"Dog whisperer"

My companion every afternoon: Dog Whisperer on Nat Geo!

Back in singapore, I had been telling Elson:"Hey you need to teach Chester this, control Chester that..... Blah blah blah"

His reply to me was always asking me to go watch dog whisperer.

Finally I got a chance to watch it here. I have been watching it for the past 2 weeks. It is quite interesting to see how Caesar Milan teaches dogs' owners to change their state of mind rather than training the dogs themselves.

How true is it?

Let's try!
 

Sasha

Chester

Background: Our dogs, Chester (boy) and Sasha (girl), are Jack Russells Terrier. They are known for their high amount of energy. So I decided to try to solve one of their problems, which was their excitement when I was going to take their leash out of the cupboard. They knew they would be going out, thus super excited.

Don't get me wrong, it was not a big problem. I just thought it was quite annoying at times. So here we go.



What to do? According to Caesar Milan, the owner needs to be constantly be in a calm and assertive state of mind to get the message across. Less talking and more patience.

The Process: The barking, constant jumping and pounding started the moment I reached the cupboard for their leash. I remained quiet, made them sit, and waited for them to be quiet and calm. I used my finger to point at them, a form of instruction to STAY. After a quick 5 minutes, they were quiet and getting it. They understood that they would only get what they wanted when they were quiet.

 
The Test: I tried again the following few days, it worked the same. It has been a week or more now, they no longer make a single bark or pound when I am getting ready to leash them. It works when Elson tries to leash them too. I hope this good behavior stays.

This is quite interesting. I am surprised with the outcome.

It reminded me to be calm towards my daily life too. As what Elson always says to me "ZEN........."