Another milestone with Jade

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Another Milestone with Jade

I've been busy with my Wayside Waifs dogs this week, but I did hit some new milestones with Jade this week. It's funny that so many training classes spend a whole day of class on Sit and Stay. In reality a trainer could spend 8 weeks alone on sit and stay. How so you ask? Most classes are happy the dog sits with the owner standing there with a leash, or stay when the owner walks a measly few feet away. Today Jade performed a Stop,Sit and Down and come from 50 feet away in my driveway. She's up to a 5 minute stay, but that's with her in a down or sit stay in my driveway and me in the house. I call that an out-of-sight stay. She also has learned to stay even if I sprint away into the house. I'm usually not a big stay person with my dogs, but I know she needs to learn a good solid stay command. On this last lake trip we walked for two hours and I'm not sure she balked at even one come, stop or sit. Jade is becoming quite the dog. Her dog skills continue to expand and I hope to implement the same process on some upcoming client dogs. When I adopted Jade about 5-6 months ago she had a good temperament with other dogs, but not much of a repertoire of social coping skills. Now after literally hundreds of dog interactions with the Wayside dogs I see her use several different approaches with dogs. If a dog reprimands her she will not immediately react back, but back off and approach with a different calming or play signal. People make the mistake of labeling some dogs as "good with other" dogs because they immediately go into play with each and every dog they meet. The dogs may be friendly, but those behaviors will eventually cause altercations if they do not learn how to meet dogs in a non-play mode.

I consider Jade a very dominate dog, but not for the reason most people do. She's a confident and obedient dog, who walks into any situation without fear or hesitation. She will fight, when attacked by another dog, but does not rule a play group with aggression. Kelly Gorman Dunbar has some wonderful quotes on her blog www.dogstardaily.com/blog/3

"Labeling a dog as dominant not only absolves the owner of any responsibility, but also can become an excuse not to train. "Oh, he's alpha that's why he lunges and growls at dogs on our walks" etc."

and "Others label undesireable behaviors as dominance rather than looking in the mirror at their own role in their dog's behavior..."

Each and every person I ask, equates aggression with a dominant dog. This is not limited to the average dog owner, but includes Kansas City trainers, shelter workers, volunteer and of course almost every television trainer out there today. What gives?

Luckily, I feel like I am changing the way people think slowly by showing them that the aggressive dog is not always dominant, but undersocialized, scared, reactive or just plain mean.

Jade continues to gro