11:03pm Monday 6th July 2009
By Denis Watkins
This morning, early and in heavy rain, I took Freddie, my Labrador, for a walk. The heavier the rain, the more the streams turn into torrents, the happier he becomes.
We walk every morning as there is nothing more important for a dog than this walk before I feed him. I learned this from an Mexican, Cesar Milan, who now lives in California.
His programmes “The Dog Whisperer” are the best I have ever seen on dogs or people. I also read a couple of his books.
Many of my neighbours are also followers of the Cesar Milan method although it is difficult at first. You have a choice: treat the dog as a pack animal and that means cut out most of the patting, stroking, fondling, jumping on chairs, beds and so much else and you will have a relaxed dog.
Or: continue with the usual way we treat pet dogs and you may be happy but you will produce an agitated dog trying to perform a role that he cannot. I know that it isn’t easy because the urge to stroke a dog, and particularly a Labrador in my case, is hard to resist. The rewards far outweigh the restraint.
If you ever manage to watch the Dog Whisperer on digital TV you will see what I mean.
One of the worst examples I have met of the other approach - dogs are small people – was on Newport Beach last summer. Daphne and I met a woman with two small dogs, little terriers I think, and she was wailing as if her heart was breaking. As indeed it was.
“My baby, my baby, he is ill, I can’t live without him, he has a heart problem,” she is saying. The dog looked ill and needed a vet and we said our vet was in Fish guard but there were others who were nearer.
She was so distraught she could scarcely take in the information. One effect of this is to make the dog even more agitated. And off she went.
The sad part of much of this is that the owner is not unkind, she wants to help the dog and indeed will do or pay whatever is needed. For someone like this, I know that any suggestion that her way might be cruel to the dog, achieves nothing.
They want a dog who is a baby and all the evidence is that a dog is still a wolf and pack animal, regardless of size. Also, like a horse who is a herd animal, a dog left alone at home will be agitated and worse.
We have two friends, Ian and Jill, living quite near who visited us. They were surprised at the way Freddie lay so quietly. On a return visit, and outside this time, he lay relaxed as before in the sun.
We told them about the Cesar Milan approach and when their grandson got a black Labrador puppy this was the method he used. When I met them again, with boy and dog, his dog was a great example of that approach.
My mum, 98 years old loves having Freddie when we are out as she has learned the Cesar Milan approach. In fact, Sharon, her carer, is pretty good at it as well.
Thanks Cesar Milan, who learned and absorbed this, from watching semi-feral dogs in his native Mexico.
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