Proper Correction – Part Two
Effective correction is, I believe, an oxymoron. You see, dear reader, there is no such a thing as “ineffectice correction”. Implicit in the very word correction, is success ie, effective correction.
Last month I wrote: “You will never gain the leader role through correction.” This very point is where many dog owners make a crucial error. Allow me to explain where I’m coming from on this. Years ago, when I was in the Marine Corps, did Corporal McSoley inform Colonel Saunders that, in my opinion, he was doing a lousy job running the battalion? Of course not! Why? Well, in the military it is called Rank. Rank is nothing more than the pecking order in uniform. Colonel Saunders will take my admonition not as constructive criticism, but rather a direct challenge to his leadership. Should he, on the other hand, call me into his office and chew me out for some infraction, and conclude with, “do we understand each other, corporal?” My answer would be an immediate “aye aye sir.”
So it is in the dog world. If your dog believes that he is in the leader role with respect to you, and, for example, he takes something that he shouldn’t have, you may quickly end up in my old situation when I was in the U.S.M.C. You walk over to your dog, tell him to “drop it” and then reach down to take it away. Your dog, understanding that he is in the leader role, answers, “I don’t think so”, growls and possibly lunges and bites your hand. Why? Because he gives the orders, not you. He is, essentially, the colonel.
So, what is the remedy? First, you must ACHIEVE THE LEADER ROLE. When the leader role is properly established and your dog understands he is answerable to you, Only then does correction become possible. By now you should begin to understand why attempting to achieve the leader role through correction is, not only extremely difficult, but quite possibly dangerous for you.
To understand how to gain the role of leader, read this month’s piece on Dog Problem For the Month of April Follow the Natural Law: Correction flows only from the top down, never from the bottom up.
Remember, to work with a dog you first need to understand the dog. As Sherlock Holmes would have said; “elementary, my dear Watson.”
Copyright 2011 by Ray McSoley.
