The leadership role and the psychology behind it

When I come to you, I will first observe how you are interacting with your dog and assess the situation, to find the right approach for you.

If your dog(s) pulls on the lead or walks always ahead of you or follows you everywhere around the house, then you have accidentally made your dog the leader of the pack. Most dogs are unhappy in this role and feel stressed and will release their frustration with unwanted behaviour issues like, over-excitement, Jumping, barking, peeing/pooing in the house, attacking the vacuum cleaner or lawnmower etc... You might also experience aggression of some kind.

I will work with your dog, not against it. I give your dog the opportunity to tell me their story, by going on a 2-10 minutes’ walk (at this time I will also stop the lead-pulling problem). After that, we will start the rehabilitation process.

Working with dog and human psychology is important because our doubts and fears are transferred to them. I will show/teach you how you will have your dog in control in any situation, so you don’t have the fear or distrust of your dog misbehaving. Let me help you to become a calm and assertive leader. If you truly want to change let me help you in this process.  

Are you excited for a new start and how to learn to be finally in control? Then don’t wait any longer and contact me.

Why is it important to have our dogs under control in every situation?

One of the main reasons why we have to have our pets under control is, that we bring them into our world, and not the other way around. That’s why it is significant that the dog owner takes the leader role, understands dog behaviour (language), and is the reference person in all unwanted and uncontrolled situations.

The dog undoubtedly comes from the wolf. Over the last hundred years, we have domesticated and bred all different types of dogs which are distinguished from each other by colour, size, form, as well as peculiarities and behaviour. Something of the wolf still remains in them, making dogs part of pride and as such they follow the pack leader. 

Who leads in the relationship between owner and dog?

Any form of human-dog role behaviour can be classified by asking two questions:

1. Does the owner lead the pack? Or not?

2. Has the dog taken the leadership role? (Maybe you don’t realise)
    

The Dog in the leadership role, and some typical examples of inappropriate dog behaviour when their humans are followers!

• As soon as the dog is off the lead, he doesn’t listen anymore.

• Barking on the fence line when people are passing by or visiting.

• Continuous running behind you in the house

• Constantly pulling on the lead / jumping up on people

• Hunting, distracted by everything.

• Over excitement

• Greeting everybody

• Permanent whining or barking

• Aggression or fearful behaviour

• Food aggression, source guarding

• The dog seems to be restless or having any kind of obsession.

• Anxiety

• Chasing cyclists or joggers

• The dog snaps and bites when he does not want something to happen.

Understanding the importance of leadership and dog psychology

Dogs establish their position in a pack shortly after being born, the hierarchy also depends on the position of their mother. Unlike wolves, dogs don’t have an alpha, they are categorised into 3 groups:

Leader dogs, middle dogs, and low-rank dogs (In a big pack there can be several leaders and so on) Despite that, if a dog comes into a human family, and does not undergo any guidance/structure, they will feel the need to take over, and behave accordingly. Note: (There lower the natural rank of a dog is, there more severe are their behavioural issues.) If we don’t take the leader role dogs become stressed, over-excited, fearful, or aggressive. Being in charge does mean that you can’t be their best friend. Leading as a human for the dog means living in a stable pack.

As a dog trainer, it is important for me to establish a relationship between dogs and their owners, based on trust, security, and respect. I want to bring you close to the language and form of expression of the dogs and make you realise what your own body language is portraying to your dog. Like humans, dogs are social animals. They thrive with the success and benefits of learning new behaviours in a human-dog pack situation.
The way I work is through observation of human and canine misbehaviour, and identify ways to improve it. Based on this, I developed programs for you and your dog with a personalized approach that quickly, efficiently, and sustainably ensures the desired result.

Misconduct in the human-dog relationship 

I believe it is our responsibility to give our dogs an introduction to life with us humans from the beginning. There are always reasons why dogs do the wrong thing. The imprinting phase of a puppy -between the fifth to the eighth week after birth, is what causes the most serious behavioural problems. Even after you have done some training misconduct can still happen. Unfortunately, this is often created by us humans - sometimes under well-intentioned motives. For example, to pat dogs when they feel fear. Humans, we may be helped by this. In dogs, however, it amplifies the feeling of fear.

Dogs live exclusively in the "here and now". This means any kind of misbehaviour that is treated with appropriate measures and methods can be rectified and corrected at any age. Note: A dog’s behaviour can change in 10 seconds to good or bad
 

Alinefreedogs - To Correct Misbehaviour

Explore and learn with me an insightful perspective on your dog and his feelings. Learn together to understand him with me. That means to interpret its signals properly and to be aware of your own body language consciously and use it purposefully.
It is at your absolute discretion to book my training and care services for your dog. To make your four-legged friend as a dog you want to live with you as his leader and a reliable companion.
I have a proven track record, and I can offer you the chance to fix any issues in your dog-human relationship so you can have a harmonious coexistence. The best option is to provide training in and around your place in familiar surroundings for you and your dog. This way I can observe behavioural problems where they occur every day.

Different dogs’ - different personalities

All trainers are unique, and everyone has a different way of teaching and as long as the results are achieved, you need to pick what you think suits you best. The only difference is the techniques you use to achieve a faster result.

A lot of my clients ask me if I am a positive reinforcement trainer. Honestly, I always found that a tricky question to answer!

So, I will do my best to explain this complex question.

The simple answer is I am not negative or positive, I simply try to teach people dog behaviour and with this technique, I can change behavioural issues in a matter of minutes.

How you might think is this possible? By understanding dogs and their body language and how they interact with each other, without needing to use any commands, as dogs do not have speech.

To explain this better I have to paint the picture for you, so you can see the difference between obedience/ positive reinforcement, and a dog Whisperer.

A lot of my colleagues use obedience commands, and they reward good behaviour with praise/treats. Most people love this idea to train their dogs and if you do it right, you will have success after a long period of time.

Personally, I don’t like to command my dogs around and tell them what to do or to make them obey me, praising them afterwards just makes us feel better, but is this actually nicer?

I prefer my dog to be my best friend who follows me around willingly, and In return, I watch out that nothing bad happens.

Needing to use words like, walk, stop, leave it, look at me, focus, go, free, come, turn, no, yes, sit, stay, wait etc., creates confusion often in our dogs when not used correctly. When this happens, we get frustrated that our dogs do not listen to us commanding them around and then they’ve had enough, to try to please us.

To have a best friend on your side and at the same time to be the leader of the pack, there lies the beauty in understanding dogs.

Misbehaviour/fear in dogs is taught by us humans accidentally through miscommunication.

If I work with a dog that shows aggression towards another, I will correct this misbehaviour.

I will give you a human example of what I mean:

Imagine you are with your kid at the playground and suddenly your child starts hitting another child (you don’t know the reason), would you redirect your kid with an ice cream or would you go to your child and tell him/her to stop ????

A lot of people mix up correction and discipline, with punishment.

I am German and if I make mistakes writing in English and someone corrects it, it helps me to learn and correct the mistakes that I make, so I can do it better next time so I will be able to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

I hope I have helped you decide what training techniques are right for you, there is no right or wrong they are all just different, like us people.