The eyes and ears of every reactive dog are the two senses (the culprits) that cause trouble and yet a majority of professional dog training and behavior modification methods look to engage the problematic animal’s nose and mouth (olfactory and gustatory systems)! This is foolish and wasteful and yet most dog owners don’t consider the simple fact mentioned above so…they unwittingly waste their own precious time, energy, and money on professional trainers/behaviorists/vets that keep addressing senses within the reactive dog that are almost inactive whenever the dog is near any triggering stimuli! The professional is going after the wrong sense of the dog at the exact wrong time. It’s preposterous. These sadly common and result-lacking methods are quite outrageous and egregious when viewed in the factual light of how a dog’s senses function. The problem is…there are only a rare and precious few people that genuinely consider how a dog’s amazing senses function and which, when, and why those super senses come to the forefront of the creature’s mind depending on the situation the dog finds itself in.
Have no fear, Dear Reader, because my upcoming third book on dog and human behavior is rapidly approaching completion. This book will delve into the dog’s fascinating five senses and illuminate the readers about the 4 Pillars of dog language – concepts critical in comprehending and then applying the Garrett Stevens Method. In the book we go over many a real world example and how to calmly and efficiently navigate them. This is the book I am most excited about.
This read will greatly help spread understanding in the way of the canine and precisely how they all tick. The findings in this upcoming book will NOT be based on some random studies conducted in sterile “science” labs and then twisted in order to back billions of dollars worth of dog food or dog treat sales at massive conglomerates! This new book on the 5 senses and 4 Pillars will provide direct and beautifully simplified answers familiar among canines. These answers and solutions are then translated into excellent efficient action for our human bodies and brains.
Genuine science and real life experience will prove time and again that one of the first systems that SHUTS DOWN during an emergency or fight/flight state is the digestive system. The digestive system begins with the olfactory and gustatory systems. Thus…when a behaviorist takes your hard-earned money and then continues to try and click and treat or to motivate or reinforce the hyper or reactive animal’s olfactory (nose) or gustatory (mouth) systems at a time when the dog is entering into a fight/freeze/flight state and the adrenals are pumping the common yet idiotic method the behaviorist is employing and teaching you will undoubtedly FAIL! That is just another classic case of a lame-brained professional in the industry attempting to address or gain attention from a sense that is greatly diminished or turned down at the time. (Huuuuuuuge energy waste and something older, “example” dogs would never do) So instead of truly helping their clients many behaviorists will never take a dog near or above “threshold” in order to keep things “safe.” In reality that means you’ll be paying for nothing possibly for months before you get even the slightest of real world results behaviorally-speaking!
The main reason so many dog trainers, vets, and behaviorists get it all wrong is because of their full cup syndrome. They have a full cup. The usefulness of a cup is found in its emptiness. Please ponder that. As adults many of our cups are not empty. The mainstream vet, trainer, and behaviorists’ cups are NOT empty and so they’re not able to gain anything new from nature or the dogs. They assume they learned all there was to know about classical conditioning, operant conditioning, threshold, positive reinforcement, motivation, obedience et cetera. They were taught by humans about dogs and not the other way round. I really wish it was reversed.
Let’s try our best to shake off the cobwebs of our aging minds and view our world through the fascinating eyes of a child. Let’s try at the start of the day to empty our cups so that they can be filled with new mental synapsis and learning. Let’s intelligent observe and question our dogs and the dogs we so often see around us. And…stay tuned for more about my upcoming third book on dog language, training, and calm, natural behavior modification.
Garrett Stevens is the hot-listed author of Dog Myths: What you Believe about dogs can come back to Bite You! and So Long Separation Anxiety. He is the founder of Alpha and Omega Dog Training and the owner of Stevens Family Kennels and Dog Language Center in Puyallup, WA. With an incredible reputation for his behavioral rehab work and due to extremely high demand for their unique natural training with the dogs (even with two trainers working simultaneously) the team is now considering a sort of lottery-program for potential, future clients.
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