A Lesson in Understanding Your Dog

I met this guy with a 4 month old Amstaff Terrier, though I haven't done a more extensive look into the breed its a beautiful looking dog. In any event, I met him today 1/26/07 and he noticed how I had been walking with my 14 month old akita along by my side. This was of particular interest with him because his Amstaff pulls him wherever he so chooses. I had spend about 4 or 5 hours just listening to the Caesar Milan Audio tapes. For those of you who don't know of Caesar Milan maybe you have heard of the dog whisperer. If you own a dog Read as much as you can about his philosophy. Check out dogpsychologycenter.com its great. But in any event the follow is an e-mail that I just wrote to my new found dog owning buddy. I felt other people could benefit by it and as a dog lover I feel this is essential information. Hope it helps.

About what we talked about the Amstaff (Which by the is a most beautiful looking dog), at 4 months when I bought my Akita I trained him the best way I could. I was patient, I took him for long walks to get him confortable with his surroundings. In the tapes your here the importance of these walks, i.e your dog will only effectually respond to you when you are being the Calm-Assertive, "Pack Leader" and he is the Calm Submissive, "Pack Follower." You Must master the walk. Speaking of the walk. I'm just not qualified to say too much in that area. However, my experience was this. I brought him home, my Akita (which Caesar explains in detail should be nothing less than a 3 hour walk.) and initially he was very reluctant to walk with me but I baited him with some treats and positive reinforcement at the right time. i.e the right time - when he began to freeze up I baited him and when he took steps forward I rewarded him with the treat and some affection to show him that he was doing the right thing at that time.