Discovering blocks to dog training

“It doesn’t matter to a dog what its owner says, does, or thinks; all that matters is what happens to the owner internally on the deepest level of emotion

……….Kevin Behan’s, ‘Your Dog is Your Mirror’

Chasing The Perfect Recall

I had Jack, a Hamiltonstovare, from a puppy. The breed has a strong hunting drive and I had learnt the hard way that they weren’t safe to let off the lead. But I wanted to give him freedom so training a reliable recall became like searching the holy grail for me.

Before I started following Natural Dog Training (NDT) I would only Jack let off lead in secure areas. Left to his own devices he would zone me out, get his nose down and find something more interesting to do.  The only way to distract him then would be to move him physically.

Progress

When I started to follow Kevin Behan’s methods things started to change.  He stayed engaged with me for longer periods.  He would start to air scent and then look to me to  ‘push for food’.  Although not fool proof the behaviour was a big advance on what I had achieved previously.  I invited a dog behaviourist friend of mine over, to come and see how we were progressing.  As Claire watched us work she was amazed.  This was the first time she has seen us interacting so well together.

Claire was that independent witness, confirming  that the hard work was starting to pay off.  Jack was more focussed on me.  Surprisingly, I didn’t feel elated to hear that my goal of the perfect recall was in reach.  Instead I felt sick and  panicky.  For the first time in 5 years of working  on this problem,  I recognised that at a deeper level,  I was scared of the responsibility that better connection brought with it.

Uncovering Blocks

Discovering this emotional trigger was important.  It reminded me of stuff from my childhood.  I was the oldest of three and growing up I had sometimes been left to look after my brother and sister.  There had been times when I hadn’t made such a good job of it.  It seemed as if there was part of me that had been affected by those experiences.  Responsibility came with danger.

It was clear that in working on my emotional connection with my dogs I needed to clean my own act up, to make sure I wasn’t blocking things.   Noticing and making the connection was a first and necessary step.