Training you to train your dog

This week, instructor Ann Slocum will launch BREC’s third annual Good Dog!, a series of obedience classes at Forest Park and Burbank dog parks. While they are open to any fully vaccinated canine, the classes tend to attract an older crowd. So, Slocum spends an equal amount of time on puppy stuff—basic obedience commands—and problem solving.

In her experience, the majority of problems—separation anxiety, jumping, dominance, etc., —arise from lack of communication, leadership and other relationship issues.

“With multiple repetitions throughout the day, you can teach a dog to sit, stay and follow other commands,” Slocum says. “But I like to give owners a good lesson in being a good pack leader and earning the trust and respect of their dogs.”

Over the years, Slocum has noticed a disturbing trend toward owners coddling their dogs and smothering them with affection. In attempts to express pity and erase attempts to erase a dog’s tragic past, owners of rescued dogs may also cater to every whim and whimper. While these owners mean well, Slocum says, “Dogs have instincts that tell them what to do. They need a calm, patient, confident human leader who defines and enforces the [house] rules.”

If a dog senses a void in human leadership, she or he will feels forced to take on the mantle and become the boss. When that happens, a dog might dictate who comes in the house or sits next to you on the couch, when you go to work, how you or guests are greeted at the door or how big of mess will await you when you arrive.

“To paraphrase [the late, long-time Baton Rouge trainer] Dick Russell,” Slocum says, “a dog only knows two things: What he’s allowed to do and what he’s not allowed to do. You have to be consistent to teach them boundaries and expectations.”

However, you definitely don’t have to become Il Duce to control your Italian Greyhound—and violence is never justifiable as a training technique.

“A good relationship between a dog and his or her owner is based on trust and respect,” Slocum says. “It is important that the human is always in the position of leadership. Dogs become stressed out if they don’t what the owners wants. They want to know your expectations and that you will provide for and protect them.”

Establishing that relationship is not just important for teaching parlor tricks; it is often a matter of life and death.

As a board member of the city shelter’s Friends of the Animals, Slocum donates her time both to foster animals with behavior problems and work with owners at their wit’s end and ready to relinquish a dog.

She believes most issues that cause owners to abandon their dogs at pounds and on city streets can be resolved.

“Many times,” she says, “it just requires putting in the time and gaining the knowledge to fix the problem.”

Good Dog! Dog Obedience Class begins this week. One session takes place on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Forest Community Park on S. Harrell’s Ferry. A second group meets on Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Burbank Drive dog park. The fee for the six-week class is $75. For more information, visit http://www.brec.org or call 272-9200.

Click here to see some of the great dogs—and cats—Friends of the Animals has for adoption.

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