Have you ever heard of “The Mighty Atom?’
The Mighty Atom was Joe Greenstein; a 5’4” Jewish Strongman that beat the hell out of Nazi’s in New York City, bent metal bars on his chest, chewed spikes in half and was one hell of a fascinating dude.
He is famous for saying: “I give you respect. But I do not ask for yours in return. I demand it. If you will not give it to me, I will take it out of your hide.”
Kind of funny and from what I’ve read about him, it seems to fit his personality.
Even though I think he said it in jest, there are far too many trainers that have this opinion with dogs.
Take for example a recent exchange I had:
Person: “My dog is dominant.”
ADTM: “Why do you think that?”
Person: “He goes through the door before me.”
ADTM: “Did you ever think that maybe your dog is just excited to go outside and party?”
Person: “No, I know he’s being dominant.”
ADTM: Slaps palm on forehead and wonders what The Mighty Atom would do.
Listen gang, the whole dominant dog thing is way, way overblown. A dog going out the door is NOT dominant. A dog that eats before you is NOT dominant. Many times even a dog growling at you is NOT dominant.
Most of the aggressive dogs that I have dealt with were insecure, brought on by harsh training and equipment. Let me strap an electronic collar on you, speak a language you don’t understand and ZAP you every time you do something that is completely normal.
Peeing in the house, chewing on shoes, digging through the garbage are all natural, normal behaviors to dogs. This does NOT mean I allow my dogs to do these behaviors, I just don’t send an electrical volt into their system every time they do something I don’t like.
Same goes with pulling on leash. This is NOT a dominant behavior. You dog wants to move. Your dog wants to check out his world.
All you need to do is teach him to do it without yanking your shoulder out its socket every time you go out.
And it’s not that difficult when you know what steps to take.
Which is why I developed The Leash Walking Secrets Course that I teach in my classes. You can learn the step-by-step system that I use to train dogs to walk on leash.
Get all the details by going here NEXT:
Best,
Eric
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