0002.1: (Dog) Size Matters

As an update to yesterday’s post, I feel like I left some things not fully thought out. Of course the size of your dog matters. But what’s more important is how you use it. And the bigger the dog, the more things it can do for you when it is well trained. Like get you a beer from the fridge. Or allow you to make a presentation (humbly) in front of thousands of people. Now, I would much rather have my dog trained than not. No matter what the size is. 

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DOG, YOU CAN GROW IT TOO

Think about it this way. A well rounded dog trainer can not only train all types of dogs, big or small. They can also train other owners dogs. This knowledge makes these people extremely valuable (and also extremely rare).

As for the people that cannot control their dog… how do they get to be leaders? By intimidation, by annoyance, by power struggles. These are the type of people that think they win all the time. But mostly it’s just other owners crossing the street because they don’t want to deal with their dog getting attacked. To the owner without control this makes them feel powerful and big. Think of these owners in more of an underground dog fighting scene. The people care about the aggressiveness of the dogs and which one wins more so than the owner controlling it. The owners just unleash their dogs onto each other and the dogs do the rest of the work. These people mostly bash their way up to leadership positions. Yes sometimes this approach is extremely helpful, but only in very rare situations (most of them are lose/lose for both sides). These people are usually despised as bosses (notice how I didn’t use the word leader… because they are not leaders). These types generally rule around the basis that if people disagree with them they will just keep quiet because it’s extremely annoying and stressful to disagree with the “boss” and induce their ego filled response.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE

In order to have consistent positive interactions with someone who has no control over their ego (dog) you must have almost full control over yours, and more knowledge of their dog than they do (which happens a lot more than you think, in both ego and actual dog ownership). You must feed the dog little bits and pieces of what it wants without the owner really noticing that you are doing so. Let’s say that you are a good dog owner. And your neighbor is a bad one, you happen to walk your dogs at the same time in opposite directions to where you always meet up somewhere on your walking route. You know that their dog is misbehaved, but you also know the fucker love treats. So you always bring treats with you on your walk. Once you see them you calmly stroll up and start a conversation. During this conversation you make their dog sit before you give it the treat, slowly teaching it good manners for the other owner. But if you give it too many treats the owner will notice you trying to fatten up their prized “shit” tzu. Same with people. You need to understand what treats you have at your disposal and how to tactfully use them along with some restraint to train the other person’s ego to like you, and sometimes it even will listen better to you, than to its owner.

IN CLOSING

Know your dog, know others dogs, always have treats, be tactful when you use them. In doing so, you will most definitely, Center Your Edge.