Dog Whispering?

So while we were out in New York visiting Viv's Dad and his fiance, Meredith, we came across a guy calling himself the Dog Whisperer. No, he wasn't some crack pot on the street asking for money like the Naked Cowboy. He has a show on the National Geographic Channel (I think you need a fancy digital cable package to get this channel). Viv's Dad and Meredith love watching his show and were really excited about us getting to see it. Apparently they have heard about our dingo of an 8-month old puppy.

I was a little skeptical at first. With a name like "The Dog Whisperer," I thought it was going to be some guy who has some sort of psychic who talks to dogs. That, however, is another show. The dog whisperer himself is, in fact, totally reputable! Basically, he helps the owners of problem dogs assert themselves as the pack leaders. By doing this, most of a dog's problems seem to melt away when they fall in line as a subordinate. He talks about how most troubled behavior stems from the dog's confusion over who is in charge. Viv and I were hooked from the first episode in which we watched him tame an over-protective chihuahua named Nunu who had been attacking the owner's roommate.

After seeing two or three success stories, I got pumped about coming home and trying out some of his tactics with our dingo. To be fair, Sophie really is a good girl. She's actually fairly mellow for a puppy, she is very gentle with Marielle, Marielle loves on her all day, and she loves hanging out close to us. I think that we sometimes forget that she is still so young. We really were spoiled with our perfectly trained Chloe. Our lack of training experience is definitely part of our trouble. The big things are that she pulls when being walked, is easily distracted, and believes that the statute of limitations for a command like "stay" runs for only about ten seconds. The pulling while walking has really been driving me crazy. It makes the walk no fun for either of us. This happened to be one of the Dog Whisperer's primary focuses. He showed how to calmly, and gently assert yourself as the leader during a walk. He would demonstrate on the show and I was a bit skeptical about how quickly he seemed to get a dog in line. They probably cut the forty takes before it finally worked, right? Wrong. On my first morning walk with Sophie after our trip, I tried out the Dog Whisperer's tactics and they worked! With only about two corrections a found Sophie walking calmly at me side. It was great, and we both are enjoying are much more laid back walks.

This guy's show doesn't teach everything, but asserting yourself as leader seems to be a cornerstone of obedience. Viv and I have kind of known this. I mean that's kind of common sense. The show was an eye opener onto all of the little things that we do that had undermined that position. Everyone should watch. Lisa, they even had an episode with a Great Dane with shiny/smooth floor issues. By the end of the episode, the dog was cruising around a linoleum-lined school like it was no big thing.