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Similar to visualizing world peace (or whirled peas, as the case may be) but much more attainable, visualizing good behavior in your dog can help you realize your dog-training goals. It's a lot like when athletes practice in their own minds before a game or an athletic competition, except that it goes beyond mere practice. The skeptics among you may want to switch to another blog at this time, unless you feel like doing a little experiment.
Try this: The next time you're faced with a dog-training challenge, don't think about the thing that you're afraid might happen. Instead, visualize in your mind a great outcome—visualize the results you want. For example, picture your dog responding to you when you call him or her to come to you or sitting quietly as you trim his or her nails. It often can make a big difference, because when you keep a positive thought like that in your mind, you're giving off a different kind of energy that your dog can feel.
This is what Cesar Millan of Dog Whisperer fame calls "intention." I know, I know—I don't like everything he does, either (especially the episode that I just recently watched from the second season in which he used a shock collar―grrrr!), but I do think he's right on the money when he talks about intention and energy, and I haven't heard any other dog trainer talk about that. Basically, the idea is that you have to change your own thoughts in order to change the way you’re perceived by your dog, which, in turn, will change the way your dog reacts to you. So if you're thinking, "I just know Fluffy is going to run away from me" or "Fido never lets me cut his nails," and you’re holding those images in your mind, then that's the behavior you’ll get from them. But if you think, "This is going to work really well" and you picture the good behavior in your mind’s eye, it might just happen. It's certainly worth a good-faith try, and it can only help.
I have to say that it seems to work for me. Just yesterday, when I got to the beach with my big dogs, there was a man sitting down in an adjacent parking lot, frustrated because he couldn’t catch his dog. So I pictured myself catching his dog for him. Then I asked him the dog’s name, walked right up to her, said her name, and gently grabbed her collar. She didn’t even attempt to dart away!
Incidentally, this can work on people too. For the past few years when the weather has started to turn cold, I've gone around to any of my neighbors who are making their dogs stay outside (there’s a new batch of them every year) and offered them straw for their dogs' doghouses. And whenever I make the effort ahead of time to visualize the people accepting the straw, they always do.
Thoughts are powerful things—they can affect our physical health and our state of mind, so why shouldn’t they also affect our immediate surroundings?
OK, stop snickering and just try it! You might be surprised.
Comments ( 2 )
Great article. That visualization/intending thing is talked about by Dr Wayne Dyer really well in a book he released last year.
When I went to Cesar's seminar last September I got so much out of it that I came back and immeidately convered all my dog who walk on treadmills (because they need more energy then I can do on our walks, to "leash-less" treadmill dogs just like that (videos of them on you tube).
But I guess I am surprised because you said you saw the episode with the shock collar dog who was a farm dog! This dog had a habit of chasing anything with tires on the farm. This dog had actually been rolled under the tire when he caught one with his teeth and had lost one eye and almost gotten killed.
I was beyond impressed when Cesar showed how the electronic collar should be used correctly at the lowest setting that will catch a dogs notice!
Dont you remember that he only had to use that collar twice before the dog got it? Both times when it was applied, the dog stopped and looked around like someone had tapped him on the shoulder!
There was no squealing, no yelping, no rolling in the ground in agony. Just twice, and the dog has not chase tires ever again.
It saved his life when everything else and everyone else including "expert trainers" failed to change his behavior!
I think we frequently forget, that the dogs we see on Cesar's show are themost hopless of the hopeless! That in the interviews the owners have to show where they have tried every skill and resource they have, and then skill and resource of other "professionals".
Cesar's way has saved thousands of dogs that would have been destroyed or abandoned - there is a yahoo list of 2300 members with problem dogs that are working on fixes with archives open to public to read and get inspired by others working with Cesar's way.
>>>KP's Response:
Hi Cynthia!
Thanks for your message!
Actually, the episode that I saw was called "Spike in the Heart," and it was about a black lab mix named Spike who was starting to become somewhat aggressive (not really a worst-case scenario). The family wanted Spike to get along with their cat, so Cesar actually used a shock collar (he called it an "electronic collar") to shock the dog when he lunged at the cat, who was in a crate. The dog shrieked and whimpered and appeared to have received a very painful jolt, and Cesar didn't explain anything about "the lowest setting" or even admit that it was a shock collar.
I was shocked too! It was the first episode I've seen that I completely disagreed with. I haven't seen the episode with the farm equipment yet, so I'll reserve my judgment on that one.
But I don't expect any trainer to be 100 percent perfect. I think we have to extract the best parts of each method and use them. I don't agree with people who refuse to look at a trainer because of one or two things that they disagree with. Almost everyone has something to offer.
KP
Posted by CJ Andeson | November 28, 2007 9:05 PM
Posted on November 28, 2007 21:05
I need an expert to help me out.
In October I purchased a home and I got a letter today from my homeowners insurance company telling me they were going to terminate my insurance effective 1/03/08 because I have an ineligble breed-pitbull. I have 2 dogs and one is a maltese and the other is an American Bulldog. Apparently my American Bulldog looks like a Pittbull. I would still love her the same if she was a Pittbull.
Two years ago I adopted Allie, my American Bulldog from the Rescue League in Pittsburgh and she's a joy. When I moved into my new home my neighbor was scared of dogs and she has fallen in love with them.
The homeowners company is Travelers Insurance Company and they used Milennium Information Services to have them do the house inspection. When I called today the girl on the phone told me they took a picture of my dog outside and assumed it was a Pittbull. They didn't even call me to let me know.
I would like someone to send me any recommendations on what to do.
Thanks
please email me at queta102@hotmail.com
Posted by Queta Hindie | November 29, 2007 7:02 PM
Posted on November 29, 2007 19:02