Train Your Best Friend, LLC Business Page,
04/29/2025
With animals sit and let them come to you. We intrude on their space too much in many ways. Sit back and let them come to you. Don't put pressure on them, casually toss a treat now and then. An old tried and true animal control trick is to sit down ignore the loose dog, maybe eat your lunch and wait for the dog to come to you and then get the dog gently and patiently. There is really no excuse to do it any other way. That is the humane way, wait patiently and let them come to you. Once you betray them or pressure them, with some dogs they will never really trust you and you may be poisoning all their future relationships. In the end, doing it well from the beginning is the best thing for everyone. Think of your personal relationships, some of the most uncomfortable are those that are confusing the person is nice and also inconsiderate of your feelings of safety or disrespecting your boundaries. I think many are accidentally doing this with our dogs. Give them more space not less. Don't encourage them to hide their feelings that is conflicting way to try to help them. Make them FEEL better then watch their behavior change. That is so much cleaner and better for the long run for all. I have seen dogs that have very confusing conflicting behavior perhaps it is a result of past people being kind and disrespectful of their feelings and needs at the same time. This is harder on both the animals and the people in the long run. You will see that I do not use certain methods because I do not believe in them. They do not clear my ethical tests. I would never remove something scary to a small child when the child appeared to calm down. That is the kind of method that creates confused and conflicted emotions in adults and mommy dearest books. Think about it. The photo is of a favorite client learning to live within human confines at his own pace. He is very loving and social but very afraid of anyone trying to control him as that is not how he lived much of his life. The good news is now he sleeps in the bed with his adopter. He is such a love but he has trouble with things we take for granted with many dogs - restraint, walking on leash, being confined, riding in a car, and vet and grooming tasks. He is progressing great at his own pace. Go at the dog's pace not your pace.
