Otis the Goldendoodle.

Meet Otis!

Recently, this ruggedly-handsome fellow suddenly started acting up. See, his outdoorsy family used to love take Otis hiking and on long, rambling off-leash walks... until he started dashing off after every bird, squirrel and stick that caught his eye. His mom would call call call his name, but to no avail. So she called us!

Gordon and I learned that this Goldendoodle had just celebrated his eighth-month-birthday, which in dog years is the equivalent of turning twelve. Now I don't know about you, but some of the twelve-year-olds I've met have a tendency to be — well, kinda bratty. I'm not trying to be mean, but I remember what I was like as a pre-teen: a little obnoxious, a little angsty, and trying my hardest to stake claim to my independence... which is a nice way of saying I started questioning my parents' rules. (Sorry, Mom and Dad. I know you were only looking out for me.)

Otis is going through the same thing, and ignoring his family's calls is his way of trying to be his own man — or dog, if you want to nitpick. Unfortunately, Otis has to learn what I did back in the day: sometimes our parents know better.

To make learning this lesson fun, we got back to basics with Otis and taught him that coming when called is a good thing. We do this with an activity we at Zen Dog call Name Game; we were able to show him that responding to his name is awesome.

For a shaggy adventurer like Otis to get the hang of recall, his family is going to have to play Name Game several times a day. Hopefully our friend here will master this technique soon; summer's already winding down, and I know he's eager to get out there and enjoy the sunshine. I'm going to do just that right now — with sunscreen, of course.

To learn more about Name Game, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Kuma the Corgi Mix.

Meet Kuma!

Kuma, a recently-adopted former stray, has a lovely name that means "Little Bear" in Japanese. Don't let this intimidating-sounding fool you — this little girl is sweet as sweet can be. And she loves living in Central Square and exploring Cambridge. In fact, sometimes she loves it a little too much... because Kuma is, I'm sorry to say, a leash-puller.

Teaching dogs how to properly walk on-leash is just one of the many fundamentals we at Zen Dog explain to our clients. So even though Kuma is clearly an extraordinary girl, she has an ordinary problem.

This is a good thing, because we have a solution: a game we call Red Light, Green Light. It's very similar to the game I played as a kid, except this version has leashes. It sounds easy at first, but getting the specifics right can be a bit difficult. After learning a few tricks from us though, Kuma and her parents got the hang of it.

By playing this game every time they go for a walk, Kuma and her family will enjoy their time outside that much more.

To learn more about Red Light, Green Light, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Templeton the Hound Mix.

Meet Templeton!

This little guy was adopted at four months old and now lives happily in Arlington. Gordon and I got to spend a couple hours with him to work on his leash-walking and overly-excited greetings.

See, Templeton's the kind of dog who's so thrilled to meet new people that he jumps up all over them with the hopes of planting a kiss on their faces. Unfortunately, not everyone enjoys a sloppy lick hello as much as Templeton — not to mention fresh pawprints across a nice article of clothing. We needed to show this guy that he's more likely to be greeted enthusiastically himself if he behaves calmly and politely with friends, guests and people he meets on a walk.

Speaking of going on walks... Templeton may look small and unassuming, but he's actually 100% muscle. He particularly enjoys resistance training... especially when he's building strength by pulling his owner down the street with his leash.

Though Templeton's a special dog, his issues are actually quite common — which meant that we had easy Zen Dog solutions to help him drop his bad habits. By doing a few simple exercises every day, Templeton can learn to behave properly with people, even if he meets them on-leash.

Why Dog Training Can Be SO Hard!

In a nutshell, changing a established behavior or teaching a new behavior is difficult!

Think about how hard it is to stick to a New Years resolution, to eat better or get to the gym. It's even harder to try and teach a child, spouse or friend to listen! Things get even harder when it comes to dogs, because of the human attitude, "darn it! This is my dog and he needs to learn my rules!"

In our efforts to make an animal understand we may miss the importance of truly understanding our dogs and communicating with them rather than forcing our wills on them! At Zen Dog Training we focus on understanding our dogs first, then trying to communicate with them. Our focus is on teaching people how to be consistent and smart about getting their dogs to listen.

Why things get confusing is that dogs are not rational animals (like us?), instead they are still hard-wired to first feel safe in their environment before they we can expect them to want to participate in 'listening' to us or 'obeying' our rules. For what most certainly will become a future post on its own, its Pavlov vs. Skinner - first having to meet those primal dog needs of feeling safe and confident before expecting B.F. Skinner like Operant Conditioning. "Sit" and you will get a treat.

What's so hard to understand is that when it comes to dog training and especially, new puppy training, just spending time getting our dogs used to the crazy, noisy world we live in is as important (if not more important) then teaching, sit, heel or come. At Zen Dog Training we call this "age-appropriate training". Focusing on the right thing at the right time. Puppy-hood is the ideal time to socialize really domesticate your dog to your particular lifestyle. Its surprises me how most people would never expect a wolf to be fine with living inside our homes but get a dog and don't put any conscious effort towards puppy socialization. Textbook "socialization period" is a stage of puppy development that technically ends at the 12-13th week!

The dilemma becomes: when to push your will on to your dog and when to listen to your dog and understand that at this very moment - your dogs natural instinct for survival (fight/flight) must be met before they can be in a place to listen to us.

Its difficult because it requires the human to not focus on 'instant results' but rather take a look at what their dog needs. Training paths for dogs not yet comfortable with the world require counter-intuitive methods like, treating a dog when they are barking out of fear. Some say you would reinforce 'bad' behaviors however, if the dog is barking because they are uncertain and feeling 'scared' there is no evidence that you can reward or punish them since they are in no place to listen to you anyway. They are too worried for their survival.

Here is where true understanding is key to our success. Try to force a scared dog to listen and they may listen but become shell-shocked and skittish from the experience. Try to punish a dog by staring them in the eyes and yelling at them and you just might break that ever important dog-human relationship where they learn to trust and love humans.

More on this in future posts but as we learned in the dog training academy, the first question is 'is the dog upset' from there you can determine if they are 'acting out' or just being demanding or if they are coming from a place of fear and uncertainty (with dogs amazing sense of hearing, smell and who-knows-what-other kind of senses your dog has) I'm often amazed at how well they cope with strange training 'techniques' or just the sights and sounds of the world: trucks, busy intersections, construction noises, fireworks, traveling by car, traffic, etc.

The solution, do yourself a favor and research people like Turid Rugaas, "Calming Signals" to try and better understand what your dog is feeling and saying by reading their body language. Try and be more patient with your goals and try to determine the difference between "disobedience" and a failure on behalf of the owner to clearly communicate rules and expectations.