LEADERSHIP is a term that comes up in my columns often.
I doubt there is a week that goes by that I don't somehow include the concept, how important it is to you and your dog's relationship, or give actual steps to achieve a leadership role with your dog.
Yet it is clear that there are some people who still do not apply this to their lives with their dogs. It might be because they have adopted a negative view as to what leadership is or they simply do not understand what it means.
The best way to address this would be to discuss, first of all, what leadership is not.
Leadership is not dictatorship, it is not punishment, it is not brutish physical control, it is not denying affection or attention and it is certainly not domination. It is true that I do use the word dominant or alpha when discussing humans and dogs, but I use it in reference to a prevailing attitude or behaviour, not to express dominion of one creature over another.
There was a time, many decades ago, when training dogs or horses was based on dominating the animal's spirit, breaking them, making them so fearful that their will to survive was destroyed and the animal chose to either rely on humans for their sheer existence or die. Humans did this because they were ignorant. Humans were taught that animals had no emotion, no free will and were incapable of conscious thought. Thankfully, due to the evolution of human education (and spiritually based modalities), times have changed. We now know that we can communicate with both dogs and horses - once we understand their language - and they will willingly, without fear or coercion, give us what we ask of them because they trust us implicitly without feeling fearful or intimidated.
And this, my friends, is the leadership that I speak of so incessantly in my columns. Leadership means learning to communicate with your dog, to understand its needs and desires, to learn why it does what it does and, if its actions do not result in positive wanted behaviour, then to take the necessary actions to teach the dog a new way of behaving. It makes no difference if you use a bag of treats, a clicker or simply praise and verbal encouragement, as long as the dog understands what is being asked of it and it learns.
In essence, the word leadership is simply another term for offering guidance and direction so a dog learns to trust in its person. Through that trust, built on consistent guidance, a dog will willingly follow direction with joy and peacefulness, allowing the dog and owner to become one, in kinship. In reality there is no such thing as one party being "higher" since one yields to the other's knowledge and guidance in trust.
This is what I strive for when working with dogs and their people. I teach the human counterpart of the duo how to be consistent, patient, fair, benevolent and reliable and to trust in themself so that their dog will also have trust in them. Our dogs are speaking to us and asking for guidance all the time, but because the majority of dog owners don't know what to look for, they can't see the conversation taking place and the dogs get frustrated. This frustration often results in a dog expressing itself with poor behaviour.
Leadership also means taking responsibility for your dog's behaviour as well as your own. It means admitting to yourself when your dog is not behaving appropriately instead of making excuses to yourself and others. Yelling to another dog owner that your dog is friendly as you watch his back end run away from you is not leadership. It is denial. It is expecting others to do your job of managing your dog's behaviour for you because you never took the time to learn how to do it properly.
Become a good leader for yourself and your dog. Your relationship with your dog and all areas of your life will only improve as a result.
Joan has been working with dogs for over 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her at k9kinship.com.
