Why 'Sanity For Dogs'?
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An overexcited boisterous dog running around with little response to its owner is not necessarily a well-balanced, sane or happy dog. Dogs need much more than good food, love and physical exercise. They need rules, boundaries and most importantly respect for their owner to be balanced and truly happy. For intelligent and working breeds especially, focus, structure and mental stimulation both at home and on walks is essential for their sanity. Working breeds especially (but most non-working breeds too), are animals that are born to serve or at least born to follow. They strive to look up to someone with authority and confidence. Someone they can adore for being a strong leader, so they can simply 'relax' and be trusting, for example that there's no need for them to be the alpha male and take charge of defending the pack. You can walk a dog for several hours a day - or always have it with you - and it can still be utterly bored, because it does not get the mental stimulation it needs. Without it, dogs can easily become disobedient, distructive and uncontrollable. The more intelligent a dog, the more likely it will have issues if unchallenged and untrained. In the same way as an understimulated child can develop (often unexplained) unruly behaviour. Dogs can also be overstimulated. Excessive throwing of tennis balls is a good example. Similar to overstimulated children, dogs can become hyper and over-excited. They lose focus on their owner - and stop listening. The more intelligent a dog the more likely it will have issues if unchallenged and untrained. It is important to remember that - unless the dog has a medical condition - disobedience and 'craziness' are hardly ever (I would like to go as far as 'never') the dog's fault. Equally important: before a dog can understand what we want from it, we need to teach it what it is we want from it. If I could make a wish, every dog owner (and particularly first time owners) would have a few training sessions at the very beginning. If you establish a sound foundation early on (recall, sit & stay, heel work) you are much less likely to encounter obedience issues later on. I am an advocate of involving the whole family including children in the training process. If all children learned early on how to handle and discipline a dog, they would know exactly what to do with any dog they have later on in life, thus be better owners themselves. This would make this world a better place for dogs (and ultimately owners), precisely my mission and ambition. (Big words I know ... but you ought to have a vision) |
Sanity = Soundness of Mind Judgment and Reason Mindfulness Rationality Stability Normality Focus . . . aka 'Obedience' *** Antonyms: Mentalness Craziness Confusion . . . aka 'Disobedience' |
