The Way of the Dog

Stuart Barnes

Description

"If we are the most intelligent creatures on Earth, why do we make our domesticated animals understand our language, instead of us understanding theirs?”
“If we are the most intelligent creatures on Earth, why do we try to make our domesticated animals understand our
language, instead of us understanding theirs?”
From the paddocks of New Zealand and Scotland to the untamed hilltops of Ethiopia and the valleys of Alaska, Stuart Barnes has tracked, observed and trained dogs all over the world for over 25 years. In this book he shares his incredible insights to help us all learn to communicate with our canines on the level they understand.
The Way of the Dog will give you a better understanding of why dogs behave the way they do, as well as straightforward, easy-to-follow techniques on how to correct many unwanted behaviours.
With clear, step-by-step instructions, this book will help you with all the essential aspects of owning and training a dog, including choosing and raising a puppy or an older dog, housetraining, effective walk routines, mealtimes, playtime and boundaries. With Stuart's help, you can unlock the secrets to building the long and happy relationship with your canine companion that both you and your dog deserve.
***
“The Way of the Dog is loaded with practical, easy-to-follow tips and tricks
to help any dog lover create a positive, rewarding relationship with their canine companion. If you love your dog, and want to create the best environment for both your pet and your family in your home, you simply must read this book.”
Lisa Anderson, author of Mom! There's a Lion in the Toilet

Sujets

• Self-help

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris NZ
• Date de parution: 22 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669880059
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE WAY OF THE DOG

TRAINING BY INSTINCT





STUART BARNES




Copyright © 2022 by Stuart Barnes.

ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-8006-6
eBook
978-1-6698-8005-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.




Rev. date: 11/14/2022






Xlibris
NZ TFN: 0800 008 756 (Toll Free inside the NZ)
NZ Local: 9-801 1905 ([phone] from outside New Zealand)
www.Xlibris.co.nz

848629














The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the author.

















This book is dedicated to my children, Marie, Eva and Max
















My goal in life is to be as good a personas my dog already thinks I am.
– Anonymous



Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Stuart’s Story
2 Packs in the Wild
3 Understanding Dogs
4 Before Training Begins
5 Master the Energy
6 Choosing a Dog and Bringing Him Home
7 Raising a Dog
8 The Importance of the Dog Walk
9 Understanding the Aggressive Dog
10 Aggressive Dogs: Positive Techniques for Overcoming Behaviour Issues
11 Obsessive and High-Energy Dogs: Positive Techniques for Overcoming Behaviour Issues
12 Dogs That Are Nervous or Scared: Positive Techniques for Overcoming Behaviour Issues
13 Boundaries, Affection and Playtime
14 The Way of the Dog



Acknowledgements
Without the sterling efforts of a number of skilful and dedicated people, this book would probably never have seen the light of day. I especially wish to acknowledge:
Chantal Barnes, my wonderful life partner, who typed and retyped each of these chapters many times over. She is the backbone of this book and of my family. My work would not have been possible without her. Chantal’s time and dedication to this project have been astounding.
Ilsa Hawtin, who contributed endlessly with her time and editing skills, and kept the flow of the material working all the way through this book. I wish to thank her for her tireless work on this project from the beginning and for truly understanding what this book is all about. This started as a working relationship and ended as a friendship.
Helen Nelson, who has helped in all areas of designing this book, including the cover.
Lisa Anderson, who is such a giving soul – thank you for everything.
And to all my family and friends. I feel blessed that you are a part of my journey as you add so much to my life. Thank you.



Introduction
As a dog lover, I have trained, raised and lived with a wide variety of dogs for my entire life. I spent a number of those years observing canines all over the globe, researching their pack behaviour and ways of communication. At the time of writing this book, I have been presenting dog training demonstrations in the UK for over 17 years, explaining the natural and learned instincts that form a dog’s temperament, with the goal of narrowing the communication gap between pets and their owners.
Dogs do their best to deliver their canine cues to us, but sometimes we misinterpret their signals. By understanding that dogs are pack animals, we learn that they need a leader. In your home, this has to be you.
The Way of the Dog contains all the information you need to make your dog happy, confident, secure, and able to understand and follow your rules. I concentrate on the questions that dog owners have asked me over the years, and provide step-by-step guidance to solve the most common challenges facing dogs and their owners today.
I encourage you to read the entire book, and then use it as a reference guide whenever you come across a problem or are unsure about your dog’s behaviour.
I have referred to your dog as ‘him’ throughout this book, but this is only to make the text uniform and so that the writing flows easily. Please don’t be offended if you have a ‘her’.
Whether you share your heart and home with a puppy, an adolescent or a senior dog, it’s never too early or too late to build a bond that will last for the rest of your pet’s life. By allowing me to give you the tools to understand your canine pet, you can work towards an incredible new quality of life together. Follow my instructions and you will be able to create the wonderful relationship that you and your dog deserve.



Chapter 1
Stuart’s Story
I have been meaning to write this book for a long time now. For over two decades, people have been coming to me to find the answers on how to solve their dogs’ unwanted behaviour, and they have been happy with the outcomes from our consultations.
Over all those years, the same sorts of questions have arisen over and over again, and I have experienced the obvious love and frustration of so many dog owners. It must be time for me to share what I have learned so that every person has a chance to have a well-behaved dog. I will endeavour to pass on all the tools that I have learnt and that work well for me. There are of course a very wide variety of methods on training dogs – please do keep this in mind if my style is not for you.
Before we look at dog behaviour and training, it might help you to have an idea of my own history and how I have arrived at where I am today.
As far back as I can remember, I loved being around animals. I was known as the Animal Kid during my years growing up on the South Island of New Zealand. I had more pets than I could count: from possums to magpies, from goats to ponies, and many other homeless species. Creatures lived in and around the whole house, with a large number of baby animals in the closets and drawers of my bedroom. My neighbours and people in the surrounding villages dropped off unwanted animals, knowing that I would always look after them.
Growing up, I lived with my father, who was 64 when I was born, my two older brothers and a sister. When my brothers and sister left home I was around 11 years old and, since my dad always felt guilty about not having enough energy for me, he pretty much let me do as I pleased. He knew that the animals kept me happy. However, this came at a cost: when I got home from school, I would go straight out to work for three hours each day in order to pay for the upkeep of my pets. This wasn’t exactly an easy option, but it was worth it – I loved spending time looking after my 40 birds (from a variety of different species), sheepdogs, possums, goats, lambs and ponies, to name just a few. Luckily for me, my dad was also an animal man. He enjoyed looking after them with me and taught me a great deal about all sorts of animals as I was growing up.
At the age of 15 I left mainstream education and home to become a shepherd. For me the most significant place of my work mustering sheep and cattle was on New Zealand’s Clarence Reserve, a vast 132,000-acre station made up of rugged mountains and treacherous terrain. While working on that station I had 15 sheepdogs and four horses of my own, and lived in the rugged bush-style huts there.
I worked with some scary hillbillies – men who lived out in the mountains for most of their lives, with beards down to their belly buttons, and very strong and often violent opinions. These were true rednecks.
I had various duties in this line of work, including capturing and breaking in wild horses. At other times I would ride in a Robertson helicopter with no doors, holding on with just one arm inside the helicopter as we travelled over the landscape, mustering the cows and the wild bulls. But my main learning experience on the Clarence Reserve came from working closely with my dogs and horses, watching how they communicated with each other during our months alone in the remote outback.
At this young stage in my life, I initially followed my fellow workers’ way of ‘training’ our sheepdogs and horses, which was primarily through fear. Fear has been the most common way to break in animals – the method used by most humans for thousands of years, and one to which we have become desensitised.
But, living for months on my own with my dogs, I soon learned another way. By watching my pack of dogs I started to realise that they always followed a pack leader, and that this lead dog communicated brilliantly and powerfully at all times with the rest of the pack. Watching how they interacted and seeing how the pack leaders kept order, I soon realised that they were born with this system. You could call it a ‘hard drive’, or rules that they are simply born with and follow: their natural instincts. Dogs are of course pack animals, and it was obvious that the lower members always wanted to please the pack leader.
So I changed my ways of training to mimic these natural instincts. I worked with the dogs using their language, rather than using fear and punishment to force the animals to obey. After all, if we are the most intelligent sp