Why 'Sanity For Dogs'?
|
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 and boundaries but most importantly respect for their owner to be a well-balanced dog. This is particularly important for intelligent and working breeds for whom focus, structure and mental stimulation tends to be essential for their sanity. Many dog breeds are born to serve or at least born to follow. Just like children, if a dog can look up to someone with authority, confidence and in control, someone they can not only love but respect and trust as their leader they learn to feel save, calm, balanced, relaxed. In this state of mind then also happy to submit, letting go of potential anxiety or aggression. You can walk a dog for several hours a day or always have it with you but it can still be unbalanced and bored. The more intelligent a dog the more likely it will have issues if unchallenged and untrained. Just like understimulated children can develop unwanted behaviour. Just like children most dogs thrive of structure and mental stimulation. Without it they can easily act out, become distructive and uncontrollable. Dogs can also be overstimulated. For example excessive throwing of tennis balls can make dogs hyper and over-excited. They lose focus on their owner, don't even realise the owners is there, stop listening. It is important to remember that, unless the dog has a medical condition or has experienced severe trauma, disobedience and 'craziness' are hardly ever the dog's fault. Equally important is that before a dog can understand what we want we need to teach it what we humans expect, how we want it to behave, what we appreciate and what we don't. If I could make a wish every dog owner (esp. first time owners) would have a few training sessions at the very start. If you establish a sound foundation early on (recall, sit, stay, heel work) you are much less likely to encounter issues later on. I am an advocate of getting the whole famiiy involved in the training process. If all children learnt early on how to communicate with, handle and train a dog they would be excellent dog owners to any dog later on in their lives. This would make this planet a much better place for dogs which is precisely my mission and ambition. |
SANITY . . . Soundness of Mind
Judgment and Reason. Mindfulness. Rationality. Stability. Normality. Focus. A good foundation for OBEDIENCE. Antonyms . . . Mentalness. Craziness. Confusion. Often reasons for DISOBEDIENCE. |
