The Only Dog Training Energy We Need

Michael Baugh CDBC

There was a time when a television personality popularized the idea of “energy” in dog training. Dominance energy. Pack leader energy. Alpha energy.

It made for interesting television. He became a star. Too many dogs paid the price.

Those ideas about energy often translated into kicks, hard leash yanks, intimidation, and electric shocks delivered through remote collars.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with the idea of energy in dog training. I live and teach dog training in Sedona. I’m surrounded by and immersed in the very best kind of energy.

But that alpha, dominant, pack leader nonsense? I call bullshit.

That’s not the vibe any of us should aspire to. It’s not the energy our dogs need. At best, it’s ego. At worst, and far too often, it’s abuse.

So what kind of energy should we bring to our dogs?

Kindness.

Patience.

Humility.

The willingness to listen instead of overpower. To teach, instead of intimidate. To ask, “How can I help my dog?” instead of “How can I make my dog submit?”

Every great religious tradition points us in this direction. So do the philosophers. So do the saints. They all arrive at the same conclusion: kindness is strength, not weakness.

The only dog training energy we really need is love.

Go ahead. Roll your eyes. Then hear me out.

Love isn’t soft. It isn’t permissive. It isn’t letting your dog do whatever they want.

Love pays attention.

Love notices when a dog is confused instead of calling them stubborn. Love sees fear instead of defiance. Love slows down when learning gets difficult. Love sets a dog up to succeed instead of waiting for them to fail.

Of course, we set boundaries. Of course, we don’t leave dogs to their own devices. That would be irresponsible. Life in our human world is tricky (ask any human), and our dogs depend on us to help them navigate it.

But anger is not a training technique, and shrouding it in the language of energy is an insult to our dogs and ourselves.

Look at your dog. They aren’t the ones hung up on leadership and dominance. Science debunked that idea long ago. Look at them in their quietest moment. See how they stare back at you, that slow, soft blink. Such patience, so much kindness from an animal who will never speak a word.

My dear fellow humans, that’s their vibe. That is your dog’s energy. I know you feel it. It’s Love.

Michael Baugh teaches dog training in Sedona Arizona, Houston Texas, and online everywhere. He specializes in aggressive dog training.

Are Dogs in a New Phase of Evolution?

Michael Baugh CDBC

You may have seen the headline: “Dogs are Entering a New Phase of Evolution.” The hoopla is over the discovery that some dogs have a genetic variant that makes their oxytocin receptors more sensitive. Linköping University in Sweden did the study. Dogs given a nasal spray of the hormone oxytocin were more likely to seek help from their owners in solving a puzzle. Oxytocin facilitates social bonding, among other things. It’s often misnamed “the love hormone.” The implication: dogs with enhanced oxytocin receptors seek help from their humans, suggesting an evolutionary shift towards dog-human bonding. I can see how folks might make that connection. But it’s a small, preliminary study. Calling this a new phase of evolution might be a stretch. We will see.

One thing we know for sure. Human expectations of dogs have changed. We changed the playing field for dogs a lot.

As recently as the 1990s, most dogs in America lived outside. They caught rats and scared off potential intruders (and neighbor kids and postal carriers). Rural dogs guarded and herded livestock. If a dog slept in your bed, you’d likely wake up with fleas and ticks on you.

When Dr. Ian Dunbar founded the Association of Pet Dog Trainers in 1993, he called pet dog training a specialty. (APDT later re-named itself The Association of Professional Dog Trainers). Dunbar was ahead of the curve. So was John Katz when he wrote his prescient book, The New Work of Dogs, in 2004. “Dog training was little known and little needed, since most dogs merely wandered their neighborhoods and were seldom walked on leashes.” Katz predicted the shift in how dogs would soon fit into the human condition. It had already begun, in fact. Leave the rats and the sheep outside. Invite the dogs in. They were family. Emotional surrogates. Our friends, counselors and confidants.

Katz’s worst predictions also came true. The world changed quickly, and it’s still changing. Human psychology researchers suspect (I think rightly) that we’ve changed technology and social pressures faster than we can keep up. Humans have outpaced our own evolution. We’ve become divisive and isolated. The resulting pressure on our dogs was inevitable. Our powerful hunters and herders now wear clothes. Dogs who retrieved fowl and repelled interlopers are our emotional caregivers. They used to be in the background, outside. Now they are the center of our worlds. It might be too much for them. The evolutionary shift isn’t coming fast enough – for them or us.

An old mentor once said dog breeders could put aggressive dog trainers like me out of business if they started selecting for temperament instead of looks. It’s true. After all, we bred dogs for hunting and herding and guarding. Plus fear, the fuel of aggressive behavior, is heritable in dogs. Why not breed for nicer dogs who can fit into our families better? Fair enough. Breeders have been doing their part. We may not be in a new era of dog evolution. It’s likely we are seeing the results of selective breeding for calmer, more biddable dogs. That is good news, no matter what you call it.

But breeding is not enough.

I started my dog training career in 1999. For well over two decades, my work has been about helping dogs and people understand each other better. It’s been less about militaristic obedience and more about cooperation. Let’s be honest. We are living in a stressful time. The human condition is beautiful but also hard. Teaching a dog how to thrive in our complicated human world can be equally beautiful, and also hard.

We have a long history, we humans and dogs. Fossil records show we have co-evolved for the past 14,000 years. We’ve been in this together. We still are. Oxytocin plays a role and probably has for a long time. If you and your dog spent a few minutes looking lovingly at each other (I recommend it), you would both have increased levels of oxytocin in your bloodstream compared to the baseline levels before you started ogling. And if some dogs are developing better receptors, so be it.

But more oxytocin alone may not be the magic formula. Oxytocin does many things in human bodies. It assists with uterine contractions (the childbirth kind and the monthly kind). It’s also responsible for lactation in new mothers. Oxytocin shows up in men too, enhancing connections with mates and offspring. Like most good things, though, there are side effects. Oxytocin apparently causes in-group bias and increased agitation and aggression toward out-group members. What does that mean? People (and presumably dogs) juiced up on oxytocin may groove on their family and friends, but may also be more likely to shun or attack those who are outside their primary group. Trust me, your dog trainer who specializes in aggression is not excited about that part.

What do we do with all this information? My Latin teacher in high school would say, “jot it down in your gee whiz notebook.” It’s fun stuff, but it won’t show up on any test. Hormones and other neurochemicals are a fascinating, ever-changing soup. We know a little about it. And there is so much more to learn. They definitely play a role in behavior change and a good board certified veterinary behaviorist can help. Genetics plays a role too. Genes are not written in indelible ink. We are learning more about that every day. The environment activates many genes and leaves others quiet. There’s so much more to learn about the genetics of behavior. We’ll uncover that information in time, I’m sure.

Evolution is the slow and steady work of genes. The really good variations get passed on when the organism reproduces. Adaptation results from trial and success. So does learning. It’s the result of trial and success. And, oh my, are our dogs exceptionally developed learners. Learning: dogs have that one nailed.

That’s the true work of dogs. Isn’t it? Learning new skills, new variations on a theme, new ways to live with us. (Oh, we are so unpredicable, we humans). And what about us? What’s the new work of humans? Breathe. Stay present. Be kind to ourselves and others. Those come to mind. Then, ogle at your dog and show him how to be a champ at life with you and the crazy world around him.

Michael Baugh specializes in Aggressive Dog Training in Sedona, Arizona and Houston, Texas.

Teach Your Dog to Relax on Cue

Michael Baugh CDBC CPDT-KSA

Anything our dogs can physically do, we can put on cue. Our dogs can run towards us, walk beside us, lie down, stand still, and do a ton of other things. We can train all of those, put them on cue, turn them into polite behavior or tricks.

Think about that for a minute. What are the things your dog does, or could do, that you really like? We focus on the bad stuff, the misbehavior, things we want our dog to stop doing. Think for a minute about the good stuff you’ve observed. Most of my clients tell me their dogs are good ninety percent of the time. What does good look like?

Here’s a fun fact: it turns out dogs spend about a third of their waking hours just chilling and casually watching the world go by. That’s good. Some researchers call this behavior “loafing.” I prefer what certified dog behavior consultant Sarah Fraser calls it: “relaxed observation.” Street dogs do it. Our pet dogs do it. It’s natural. And guess what? We can put it on cue.

Trainers learned long ago that the best way to stop misbehavior (think: biting, for example) is to replace that behavior with something different. When we ask folks what they’d like their dogs to do, the question stumps them. They just want their dog to stop (insert unwanted behavior). When pressed, some simply say they want their dog to do nothing at all. That frustrated trainers until we realized that doing nothing is actually doing something. Lying down and observing are both behaviors and we could teach dogs to do them in a slow and relaxed manner. We can teach relaxed observation.

It gets even better. When we train a dog to relax the body, the mind follows. There’s research behind this. It’s like when we humans do our breathing exercises. It’s a simple behavior that calms our bodies and our minds. Lots of behaviors affect our feelings. The simple act of intentionally smiling can put us in a good mood. Try it. It’s fun.

Like humans, our dogs do best learning to relax in a calm and nondistracting setting. Always set your dog up to succeed. I teach Dr. Lore Haug’s conditioning relaxation protocol. We begin by teaching down in a relaxed posture – the dog lounging on their hips rather that lying tense facing forward. We add the visual cue of a mat to direct where they lie down and how deeply they relax.

We don’t put the behavior under any social pressure until it’s well engrained. When we take our time and train it right, though, this simple exercise is very versatile and durable. Training your dog to do nothing is really something!

I teach relaxed observation to almost all of my clients’ dogs. Many clients tell me it calms their dog, not just in training, but in everyday life. It’s as if they’ve adjusted their dog’s baseline for relaxation and they are just calmer over all.

I’ve seen that with my dog, Charlie. Relaxed observation is his default behavior at outdoor restaurants, coffee shops, at the airport and even the vet clinic. This is natural behavior, and it’s learned behavior.

Charlie’s not special. Any dog can learn to relax on cue. We can too, of course. In fact, we can model calm behavior for our dogs and see them reflect it back. How cool is that? We can hang out and chill out together. Just doing nothing with our dog has never been so much fun.

Inspired by Sarah Fraser’s post The Non-Activity we Should All do More Often with Our Dogs

Michael Baugh teaches dog training in Houston Texas. He specializes in aggressive dog training.