David Silva, at PetLvr.com has a nice article titled “6 Powerful Dog Training Tips.” He starts the article by saying:
“Dog training should be an opportunity for you to build your relationship with your dog, to create a better bond, and to have some fun in the process.”
I really like the emphasis on building your relationship with your dog. So much of dog training seems to focus on “getting your dog to obey.” Dogs should learn to heel, sit, stay, lie-down, etc., but these don’t help you build a relationship with your dog.
David’s suggestion of helping “desensitize” your dog to its fears is an excellent way to work with your dog. I believe your dog will appreciate these kinds of efforts more than you realize. When you do this, you are dealing with your dog at a much deeper level than “sit” and “stay.”
David uses a dog’s fear of thunder as an example of desensitizing your dog gradually. This is timely, as I used an excerpt from My Doggie Says… in this blog the other day, in which I ended up sleeping with Jamie in the den with the TV turned way up in order to “protect” Jamie from a Southern California thunder storm. David would probably say I was too protective, but in Southern California, we don’t get lots of chances to deal with thunder storms. I confess that I did not “record” that thunderstorm for future training. So I guess I won’t feel too guilty about “helping Jamie through the night.”
This desensitizing is what we’ve been doing with Callie in helping her learn to swim. At first, she was afraid of the small waves of Lake Arrowhead and water more than about one foot deep. But we worked with her on a leash to get her comfortable in the water, and we encouraged her, gradually, by throwing toys and sticks into slightly deeper water, to be a little more brave. It only took a few days of this kind of work to get Callie comfortable with the water and swimming really well. Now, when she first gets in the water, we can see a little of her old hesitation, but she gets past it quickly and swims like a Golden Retriever should swim.
