pushing

Push Away Stress Nov 30, 2011

Natural training technique releases canines’ pent-up energy By Susan Chaney, Dog Fancy; November 2011 “Natural dog training.” What could that possibly mean? Skeptical? So was I. Then I talked to Kevin Behan, who pioneered a new way of working with dogs in the 1980s after learning the trade from his dad, a police-dog trainer. At […]

The King’s Speech Mar 06, 2011

When I work with clients I often reference certain movies as insights into how animals learn and what the training and rehabilitation process is truly about. The “Karate Kid” is one long time favorite as in “Wax/On; Wax/Off” and then there is the “Horse Whisperer” —to paraphrase Robert Redford’s character: “Maam, I don’t help people […]

Speaking, Pushing and Tug of War with Bootsy Mar 29, 2010

This post is extracted from a comment left by AZDogermanStu on March 29, 2010 “How I Developed the Pushing Technique” Here is the comment followed by the videos Here are the videos I was feeling a little pressured by the camera and tried to keep them short. Thanks for taking a look! I tried to […]

Kevin Pushing and Pulling with Hessian Feb 17, 2010

Kevin Pushing and Pulling with Hessian

Pushing with a Pit Bull Aug 01, 2009

Short clip showing Kevin Behan working with a Pit Bull and conducting the Pushing Exercise.

How I Developed The "Pushing Technique" Jun 20, 2009

In the early eighties I found myself describing certain behaviors as “electric,” as for example when a dog is defensive, fearful or hyper, bristling, tense, taut and touchy, while other behaviors I intuitively would call “magnetic,” as for example when a dog is rolling on the ground, body contacting with others, supple to the touch, […]

Why We Push Jun 01, 2009

Evolution is the story of overcoming resistance. Things must be broken down in order to exploit their energy. Concentrating and storing energy in order to overcome resistance is the organizing principle of every species’ anatomy, physiology and behavior. Inside your dog is a battery, an emotional reservoir filled with “unresolved emotion”. Unresolved emotion is created […]

Books about Natural Dog Training by Kevin Behan

In Your Dog Is Your Mirror, dog trainer Kevin Behan proposes a radical new model for understanding canine behavior: a dog’s behavior and emotion, indeed its very cognition, are driven by our emotion. The dog doesn’t respond to what the owner thinks, says, or does; it responds to what the owner feels. And in this way, dogs can actually put people back in touch with their own emotions. Behan demonstrates that dogs and humans are connected more profoundly than has ever been imagined — by heart — and that this approach to dog cognition can help us understand many of dogs’ most inscrutable behaviors. This groundbreaking, provocative book opens the door to a whole new understanding between species, and perhaps a whole new understanding of ourselves.
  Natural Dog Training is about how dogs see the world and what this means in regards to training. The first part of this book presents a new theory for the social behavior of canines, featuring the drive to hunt, not the pack instincts, as seminal to canine behavior. The second part reinterprets how dogs actually learn. The third section presents exercises and handling techniques to put this theory into practice with a puppy. The final section sets forth a training program with a special emphasis on coming when called.