting of the lip. the wrong type of eye contact whatever. something HIV dog finds disrespectful or makes them act defensively or puts them into resource guarding mode.
toys food and owners are typical resources that must be guarded. if another dog gets to close, snarl and quick bite to throat or face as a warning.
if Happy does not try to fight back the instances of HIV will be short lived. if he backs off the other dog will also do so if my dog’s behaviour is any indication.
he is likely go unscathed.
after all he is not going to be dragged around by the throat with all that weight on him
every time my HIV dog becomes angry with a foreign dog, by force of my or my husband’s supervisory inadequacy, my little dog starts biting HIV dog in the behind. (accessible since only HIVs front is engaged with foreign dog)
i have always wondered why might that be ? anyone here have an idea ?
distracting HIV dog to break up the fight ?
Happy wasn’t hurt but I am concerned that his threshold has now been overloaded from the pressure of “the charge”. He definitely has a big bite on him, so as far as dog parks go I might worry more for the other dogs than about him. Recent training (or lack thereof) has led me to believe that if he was put in a position to have to choose between Owner as path (a rubber chicken) and another dog, he’s going to bite the other dog. There are two separate issues there though – the fear issue, which I am going to use my imagination and have fun with training so he will be able to come anywhere with me, and the fighting issue, which sounds like it is hard to resolve.
Heather, the fear (which I’m only assuming manifests as some kind of panic) and aggression aren’t two seperate issues so much as they are two aspects of the same issue, which is that fear underlies Happy’s entire perception of reality. When Happy is acting fearful (whatever degree of panic that is, from avoidance or “friendliness” to a full-blown panic attack) it’s because he feels out of control. He percieves other dogs as a way to resolve that fear which is why he’s triggered by them. The act of biting releases him from fear, which is why getting his bite out is so important.
Has the topic of dogs and doorbells been covered on the NDT site? I’m curious because I know that many dogs, including my own, go crazy when that doorbell rings. I can be upstairs in my room with my dog, and when the doorbell rings, he abruptly perks up, and then charges downstairs in a barking fury to the door. What’s going on in the mind of a doorbell dog? Can it be described in terms of output, input? The doorbell is this massive surge of energetic input, and the dog barks and runs as a means of discharging.
How would you advise to both solve this problem, and to avoid it to begin with?
Thanks
Another question I have is about the phenomenon of “surplus killing.” I’ve read some interesting stuff about the tendency for wolves to engage in this practice, where they kill way more prey animals than they need. It often occurs with livestock and poultry. I’m wondering if you are familiar with this phenomenon, and what your energetic explanation of it would be.
That’s a good instance of prey instinct as sheer reflex triggered by rapid flight motion. Another way of saying it is that the intense fear of the prey attracts the intense fear within the predator and so can induce a frenzy kind of state that is easily resolved by biting. Whereas I can visualize wolves culling an elk from the herd and then feasting on its carcass while the rest of the herd meanders on by after the dust has settled. Their intensity is fully grounded in the fight and the amount of resistance it took to subdue the prey.
It’s good that dogs bark at doorbell etc., but if they get frenzied, then this is pent up energy coming out because this is the only time the dog feels free to let it out. If it is at frenzy level, it is hard to control or calm, and another way of saying this is that the emotional bond between dog and owner can’t conduct that degree of intensity to ground. So you have to get a good push from dog while doorbell is being rung, then you have to objectify the dog’s sense of space by training to stay on box near door while folks come in and out, and then outside in yard, dog would rather play with tug/toy and owner when someone is at the door. Also speak on command toward the handler when someone is at the door. This will ground the energy and now the owner is able to calm the dog to someone at the door after having been alerted by the dog’s bark.
Thanks Donnie! I am going to get back to more bite work with Happy now.
Kevin, Once the visitor is ready to come inside the house, I assume the dog has to go to its place until it’s released/given permission to sniff, lick, etc. I need to try this with visitors, but with Happy I’ll make him wait for me to walk around the house and come back a few times before releasing him from a stay.
interesting discussion on fear/fight/flight/bite….this helps with insights into my own dog’s motivations. Minky is generally very social and tolerant but occasionally too much input/energy has triggered a big offload on another dog which is scary & mortifying but when the dogs were separated I could see no one had taken any damage – it was more a bark and spit exchange. Still… not good.
Mink was beat up quite a bit as a young pup(under 6 months old) by the other two dogs I had at that time (older dogs that have since died). So this is some deep trauma and even tho NDT has helped me to help him get more fluid and flexible and soft, there is still that deep fear. Right now it is hard for me to do work with Mink – I am just out of hospital with abdominal surgery and not even supposed to walk the dogs. Definitely no tug.
SO… on Sunday I had the 2 dogs playing in my yard (way out in the country, usually no one comes by)when 2 walkers and a yellow lab came by. My 2 ran out to this dog and then there was a fight between Mink and the yellow lab (my other dog, bassett-lab female was running around barking). I ran, I separated the dogs, and dragged my dog away from the yellow lab’s male owner who was frenziedly kicking my dog in the head and ribs, and parked Mink in his crate inside, then went out to look at the other dog – and catch Mercedes. The yellow lab was shaking but not hurt, not even a scratch, thank dog. I talked with these folks soothingly for some time. The lady said the yellow lab had been attacked three or four times by other dogs in the past and had lately turned on its erstwhile “best friend” (dog – not human) during a play date. So, at least the whole incident started to make some sense : 2 dogs with fear aggression reflecting each other’s fear.
Then I went in my house and checked on Minky. Whoops. Well, he had 8 deep puncture wounds on his ears, head and muzzle and a big deep tear from corner his eye to his jowl.
Needless to say, I am now back to walking my dogs. Minky seems metally ok, tho I know there is more stuff jammed deep down. I would talk more about this incident, but i am discouraged and tired.
At the moment you’re dealing with a handler error because Minky’s still got an unresolved charge so it’s too bad he was in that position. But remember, there is no such thing as bad energy. Minky now has even more energy in his system than he can process, but how you respond to this energy will change how Minky responds to this. It was a handling error, not intentional, an unconscious gap, and now you can resolve to attract this deeper energy in Minky. The opportunity now exists to have even more energy at your disposal and able to help the dog. Being discouraged is a judgment against that much energy, it’s understandable, but give yourself the chance to choose to attract this energy, capture it, and then channel it. In the meantime you have to protect the dog from situations he doesn’t yet have the capacity to handle. Keep On Pushing!
Right, have a designated waiting place, then the stranger can approach and give dog a treat if all is cool, and then twenty minutes later dog can be released to circulate calmly.
Sylvia, I hope Minky is OK. Two fearful dogs triggering each others’ “emotional batteries,” all you can really do is damage control, and you did great at that. Some days it just helps to know that there are other people out there pouring themselves (er, gulping) a big glass of wine after their dog puts them through the emotional wringer.
Thanks for the doorbell question and scenarios. Happy is just starting to bark at the doorbell; he’s 17 months old. My problem is that visitors drive up to the gate to the yard instead of circling back to the front door, and if they open the gate when Happy is outside, by the time I get there, he has pushed his nose between the person’s legs and is proceeding to lean his full weight against them, which is great for dog people but it’s the non-dog people in a frenzy at that point. When I can tell that someone is really uncomfortable, I try to distract Happy and quickly get the person inside, so Happy doesn’t come inside too. So it’s good to have samples of different training sequences in writing – I have lots of work to do on different issues.
Amen to that sister! lol My Duncan is so overwhelming in his greetings still. I’m going over some of LCKs posts and am finding them quite helpful. I think integrating his suggestions should be fairly easy and doable.
I had a similarly discouraging incident as Sylvia did with my Cholula recently. She has shown many signs of improvement–pushing in our yard with more and more energy, and when I am prepared, she is now mostly willing to jump on me and take food when we come across another dog on a walk, things she never would do when I first got her becauase of her intense focus/anxiety on the other dog. But last week I was walking her around the block with my other dog and had just seen a fire in a neighbor’s front yard — completely distracted by that, I didn’t notice another dog approaching us on the sidewalk until we were very close and when the owner of the other dog moved into the street after seeing Cholula start to freak, Cholula pulled, and her pinch collar, which had not been fastened right, came off her, and she ran the other dog down in the street and attacked it. SO TERRIFYING and DISCOURAGING! Fortunately, the other owner was quite heroic and basically lifted 70 pound Cholula into the air off his dog and threw her towards me, at which point she came back and neither dog was hurt. Since then, she has still been pushing well –but clearly, we have quite a ways to go until she is actually stable around another dog. Kevin, I was hoping you would be willing to elaborate a little on HOW to harness higher energy released by this type of set back. Also, Cholula had stopped being willing to play tug of war with me for the last few weeks, I’m not sure if I overdid it with her or what, but finally last night, with new tug toys, she briefly played with me again and I would appreciate any advice on how to be careful to encourage the continuation of the tug of war and avoid causing her to avoid it again.
I experienced something very cool with my dogs and another dog that I am curious about.
Another BC same age as my oldest, 2, who we often see on our walks on the trails. Have since she was a puppy. She is a hyper silly overly friendly kind of dog. She plays fetch, but has never returned the ball or stick. She will run out after it, pick it up and run about twenty feet back with it and drop it. The owner, who adores her walks a distance to the ball, sometimes an entire field and throws again.
So a year and 1/2 or so and we have started to walk with them if we see them. The dogs get along just fine, though my two pay her very little attention.
So we’re in a big field and I am throwing sticks for my two and Molly, the other dog is running between them and after them and diving her nose into mole holes as usual. Her owner will occasionally throw one for her and she does the usual run out, pick it up and drop it very quickly out in the field. Then I notice something. Suddenly Molly has found her way into my dogs’ loop. It’s more that I can feel it. My dogs and I have a circle that we operate in. I throw stick, Colt and Bea run out, Colt gets the stick drops it for Bea and she brings it in to me. We do this about a hundred times in a week of trail walking, sometimes the pattern changes, but we are all joined up if you know what I mean. We are a unit. Other dogs travel with us sporadically, but they travel outside this field of energy with a few exceptions.
Well suddenly I can feel that Molly is on the same wavelength. She is no longer haphazard, she is tuned into my dogs and her body is moving with more grace and purpose. She comes in to me as I pick up a stick and I look at her and say Molly go and I throw it for her. I tell my two to wait, Molly runs out, gets the stick and runs it almost all the way back to me. As I see her about to stop I stoop a bit, inviting and run backwards a couple of steps. She flies to me, I grab the stick, we tug a bit, she lets go and I throw again. This time I throw another one as well and tell the other two they can go too, but I throw Molly’s so she can reach it first. She picks it up and brings it all the way back and drops it at my feet waiting for the next one.
We, me and the three BC’s play with a few sticks for the next five minutes or so and I suggest her owner throw and lo and behold she brings it right back to him. First time in two years.
What happened? What did I feel when I felt her come into our group in a different way? Why did Molly shift her energy? Did it happen to her by accident? She got with my dogs first, then I drew her into me when I saw/felt that. I have never seen her look so focussed. She is a very willy nilly dog. It was so cool and my dogs felt it too because they stopped ignoring her and made space for her to pick up the stick and her to return it and drop it etc. just like they do for each other.
Met them a few days later and Molly is still returning sticks.
I think this is a wonderful example of removing a block in that dog by immersing it in a “field” (a group is a virtual magnetic field wherein emotion is conducting freely) and once the dog felt that flow, it could finally complete a connection and now it doesn’t want to go back into the old box.
Chrystal…Thank you so much for sharing. That is a Way Kewl experience!♥ Talk about being in the flow; how nice for you. Someday we’ll all be there and able to interact in a similar fashion (humans & animals); communicating via the “pure language”. ♫♪…I’m a believer…not a trace of doubt in my mind!♪♫
Well that is interesting to me. My good friend and I have used horses to help other horses through things as in choosing a horse who is grounded around a certain event and then engaging in that event with an uncertain horse near by and then having the uncertain horse engage in the event. This has worked really well and very quickly in most instances. I suppose that is what was going on there.
This was a first for me with dogs and I have never felt the energy so clearly. It just zinged me when Molly came close. She felt like my two and it was very strong, no splatting of energy every which way. I love BC’s when they are in their zone for this very reason. Ninja dogs.
This gets me thinking more about dogs and healing. Other dogs and people.
You know I have two other very cool stories about dogs on that trail system. I have to say that if I had not found NDT these things wouldn’t have occurred. I wouldn’t have known what was happening when opportunity presented itself. I have had four people on those trails in the past six mos. ask me if I train and when I answered no they asked me if I would consider it with their dogs.
If I lived close to Kevin and had access to mentoring I would take up their offers in a second.
Hey, how about a story thread? Where we can post things that have happened with our dogs and others because of NDT. Now there would be a positive blast to clear that recent negativity.
Christine, I like your vision and I am finding myself more and more able with animals for some unbeknownst to me reason.
That will be a happy day for dogs when we humans start thinking like this. Keep On Pushing!
Crystal, I like your story thread idea…Kevin, how about it? Is it possible to open a new thread for Happy Tails or some such? Only positive stories/comments allowed! ♥♥♥
Awesome stories Crystal. It’s amazing how much shifts when you embrace NDT, isn’t it?
The thing I really like about this story is how little actually had to change to see a huge shift in the dog. That little bit of preyful energy goes a long way 🙂
Thinking about three dogs I have interacted with on that trail while being conscious of NDT principles and the changes that happened in brief encounters I would say the biggest change is how playful and present these dogs have become. Not just with me, but with their owners too. A fellow I walk with pretty regularly mentioned this very thing to me about two of them. He actually said the owners have become more playful too.
This work goes so deep, so fast. Hey Christine I feel a song coming on, “Straight from the Heart”. Where DID you get those wonderful little musical notes?
Crystal, why not consider a second (or third) career? It sounds you like you’re moving in that direction…
LCK
Crystal the song notes are key strokes… alt+13 and alt+14… ♪♫
And I agree with you Crystal about the mentoring thing. I not unusual when I’m out n’ about with The Puppers for people to ask if I’m a trainer and not a few of my friends, family and workmates will ask for help/suggestions. It’s my own little back-burner dream and I keep the embers alive…ya know, just in case!♥
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827921.900-border-collie-takes-record-for-biggest-vocabulary.html
Interesting story about a border collie that can recognize 1022 objects by name. It’s also fascinating the dog can recognize toys by type instead of name. It’d be cool to get Kevin’s take on this and how this works through an energy model.
sow…I had an interesting experience when out walking The Puppers this weekend. Bodie lost his blaze orange scarf and I had no idea where to look for it so I was wondering around trying to spot it w/out success. Bodie comes back around to me so I asked him where he dropped his scarf cuz I couldn’t find it. He promptly went over to where his scarf was and stuck his nose on it. I kid you not‼ 8-D
Lee, you’re so funny!!
Ben, my oldest BC can fetch specific toys from the yard. Doesn’t always get it right, but most times. He’s one of those dogs who seems to understand english in general.
Christine re: notes, not on my computer 🙁
Seriously?‼ Hmmmm…perhaps I should’ve provided more detailed instructions. You hold the Alt button while simultaneously hitting the numbers 1 and then 3 (or 1 and then 4). A quick release of all keys seems to be important in getting it to work right. Try it again. There is an online page where these can be found; I’ll post it for you if I can find it again!
Crystal says:
December 22, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Lee, you’re so funny!!
Actually, I’m serious. That’s how I got started. People in my neighborhood started asking me if I trained dogs, and could I work with theirs, etc.
Finally, one day, I said yes. And looked what happened!
LCK
Kevin,
Did you see this Psychology Today article…”You Growl Like a Big Dog: Dogs Can Estimate Size From Vocal Sound?” http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201012/you-growl-big-dog-dogs-can-estimate-size-vocal-sound
The article states that dogs shown a picture of a small dog, and a picture of a large dog, will look at the large dog when hearing a deeper growl. I’d like to hear an NDT explanation of these results.
It seems that the deep growl is predatory and that therefore they would attribute it to the more predatory larger dog. This would be based off their emotional batteries.
I thought it was interesting that when shown triangles, dogs “flicked their eyes to the left.” In the absence of predatory images, they are perhaps emotionally concocting/looking for one in their peripherals?
But why do they look to the left when shown cats? Wouldn’t they be able to attribute predatory aspect in the cat?
Thanks to your citation I just read it. And I agree that deep growl is more predatory as high pitched sounds are more preyful. So as you can note, when a dog growls you feel it first in your heart(this is where collapses of a frame of reference first begin), and then it can radiate down into your gut depending on the level of stress induced, hence, how deep it penetrates into the body/mind as an emotional battery.
I haven’t arrived at a firm understanding of “left-or right-handedness” so to speak about a dog’s tail and gaze orientation, but I know that molecules are left or right handed so that the atoms can be exactly the same in two molecules, but the chemical bonds have different angles and so one is a nutrient whereas the other is a deadly toxin. So as more evidence becomes available, I’m going to use that basic architecture of nature as a means for comprehending why dogs look left or right in various contexts. I think it will prove to be very interesting and rewarding avenue of investigation. Thanks for the heads up.
Actually, I meant to make a larger point as well. And again, it’s hard to interpret these experiments based on the copy presented. If I hadn’t been in the Harvard Lab myself, I never would have seen that dog lean to its left on the first instance of a projected image on a screen, and thereafter not do so since the vividness of the trigger immediately dissipated, and I think this subtle little behavior is the key to interpreting all the data generated by the whole experimental project. So for example in this case, it’s interesting to me that a dog would notice a triangle on a screen, so I would like to look deeper into this because certain kinds of dogs do look at tv screens and others don’t.
But the larger point that I’d like to make about this experiment is that it serves as another testimonial that dogs aren’t capable of a theory of mind. If a dog were to know that a deeper growl means a bigger dog and is aware of how such a deep growl makes it feel, and if it is capable of a theory of mind, why wouldn’t some little dogs learn to fake it, or when a big dog is stressed out and only capable of a whine, why wouldn’t it fake a deep growl as a bluff, since again, deception is seen by the mainstream as one of the key elements in theory of mind construction?
I like the way you think and question, it just feels ‘right’.
“Hope is not the conviction that somethng will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” ~ Vaclav Havel
I have hope in NDT ♥
I was watching several Dog Whisperer videos on food aggression, and in the episodes Cesar crowds the dogs space, provoking growling, but eventual “submission.” My question is…when the dog stops growling and moves away or avoids…what is he/she experiencing? Cesar’s predatory energy is triggering a level of the emotional battery. But as he crowds the dog more and more, their reaction should only increase. Instead, many eventually give up. Is the bottommost level of the battery avoidance or a state of paralysis? Has he triggered something beyond the battery?
Also, I noticed they almost all lie down in the end. Is this the last desperate attempt to maintain balance..keeping closest to the ground? I also noticed all their tails are the same…a hook/arc shape heading downward and coming out. I saw this with many of the dogs I trained with dominance in the past, and I just always knew it meant bad, bad things. It triggered my battery. I would just look at them and think, “Man, you are not having a good time right now.”
What’s happening is that yes, he’s triggering their battery and because their focus is on the food, they eventually regress into their puppy-hood memories due to intensity, hence they lay down and indeed because it is the easiest way to maintain balance. Interestingly they may even soften since there is an obvious object in the exercise, the food, as opposed to this being an outright exercise of dominance. His approach actually contravenes the dominance model rather than confirming it, and the tucked tail means he’s driving it into avoidance rather than giving the dog an appropriate way to achieve success as an alternative to being defensive over food. But the real problem is why does the dog need to pick a fight over the food, food guarding is just an instinctual excuse, it’s not the real source of the problem.
Kevin
Thank you. Thanks to you and your style of training, I finally feel I am truly understanding what I am seeing in my dogs. I have owned Siberian Huskies since the mid 1980’s, and have found due to the particular idiosyncrasies of the breed, that none of the standard training methods, in particular the Alpha Dominance method, work or make sense. After all how can you be a pack leader at the front of a team pulling a sled!
It is interesting how the Siberian Husky is never used on any of the training programmes, or if it is, they are always in front of the trainer.
Can you explain what is really going on with a team of huskies pulling a sled – is it the prey drive sending the dogs forward or are the team running from the Musher who they perceive as the predator? After all when the trail is finished the dogs have just run and had no “kill” at the end and the Musher is licked by the dogs not attacked as a final defence against the predator that has been chasing them. – Milo (Hampshire in England, U.K)
Thanks for posing the question so incisively. The breed has a strong physical nature, a craving for tactile sensual contact, (note the sled dogs and the polar bears on that famous video in circulation) and so they are extremely “sensualised” when in proximity to each other in the harness (hence the propensity for strong aggression if, and this is the key aspect, things aren’t moving.) So being in harness compresses all their energy and then the running in sync completely recapitulates the hunting dynamic with the sledder as the predatory aspect and also and most importantly, with the release of going forward. They do feel pressure from the handler, but again this is of a sensual, magnetic nature and is expertly channeled into moving forward, in sync, it’s completely analogous to why dogs love car rides, so they’re not actually running from the musher, they’re feeling an overwhelming pull forward (and toward which their feeling for their handler has been channeled) and this recapitulates the emotional state of joy, i.e. weightlessness. (When you read my book, hopefully it will be more clear how the phenomenon of “emotional projection” induces the feeling of weightlessness, which we also experience as a state of resonance. So for example, if we read a book or hear an idea and feel resonant with it, way, way, way down is the underlying emotional experience of weightlessness that is now serving as the basis for this more abstract manner of experience.) Weightlessness/resonance by being in sync while expressing all of their energy is the only reward that matters to a dog which is why such a “hunt” need not ever reap any actual material benefit. However, given the way the emotional battery organizes a dog’s emotional experience, all good things that the dog ever experiences no matter when or where they occur, are actually “attributed” to the sled work and serves as a delayed gratification. This is why I take great pains with our choice of words, emotion is never impulsive, it’s responsible for everything that happens over the long term. The “negative grants access to the positive” so once they are imprinted that their feeling for their handler is what leads to that incredible release of energy and feeling of being in sync and weightless, then the dog emotionally gives its owner credit for the very air that it breathes and is the epicenter of its very consciousness. (If a moose wanted to it could have the most well trained wolf in the neighborhood.) This is also why the old time trainers who used to beat the dogs so that they never snatched a free piece of seal or whale meat, were still loved by their dogs and completely “submissive” (flipping polarities). Whereas if they didn’t have that overwhelming feeling of flow their character would have completely collapsed and their “submission” would have become aggression. Then Susan Butcher came along and showed that it wasn’t necessary to do that when she started winning with dogs that she “gentled.” A team in harness is truly a beautiful sight, like a GSD tending its flock, Indeed, Temperament is a many-splendored-thing. Keep On Mushing!
Kevin
Thank you for your reply. With the fact that I work a team of Sibes in mind, and that most of the time they are execised as a team or pack, whether it be running in harness or walked two or three at a time again in harness but attached to a walking belt – can the NDT method be adapted to incorporate 2-3 dogs being trained at the same time (I’m wondering if I may need to become an octopus to push three dogs at once!)? Or, is it best to keep the tug-of-war etc. to an individual basis?
As an aside, what would you say to people who buy a sled-dog breed of dog and then, try to deprive it of its inate desire to pull? Pulling is the number one reason for Sibes appearing in rescue centres in the U.K. usually at about 12-16 months of age.
Milo
First of course you work each dog individually, then add A plus B, then A plus C, then C plus B. And when you begin working with multiple dogs, post them up so that you can go from one to the next, then introduce on the box/stay while you do A, etc. But when you get to all three together, you shouldn’t have to do any pushing since heeling becomes what pushing evolves to feel like. Remember, three dogs is 3 X 3 X 3 times the work. This is why I’m a one dog man.
In regards to breed traits, theoretically anything is possible, but in general and for the ease of dog/owner relationship, we should honor the working tradition of a breed and go by function rather than by fancy. I like to see a dog in the environment and in pursuit of what it was bred to do. At any rate, a dog can learn to “push” its owner down the road (and this can feel like heeling since the #1 drive is to be in harmony by way of synchronizing) rather than pulling them.