LIGHTEN UP FOLKS

"I wonder what our dogs are thinking when they see us peeing in their big water bowl?"

It's interesting how often I encounter dog problems that are clearly a result of stress at the "other end " of the leash. Firstly, in dog classes you regularly see people who are nervous and the stress goes straight down the leash. And when I visit people's homes to chat about their dog problems I often sense a nervous tension in the dog owner and a resulting anxiety in the dog.
Visualize yourself in the first week of basic training for the Marines and every part of you daily existence depends upon  a hardened Drill Sergeant who gets perverse delight in making a new recruit's life as miserable as possible. Now put yourself in the dog's shoes. It's not uncommon to see aspiring student trainers who are nervous about the class and their dogs are barking, jumping, and lunging at everything and everybody in sight and all these folks know is yell, jerk, and pull. In most cases the dog feeds off the handler's stress and thinks "if you are yelling and jerking I should jump, lunge, and bark because it seems like that's what you are encouraging me to do."
When your dog acts up you relax, give him a loose leash, keep your mouth shut, and stand still. It'll  take a few minutes but he'll cool out and find out there's nothing in this foolish behavior for him and he will sit near you. Wait until you're confident he's " let the air out of his tires" then quietly reach down and offer him a treat and say thank you. If he revs up again you ignore him, wait until he relaxes again and reward him again. Remember you're rewarding for cooling out and relaxing This is extremely difficult for the average trainer because they want want instant gratification and feel the only way to change this ill mannered behavior is to correct the offender. That equates to "punish" the student for whatever he is doing that you don't want him to do.
Recognize this, the dog doesn't know he's doing anything wrong. He's just doing what seems like a natural activity to him and in many cases people have taught this misbehavior. For example, jumping dogs are taught to jump because people reward them for jumping up. Yep, you see lots of folks talk baby talk and wave their hands around when they meet their dog and when he jumps up he gets a hug and his ears are roughed up etc. When he does the same thing to people who don't like the dog jumping on them they vocalize in a high pitched voice and push the dog away and guess what? The dog doesn't differentiate. He got what he wanted; voice, hand action, and touch. In other words, he got attention and that's all he wanted.
So the message folks is Lighten up and Cool out.
Go look in the mirror.
If your dog is full of anxiety and driving you crazy just maybe the cause is between your ears.
Lighten up enjoy your dog. This doesn't mean you spoil your dog, you simply give him regular, persistent and consistent leadership.
Keep me posted I'm sure you'll see a difference.