Invest in your dogs mental state and it will pay off in dividends for the rest of your time together.

This is what I love and why I love doing it!  Seeing a dramatic change in a dog's mental state!

Jasper is a typical small dog who presents a nervous and frightened and jumpy state of mind...an overreactive syndrome let's say.  His inner thought monologue consists mostly of wildly worrisome thoughts...thoughts that somehow relate to his early demise or fears therein.  It is my view that a dog's psyche can be filled up with highly overreactive responses for any number of thought "triggers"...meaning a Rolodex of things that a dog usually overreacts to in the exact same way, when they are triggered by them.  The following links to videos of Jasper, are four examples of what I will be talking about:  https://youtu.be/4FTt8We4os8

Dogs Have Triggers Like: A stern voice, a provocative movement, a hand gesture, a sound, a certain tone in a person's voice, the speed at which the dog is approached, the size of the person moving towards the dog, the type of shoes or boots the person is wearing, someone just carrying a leash, someone jingling a leash, the dog being on it's back, seeing an open door, hearing a gardner working, hearing traffic, hearing another dog barking, their owner walking to the kitchen, opening a door, getting out of bed, walking down a hallway...you got the idea! It's maybe hundreds of these things they will "Naturally" just react poorly to.   https://youtu.be/ZX9Qy1SDHnw

There is really no comfort that resides mentally inside some dogs heads.  They could be small dogs or bigger dogs.  It's a cacophony of many jumbled visions of what could cause something terrible to happen to the dog.  It's overwhelming and debilitating!  You, as a human, may have experienced this kind of overwhelming sense of having too much going on at any particular time, and being on the verge of a snap at "Just one more thing".  When you reach that point...what do you do to relax?  Take a hot bath, drink a glass of wine, get a professional massage, take a vacation, go out and have a long dinner with friends...?  Dogs have no way to decompress like humans do, nor do they realize that they SHOULD decompress or relax, nor do they realize that they CAN even relax, and certainly may not even know HOW to relax.  Humans can decide to relax and then go do it, but dogs don't know that option even exists AND SO THEY ARE ALWAYS IN A PERPETUAL STATE OF NERVOUSNESS!

A very important part of my "Method", is to give dogs a well needed neck, and back massage.  I find dogs so wound up and tense that it makes it hard for them to walk or think clearly.  When I show them they actually can have a relaxed state of mind and body, they sort of melt into a new reality that gives them a breather from that Rolodex of fears flipping through their heads.  Once the dog learns to feel what it's like to actually BE RELAXED, then they now have a point of reference to return to. Notice Jasper's eyes change in all the pictures!  https://youtu.be/5rgoMXziUyg

What I attempt and mostly succeed in doing for a dog's mental state, is to give them something to concentrate on other than their "inner monologue of fears".  Once they begin to listen and respond, and by asking them to Stop-sit-and Wait, they must keep returning from their inner thoughts or worries, and refocus and concentrate on what I have asked them to do, (albeit may only last for maybe instants or moments), and by this process of coming back to listening to me and getting out of their heads, they can find at least a moment when they "KNOW" exactly what I want from them, and that becomes the seed of confidence that they can begin to rely on in "knowing" and not of "fearing" the unknown, and THAT is WHEN they BEGIN their journey of learning to listen and to correctly respond to what makes the trainer happy and ultimately...them being happy and confident FOR A JOB WELL DONE.   A shared moment of connection between man and dog becomes a string of those moments that all link together to form the true bond that I help create between dog and owner.  Does that make sense?  https://youtu.be/Q-SCN8a29Js

This is the concept behind what I believe is so important about leash training...it's what I always go back to and is the biggest reason why dogs who start out in families being agreeable with most anything, eventually become "independent" thinkers and develop "issues" due to a lack of boundaries and rules and some organized order for them to follow in the home.  The leash keeps them listening and connected and focused on their owner and of the commands.  That leash becomes the telephone line of your thoughts going straight into the dogs head.  Like I say...Dogs will make bad decisions that effect everyone around them, because...dogs want to do what they want to do, when they want to do it!  It's what dogs do!  So, it's the owners job to guide their dog along the path of doing what the owners want them to do and to not do what the owners don't want them to do.  This is easier than it sounds...obviously, or everyone who owns a dog would all have perfect dogs.  Again, that's where I come in!

My method, in a nutshell, is how I get dogs out of their heads and to learn HOW TO LISTEN before returning them back to their owners control (or lack thereof). This is where I differ from dog trainers who teach classes in heeling.  I work with the psyche.  I also find myself training the owners as much as the doggies!  My business tag line is                                                                                     BEHAVIOR TRAINING FOR DOGS AND THEIR PEOPLE!

Before a dog can listen, he needs to KNOW HOW TO LISTEN!   When a dog spends a day or two with me, (Dog Day Transformation), they first learn how to be calmer, and how it's ok to be calm and unafraid...even for long moments or an entire day, and then how to listen to instructions from a caring, patient and calm leader.  I say to my clients that dogs have "built up their own 3 lanes of a superhighway of overreactions".  This means that they have well warn paths of reacting poorly to many things, (like I mentioned earlier in that long list of "triggers").  What I teach is to think about creating an alternate route or detour around those well warn overreactions or triggers, and to build a detour of calm non reactions to the things that they used to react to.

Don't you think your dog or any dog deserves to be taught how to listen and to be calmer under the same  circumstances that had previously set them off into a bad place?

I say...Invest in your dogs mental state and it will pay off in dividends for the rest of your time together.

BE WHO YOUR DOG LOOKS UP TO!

WAY OF A DOG

 WWW.SHEASHOME.COM

JIMMY'S TRANSFORMATION FROM FERAL TO FORGIVING!
View his transformation here:  https://youtu.be/QXB6fia2McI

Shea's Lounge Book Signing Event at Whitie's Pets 2014

Tower Pet Parade 2014

Tower Pet Parade 2013

When you walk a dog on a leash, you can open a pathway to your dog of complete understanding. Not through anger or yanking,  but with subtle calm and assertive commands and corrections that are carefully applied to help your dog to understand your position on the things you approve of and the things you don't approve of.  From there, you can incorporate sounds and hand signals and your body language to help keep your dogs attention and to built a conduit for the transfer of information. 

When I first found Jimmy, a Pomeranian and Terrier mix at a local shelter, he was the one who ran away and wouldn’t let anyone (except maybe two volunteers) actually pick him up or to even get near him.  He was there for 19 months and probably would have never been adopted.  With the help of a young volunteer girl, we were able to corner Jimmy and throw a blanket over him so I could then hold him steady and put a leash over his snarling, snapping and fully frightened face.  He was quite scary. He bit me numerous times and drew blood every time he bit.  I found out that previous to his 19 months at the shelter, he had been abandoned and living at a local car wash for at least 3 months until he was trapped and taken to the shelter.   

Jimmy is like many...many dogs in America, who for any number of reasons, find themselves dumped on the streets or into shelters, where it is hard for them to get placed into another home.  Unfortunately, people really don't look at dogs as family members, as much as they might look at them as expendables and something they could return or just dump when the dog doesn't perform to their expectations.  Dogs don't simply match peoples expectations miraculously through some sort of vulcan mind meld, or through dog human osmosis...Dogs MUST get their directions and rules and understandings from very clear and concise directions from a caring dog owner who wishes only to build a quality relationship between them and their loving companions.  The dog owner needs to make his/her intentions extremely clear and concise (like a parent teaching a child about safety around cars or strangers etc.)  Like the child, the dog also needs to learn how to listen and understand what it's owner is telling them.  This is where I come in!

Most problems between man and dog occur when absolutely no real direction or leadership from the dog owners are given to the dog...other than "NO",  and so the dogs simply revert to what their instincts tell them to do, and therein lies the rub...BECAUSE when a dog believes he is in charge of himself or that he is the master of his own destiny, then dogs will make bad decisions that effect everyone around them, and thus...end up on the streets or in the long growing line of Euthanasia.  I work directly with dog owners and dogs who have never built these relationships and understandings between them.  Jimmy was afraid of people from the beginning when he was abandoned at that car wash.  He needed to learn to have trust again because all he really knew was that, for some reason, he was thrown out the door of his family home and given low odds to survive on his own.  Something he did or even perhaps a way he may have reacted, caused his owner to say "I'm not going to deal with that crap"...and out the door he goes !  The real problem was that the owner didn't really want to spoend the time, or didn't know how to spend their time, teaching Jimmy how to learn to understand what was acceptable and unacceptable to his owner, in a way that fostered Jimmy's learning and understanding.  No wonder Jimmy ran from people! His own people turned against him and sentenced him to a slow and agonizing death while alone on the mean streets!  

I think most people who have had dogs, discover that dogs can be very hard to train and even harder to catch if they do not wish to be caught.  Just try running after a dog who gets out of your fenced in yard or through the front door, who has not been previously trained to listen to it’s master.  Sometimes the shear joy alone of that feeling of freedon and adventure, is enough for a dog to ignore it's owner's orders to return, as it explores the neighborhood to it’s hearts content…or until you catch him, or even worse.  

In my opinion, Leash training is the cornerstone to all communication between man and dog.  PERIOD!~ Without leash training, (unless you are adept in getting and keeping your dog’s attention with your voice and hand signals alone), you will not be able to train any dog to listen to you.  The leash is like the telephone line that runs directly from your thoughts and straight into your dog’s head.  When used properly, without anger or malice or frustrated bad intent, the leash becomes the way to teach your dog valuable information and to keep your dog in the game of learning what you want and don't want.   

Dogs react in many different ways to the leash, from some who immediately submit at the very first tap, to others who scream and holler and fight and bite with all their might just to get out of their feelings of being trapped, or as I like to all it…their view of "Being held down by the man!"  Once the leash is introduced and utilized properly, and the dog begins to realize that they are not trapped and that they actually get good things from responding appropriately to the owners requests, then they can relax and enjoy the ride.  See Jimmy's transformation from fearing the leash to learning how it helped him to connect with me and to all the good things being submissive brings.   This is the video documenting Jimmy's transformation.  https://youtu.be/QXB6fia2McI 

BE WHO YOUR DOG LOOKS UP TO!

www.sheashome.com 

In the back of my book, Shea's Lounge, I included some tips on                                                             how to prepare your home for your new dog.  I would like to give those tips to you again:

Things to think about when preparing your home for a new dog.

1. Give your dog a place of his own. It can be a dog bed or a selected piece of your furniture to designate for your new best friend. Cover with a washable fabric.

2. Determine where your dog will sleep. Will it be in your own bed, or in a crate or in a dog bed next to your own bed? Is your dog going to be living indoors only, or outdoors only or both? You must clearly establish this area, then prepare accordingly. You must spend time showing your dog where the bathroom area is, then making sure they can get to it when they need to go. If outdoors, which door will it be, and if a dog door is installed, how to get through that door. If indoors, then you must prepare all necessary pads etc. and then give your dog all access to that area and encourage them to use it at any time. These areas need to be constantly kept clean and sanitary.

3. Beware of curtains and blinds that have cords that can get entangled around your curious dog.

4. Think carefully about electric wires and multiple outlets behind TV’s etc. where dogs may explore, or worse, bite or chew on.

5. Household chemicals, cleaners, poisons etc. need to be above dogs reach or locked in closets or sheds etc.

6. Long Toenails may tear up Leather or fabric couches unless you maintain their length with walks or grooming.

7. Be careful giving your dog things to chew on that are similar to the things you do not wish them to chew on…like an old sock or shoe or anything that has your scent on it . They won’t know the difference when they’re ready to find something else of your’s to chew on.

8. When using rugs in dog areas, make sure they are washable and non slip.

9. Think about the height your dog may be able to reach items of their interest on coffee tables etc. and rearrange your entire home accordingly. Breakables and Food Items need extra scrutiny. Think “Baby Proofing” your home and you’ll be close.

10. Any items on the floor will be deemed fair access by your dog unless you can either: a. Change or preempt their behavior yourself or with a professional dog trainer; b. You remove any and all things you do not wish to be chewed or urinated on; c. You actively redirect your dog’s interest in those certain items to those things they can have that you approve of for them.

11. Nice wood floors and the like may be subjected to scratches. You may need to be able to keep certain areas of your home off limits to your dog, and do it without barricading or fencing it off if possible.

12. Your dog bedding, water and food areas need to be kept clean and in areas where water and dirt may rapidly accumulate, but will not be a problem cleaning.

13. Only specialized enzymatic urine removing cleaners should be used to clean up messes, as most rugs and carpets will retain fluids and smells, and will not stop dogs from reusing those areas.

14. When your dog is continually well groomed with brushing and baths, your home will have less pet hair and dander floating about.

15. Plan on purchasing a dog poop scooper and commit to a weekly pick up of your dog’s waste in the yard. Flies flourish in and around the excrement so your backyard experience will be enhanced without the fly bother and mess’s to smell and step around.

16. Plan on purchasing or designating the: Dog Food, Food and Water Bowls, Chew Toys, Treats, Grooming Supplies, Bedding, Collar and Leash, Carrier, Distemper Shots, ID tags, Veterinarian, Emergency Vet, Location of Dog parks, and local Dog Trainers.

17. Decide whether or not your dog will be allowed on your furniture, in only certain rooms, where he is allowed and not allowed, who feeds, waters, House trains, takes for walks, trains, picks up after them etc.?

18. Do you have other pets your dog will be interacting with? Are they either a predator or maybe other prey to a dog? Are you willing to take the time to help them properly interact or will you ignore them and let them make decisions on what to do with each other?

19. Find time in your schedule to pay quality attention to your new family member. Build a strong trust bond between you and your dog(s). Play catch or chase or any game the dog may like to play outdoors. Be engaged in your dogs welfare and happiness as you would your own child…just don’t raise them as if they are your child. They are animals and must be viewed as such.

*Please note: Some professional advise may be required for implementation of any and or all of the above suggestions . Do not expect to attempt dog ownership without taking professional advise on some or many of these suggestions. All dogs and home living situations are different, so don’t be overwhelmed or embarrassed to ask for help. Online resources are plentiful and most shelter’s have volunteers or staff that can be very helpful.

www.sheashome.com

                                              Welcome to my Blogger Page!

           

This page is dedicated to all of my many endeavors with all the dogs and people that may cross these pages. I am a dog lover and an advocate for their better more relaxed mental state of mind. My present work involve's "Behavior Training for dogs and their People".                                                        I call myself, the Dog Fixer'er! 

Invest TODAY in your dog's mental state! DON'T LET THEM RULE YOUR ROOST!
Don't let your beautiful dogs cost you hundreds or thousands of $$$'s when they bite a neighbor or another dog or get hit by a car running out of your front door, or chew up your new furniture or any number of bad behaviors that dogs can perform when left to their own devices! 

My name is Joe Ozier, and My Company, Way of a Dog, is all about helping dogs and their owners find a link of peace and communication between them. I specialize in "Behavior Training for Dogs and their People", which means that I teach One-on-One classes in the homes of my clients, where the "Issues" present themselves. I work as much on training the dog owners as I do on training the dogs.

My current program involve's 6 hours of training that can be administered in either 3 x 2 hour classes at $80.00/class ($240 total) or 2 x 3 hour classes at $90.00/class ($180 total). Each program is paid in advance on the first day of the first class.  I give lots of information for the owners to use in connecting to and understanding what goes on in their dogs heads, and I demonstrate on their dogs how my techniques work, and I show how my method works on their dogs right then and there, then I show you, the dog owners, how to redirect the bad behaviors or issues that may come from getting a stubborn dog to actually give you the time of day...in short, to listen to you.

Most dogs, when left to their own devices, will make bad decisions that effect everyone around them.  You see, a dogs most basic nature is that...dogs want to do, what they want to do, when they want to do it. When a typical dog owner questions that principal, the dog will typically respond with the attitude..."How dare you stop me"!  My method is to teach you to... "Dare to stop them" and do it in a calm and assertive manner.

For those on a budget, I have what's called "The Dog Day" for only $100.00. Basically, I have your doggie for the entire day with me in my home. I pick up or deliver your doggie one way for free ($10-$25 additional charge depending on how far I go IF I pick them up and also drop them back off), and they spend the day with me undergoing the "art" of learning to listen. I give them training when they don't even know it, because it's more of a calming state of mind that I am attempting to reach and to keep them in during their stay.  They get breaks, treats and lots of love... and if they are really good, then I let them play and interact with Jimmy, who is my loving former Shelter dog.  I spent 3 days rehabilitating Jimmy from his near ferrule state of mind into the sweet and wonderful little chicken man he is today. He also is my "Dog-o-Meter" regarding your dogs state of mind. He tells me lots about the mental state of your hound when it's around him...either good or bad  :))

Let me help you with your Dog(s).
Call me before you dogs issues cost you much more than the cost of my training.  
                                             
                                            BE WHO YOUR DOG LOOKS UP TO!

   

www.sheashome.com