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This is one of the best pet news letters I have ever received. I have had dogs all my life and I am learning alot of new things that help make my life a lot easier and my dog alot better behaved."
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"Two Paws up for Positive Petzine.
This is a wonderful EZine for people who want to train their dogs using positive methods. There is a wealth of information on behavior issues dog owners commonly wrestle with. I highly recommend this EZine!"
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I've learned alot from this site, I'm very glad I found it :-)"
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"Aidan Bindoff's Positive Petzine is simply the BEST canine advice column I've seen in years. Everybody who's got a dog, who's thinking of getting a dog, who working with dogs and/or dog owners should subscribe. Trainers and schools should print and distribute these in classes. Clear, well-written, to-the-point, logical advice dealing with every behaviour problems pet dog owners could face. The world dog community can only hope Mr. Bindoff writes a book (or two!). In the meantime, read Positive Petzine!"
- Chantal Cormier
"Just to let you know, Lacey has completely taken her "no barking" lessons to heart. If I slack off on giving her daily attention, she starts barking again. No kidding! 15 minutes of playing fetch, and she's a happy girl. Your step by step lessons helped both of us SO much!"
- Connie O'Hara and the Island ZooCrew
"A Definite Must-Read-
Great- easy reading, wonderful problem solving techniques that REALLY work. Give it a try!!"
- dnb
"This ezine has it all for trainers. I have a new puppy and it has helped me alot. If I had known about this ezine when I got my first dog things would have been way easier. Everything is easy to understand and simple to follow. Everyone should know about this great source."
- Chelsea
"Great positive training tecniques in simple english. I love how they discuss the "why". By discussing the why you not only learn how to fix the problems directly discussed, you learn how create your own training plans using the same tecniques."
- Kathy
"I have been following this Zine since the beginning, and am now beginning to refer clients to read Aiden's articles. I believe that keeping information free and available will help pet owners to choose the RIGHT information. I also like the way Aiden shows his point of view without going into lengthy discussions of "And this way doesn't work, and neither does this, or this...""
- Courtenay Watson (Crowsnest Custom Canine Academy)
"I have learned a lot from Aidan's ezine. It is concise, positive and helpful. I've used the advice w/the training of our new puppy and w/our older dogs. Some of it is new information and some reinforces what I already knew/used. But reinforcement is always good!"
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"I'm another person who offers puppy training classes. The articles Aidan is making available by way of this ezine are just the thing for our puppy people. Good information in a very readable format. I very much appreciate having this resource available to me."
- Pamela Kaye
"Aidan Bindoff's Positive Petzine is simply the BEST canine advice column I've seen in years. Everybody who's got a dog, who's thinking of getting a dog, who working with dogs and/or dog owners should subscribe. Trainers and schools should print and distribute these in classes. Clear, well-written, to-the-point, logical advice dealing with every behaviour problems pet dog owners could face. The world dog community can only hope Mr. Bindoff writes a book (or two!). In the meantime, read Positive Petzine!"
- Chantal Cormier
Building Confidence
I recently adopted a 2.5 yr old female bullmastiff. She is a great dog- house broken, create trained, solid on all basic obedience commands and very affectionate with her new family. Unfortunately, she is rather skittish in new situations and around new people - not exactly the fearless confidence the breed is supposed to project. She will often urinate if approached too quickly by a man (she's more comfortable with women) and will stop dead in her tracks if spooked by a shopping cart or other loud moving objects. She'll bark when someone knocks on the door, but will not approach the door.
Any ideas on how to build her confidence and bring out the calm fearless confidence she is supposed to exhibit?
- darthmobius@netscape.net's blog
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Comments
Targeting for nervous dogs
Hi, "calm, fearless confidence" is something that very few dogs have these days. In days gone by it was important for certain breeds to have this, but now dogs are mostly judged and bred on appearances. This has lead to a general decline in the number of dogs displaying the traits their breed was originally known for.
Mind you, even a shy Bullmastiff is a good deterrent and in this litigious society where we give unreasonable license to people who want to intrude on our property almost any character trait is better than an aggressive one. That said, the original Bullmastiff "ideal" temperament is almost perfect for home security, because they were bred not to bite but to hold and bark. Even back in the day, very few dogs would meet the "ideal" anyway though.
But let's not lament the loss of good genes or debate the merits of different temperaments - let's look at how we can train the dog you HAVE to have as many of the character traits you want as possible. You quite correctly want to start with reducing the skittishness, a confident, happy dog is a much stronger foundation to work from.
This might sound crazy, but you need to read this article:
http://positivepetzine.com/node/79
It teaches you how to train a dog to touch a target.
Why is this important? In more examples than I care to mention targeting has been the fastest and most reliable solution for a shy or nervous dog. Teach her to touch the target stick reliably, then give it to a male friend and have her target it. The friend then starts holding the target stick further and further down the stick until your dog is targeting his hand.
You can also use the stick to direct your dog to touch objects that frighten her. Go easy, ALWAYS set your dog up for success.
Write back if you have any questions.
Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com