#alpha roll

Social hierarchy is flexible depending on context, the dog, and the dogs around him. One dog might dominate sleeping areas but freely yields food to others. A dog might only dominate food when he is hungry.

Dominance does not equal aggression, and most dogs labeled as “dominant” by their owners simply lack manners and training.

🥐 it's Alpha Cinnamon Roll SYKD! 🥐

(Yes I know it's a croissant, there's no cinnamon roll emoji yet 😭)

Are There Gaps In Your Dynamic Dog Training Program?

  You’ve heard it more than once.

The key to getting your dog to pay attention, come when called, and to not be a raving crazy canine is to show them who’s the boss.

Toss em’ on their side.

Hold em’ down.

Create a atmosphere of dominance that rocks your dogs’ world and he’ll live happily ever after.

It’s almost a dog training mantra, but I might just spray the next person who says it right in…

Hitting breaks trust with the animal. It enforces the idea that you (the human) are a bully, and the dog will often do one of two things: It will show what’s called ‘appeasement behavior’ - a display often mistaken by dog trainers as a “calm, submissive state” but which is actually a fear-induced defense mechanism used to avoid conflict. It’s an unhealthy thing for the animal, and not something a healthy dog-owner relationship is based on.

Other times, hitting a dog will cause fear that can be redirected as aggression.

We’ve all heard stories of a dog - one who has never acted violently before,  suddenly, ‘snapping’ or ‘have a mental breakdown’ that causes it to attack. In truth dogs rarely (if ever) attack without reason. It usually has something to do with an array of events that the dog’s handler has unwittingly set up for the dog; they forgot to feed it, then put the animal in a stressful situation, thus causing the animal to react aggressively. Or they hit the dog on a part of the body that was, unbeknownst to the owner, injured or sore from a bee sting or a bruise, and now the animal feels the need to lash out. A lot of the time, it’s a situational problem, as in the case of the off-leash Akita that attacked Jude a few months ago. 

We were walking down a forest trail at night when this huge off-leash dog came hurdling toward us. It didn’t even stop to sniff at Jude before biting into his side. Jude wriggled free and hid behind me just as the Akita’s owner showed up. She grabbed her dog and threw it down in an alpha roll, then apologized profusely as I hurried Jude away from the scene to check him for injuries. 

Later that weekend, I saw the Akita again. This time it was on a leash (thankfully!), but the owner was slapping it upside the head for growling at another dog. 

I don't typically like to tell people that there is a right and a wrong way to do much of anything - I know from experience that breaking from the norm often produces excellent results when it comes to problem-solving! But in the world of dog training, there is absolutely no room for hitting, grabbing, shaking, or those bullshit fucking alpha rolls. 

On Saturday, we pulled up to the lake at the abandoned Girl Scout camp, and there are these local rednecks there who are the proud new owners of an Aussie pup (who looks like it might have Lethal White Syndrome). The instant this puppy doesn't listen to one of the owners, they call it over to them so they can throw it down in an alpha roll. 

At one point, the dude-owner leaned over the puppy and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck to force it onto it's back, and the puppy reared up and grabbed the young man by the lip and nose. He laughed it off, forcing the screaming puppy down, and, when he saw my disgusted expression, said, "She's trying so hard to be dominant! I don't think she knows how much bigger and stronger I am!" 

I'd never seen someone bit on the face like that before. It was rather jarring, even though no blood was drawn. I told Andrew later, "That dog is going to hurt someone some day. They're going to say, 'I don't know what got into her! She just snapped!'" 

I wanted so badly to tell these people that they were dooming their animal to be a cowering, fearful, aggressive mental mess. But I already knew that they weren't the type to take my advice, and would, most likely, consider my attempt to help an insult. I would have heard the old excuse of, "Well, I've raised a lotta dogs like this and they all turned out great!" or, "My cousin is a professional trainer, and he says..." 

Bullshit. 

If you call your dog to your side so that you can beat the piss out of her, then get upset at the fact that your dog has shitty recall, there is something wrong with YOU, not with your dog.  Of course she doesn't want to come to you! You grab her, shake her, and throw her on her back every other time she does so. If someone told you that if you reached into a dark hole, you might get $50.00, or you might stick your hand in a conibear trap, would you be willing to make that reach each and every time? I sincerely doubt it.

The Best Way To Discipline Your Dog

        You’ve read many dog training books and a lot of them tell you that in order for you to control your dogs behavior you must be physically forceful with them…. WRONG!

Science has proven that using force is definitely not the right way to treat your best friend.

The Best Way To Discipline Your Dog

You want to discipline your dog but you are really confused about what to do. You know you…