How to become your dog’s best friend.mp3

The Unconventional Dog Trainer

Here's the link to our FREE Guide: https://www.thedogtraininglab.com/products/courses/view/206

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.

In this episode, I'll be sharing with you the checklist, the mental checklist I go through with every dog I work with, because every dog is different. Hi, I'm Luzelle, the unconventional dog trainer, and you can find this workbook at thedogtraininglab. com. I think it's called how to become your dog's best friend. It is free so you can go grab it now. I will share the link below so you can do this and get to know your dog a whole lot better and get far better results and enjoy your dog a whole lot more. Because to have a friend you have to be a friend.

And how can you be a friend if you don't know your friend? Okay, so how I explain this to my clients is what kind of chocolate do you like? Do you like white chocolate, milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Now, I'm a dark chocolate girl And so if anybody gives me white chocolate I will feel like they don't know me at all.

And in fact, it's an insult. Why did they give me white chocolate? I should know better And so, if you think, if you want to call yourself your dog's best friend and so on and so forth, and your dog likes white chocolate, figuratively, because dogs can't eat chocolate, and you constantly give your dog dark chocolate, your dog will go, this human just is oblivious, they don't know me at all, like, why am I even bothering?

Because they obviously don't care about me. So you do need to pay attention to who your dog is, their likes and dislikes, their learning styles, their personal preferences, so that you can be your dog's best friend. All right, now that we've got that out of the way, I, one of the first things I go through is whether the dog is introverted or extroverted.

You cannot make an extrovert an introvert and you cannot make an introvert an extrovert, right? You need to understand this and Extroverts are the ones that should change. The introverts cannot change. And it's just rude for us extroverts to expect that they do. Now, in one of my jobs, I actually, this is, I'm an extrovert.

And so I went to give a workmate a hug and she was like, no, I don't like hugs. And I was like, what's wrong with you, you freak. Just give me a bloody hug, man. Um, so that was really rude of me because as an introvert, she's entitled. Not to like hugs and not everybody does like hugs. Now, I didn't actually realize this until my very first puppy Kaz German Shepherd, she didn't like hugs.

She actually didn't, she liked hanging out by your feet But she didn't really want any attention on her. She liked to observe and watch but she didn't She liked interacting, but that interaction didn't need to include touching. She tolerated it, but she didn't like it. She was never aggressive towards people, but she did become aggressive towards dogs, and that was all my fault.

But that's for a future episode on dog reactivity.

There was one person she really loved and that was somebody who didn't like dogs. Now, she didn't hate dogs She was never mean to the dogs, but she just didn't like them. She doesn't and that's Everybody is entitled not to like a dog. That is fine Um, so what happened was when she came to visit Kaz would go up to her and lick her This is like the only person Kaz was happy to see because this is the only person who when they visited didn't put any pressure on this poor dog. So this is where I learned all about introverted dogs and how to get the best out of them.

If that person decided to take on Kaz and to train her, Kaz would have been putty in her hands and they wouldn't have had a problem together. Because Kaz would have appreciated the fact that this person just gave her everything she needed, which was space. So now that that's out of the way, is your dog an extrovert or an introvert?

Now there are some people who, um, introverts until they're around people they know, and then they behave in an extroverted manner. That's still an introvert. Then there are people who are out on a limb and they just don't like to interact with people. At least they really know them very well and they're comfortable with them.

That's an introvert. Introverts also have one or two really good friends and the rest of the world could die a slow painful death and they wouldn't care. Now, they probably would care because a lot of them are very empathetic. Um, But that's just a way to describe them. Extroverts, on the other hand, have lots of shallow friendships.

None of them are particularly deep, and if somebody falls off the surface of the world, they're not particularly fussed. They might be upset for a couple of days, maybe a month or so, but they get over it pretty quickly. That's an extrovert. I'm an extrovert. I actually like working with introverts now that I explain them, but I find that a lot of Owners who are extroverted, if they have an introverted dog, they really don't get it and it's really hard to help them understand that this dog needs space because extroverts are inherently really selfish.

We think that the world should revolve around us and we don't have a lot of patience or we don't give introverts the support they need and we really should because it's the introverts that are struggling the most. We can get over things. They struggle. We are the ones that can change, so we are the ones who should make allowances for introverts.

Now that I'm off my soapbox, the next thing I want to know is who's in this dog's circle of trust. So if they're an introvert, they likely have a very small circle of trust. So very few people who they feel comfortable with. Now, if this dog is reactive or aggressive, my goal is to Start off with a circle of trust and slowly but gently expand it so that I can include more people in that circle of trust Most introverted dogs, once you're in that circle of trust, you can do no wrong.

So this is one of the things because I'm very respectful of introverted dogs and Usually when an introverted dog meets me, they're like, Oh my goodness. Where have you been all my life? I've never had somebody Um that's treated me as well as you have so I instantly get into this circle of trust Thank you Schnewy.

Um, if you're in this dog circle, if you're in an introverted circle of trust quite often You can do no wrong and you can do anything to this dog and this dog will be like, yep. I trust you I don't care If you're not in the dog circle of trust, you can do nothing right and you'll always be watched and this depends on your behavior.

So you need to be very conscious of what you do and how you do it. Now the other thing is, I want to know my dog's likes and dislikes because if they don't like to be touched, I need to know this so that um, I build up, I'll get into the dog circle of trust before I start trying to. Harass them and touch them because um, otherwise i'm going to break that trust and Then i'm not with some dogs once you've broken trust you can't get back into it So anyway, I hope you go and grab that workbook So that you can work through it with your dog and get to know your dog a whole lot a whole lot better There's also a few other things like personality types and that'll be for another episode and reactivity That'll be for another episode Which we touched on in this episode.

So, if you enjoyed this episode, I would appreciate if you shared it with a friend, subscribe to this channel, or comment it below, because that's all things that'll help me. I'm not interested in going viral or getting lots of views. All I'm interested in is reaching the people who want this information, and who really want a better relationship with their dog.

Anyway, happy training. Catch you next time.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe so you don't miss an episode, or share it with a friend to help us help more dogs enjoy long, happy lives in their homes. We also have more resources for you at thedogtraininglab. com.

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