Pens and Paws

MacWorld 2010 stole my husband away for four days this past week, and we now are realizing how true Cesar Millan’s ideas are.

Both Oscar and Maddy slept on the bed while my husband was off in San Francisco, and today, Oscar growled at my husband during feeding time. So now we’re taking a few steps.

1. Reasserting pack leader: Oscar will remain on floor for everything. No couch, no bed, nothing. We will remain physically higher than him at all times.

2. Heeling at walks: Usually, we require our dogs to walk with us, but it’s a thing we don’t always keep up (like most dog-owners). However, that changes now.

3. We eat first: Sounds simple, but it is really effective. It reminds the dogs that we are alphas and they eat after us, just like in the wild.

4. Hand fed: When I worked in a police department, our K9 units never ate out of a bowl; they were always hand fed. Always. So, I think we’ll feed both dogs by hand for a bit.

5. Feed only when they are calm: Oscar will need to calm down before we can feed him. This will probably be the hardest since he gets excited to eat. Not sure how we’re going to tackle this, but I’m hoping with some internet research we can figure it out.

6. Earned affection: Oscar’s going to have to work for everything now. This may sound like we don’t care about our dog, but au contraire, this will help him because it’s a reliable sense of structure. Just like kids, dogs need to feel secure in the pack’s structure.

So, I’m kinda sad because I love to show Oscar love, but I’ll have to pull back. It’s hard not to return love unconditionally. But I’ll do it for the health of the pack.

I’m reminded of Ernest Hemingway who said that writing is rewriting. In the world of dogs, it’s training is retraining.