An essential ingredient for truly enjoying your dog is creating a strong “dog-and-human” relationship.  It’s the focus we put on “dog bonding.”  Having a close bond with your dog — based on trust and frequent mutually satisfying interaction — is much more enriching that simply walking your dog, feeding it, and learning to control its behavior.

Here are some articles that might give you some fresh ideas about how to strengthen your “dog-and-human” relationships.

In an article in The Bark, “Building the Dog-Human Bond,” Victoria Schade emphasizes the importance of “trust, mutual respect and regard.”  Victoria, by the way, was a guest on the “My Doggie Says…” show on March 3, 2011.  (Click here to hear her interview)  Here’s Victoria’s article in “The Bark.”

This article, from “ohmidog!,” describes three different kinds of dog-and-human relationships.  Which one are  you?

This article titled “The Human-Dog Bond,” by Joyce Kesling (Responsible Dog and Cat). talks about how your dog-and-human relationship can influence your dog’s behavior.

Here’s an intriguing article, “Dog-Human Relationship & Communications,” that talks about the history of dog-human interaction and makes some non-intuitive observations about how dogs interpret our emotions and behavior.  You might be surprised.

So much of dog training — books, TV programs, and professional advice — are aimed at helping you control — or demand obedience from — your dog.  But in my own experience — supported by interviews with hundreds of dog trainers, authors and dog owners — suggests that the most rewarding experience of a dog comes to people who have the strongest dog-and-human relationships with their pets.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Dog Bonding, Dog Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.