Warren Eckstein - How to Get Your Dog to Do What You Want: A Loving Approach to Unleashing Your Dogs Astonishing Potential

A Fawcett Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group

Copyright 1994 by Warren Eckstein and Andrea Eckstein

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of
The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by
Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Fawcett is a registered trademark and the
Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

www.ballantinebooks.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-94113

eISBN: 978-0-307-79231-0

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To my parents, Charles and Ruth Eckstein,

for all their love and devotion;

to my late wife Fay for all her support;

and in the memory of my friend and colleague Larry Hatzi

In the beginning, God created man, but seeing him so feeble, He gave him the dog.

Toussenel

I would like to thank my wife, Andrea,

for putting my thoughts down in words;

the thousands of animals who taught me so much;

and my four-footed models

Jubares Jazzmatazz, CH. Lumpos Betyar, CH.

Mar-Shers Schaefer, CH. Tagues Scottish Legacy, CH.

Sandtrees Summer Legend, and the

Humane Society of New Yorks Paddy.

Decades ago, owning a dog usually meant that Fido lived in a doghouse out on the familys property. Fido was rarely permitted in the house; instead, the backyard and the front porch were his domain. Of course, he was a loyal companion to his owners and a friendly playmate to his owners children. More often than not, the family dog was named King, Princess, Duke, Dutchess, Fido, or Rover.

Today, it is not uncommon for the family dog to be named Sam, Sarah, Chester, Tiffany, Bob, or Suzy. This humanization of the family dogs name reflects a major change in the way people view their canine companions. No longer merely animals, our pets are now beloved members of the family. In fact, today, more likely than not, these four-footed family members live inside the home and, in many cases, even sleep in the family bed!

Because we have taken animalsspecifically, dogsinto our human environment, we can no longer treat them as animals and expect them to respond like humans. Instead, we must learn to integrate them into our lives and help them become a part of our human life-style. With a little understanding and patience, we can live happily with our dogs and they can live happily with us.

I firmly believe that your dog is a member of your family. If you keep that in mind, if you truly feel it, your dog will act like one. Thats one of the basic premises of this book. Its the best way I know to get your dog to do what you want.

Okay. Once you accept the premise, weve got to decide exactly how to treat the new family member.

Its really fairly simpleand the rest of this book is devoted to telling you just this: If you treat your dog with love, if you treat your dog with respect, if you treat your dog as if he or she is an intelligent, thinking animal capable of making decisions, your dog will respond in positive, astonishing ways.

But first youve got to understand not only that a dog thinks, but how and why he or she thinks.

Then and only then will you be able to get your dog to do what you want.

And you know what? By the time you reach that point, your dog is going to want to do the same things you want him or her to do. Not 100 percent of the time, of course. Nobodys perfect. Besides, if you want something that obeys your every command every single time, you dont want a dogyou want a robot! So go get a copy of Popular Mechanics or Science Digest. But if your goal is to turn Fido into an intelligent and loving member of the family, read on.

As far as Im concerned, a dog is a product of whats put into him. Two factors determine the personality, intelligence, and overall disposition of our canine companions: breedingwhether the parents were genetically well-suited to produce strong, healthy offspring (in the case of the randomly bred stray generic dog, whether the odds were in his favor), so that he was born physically sound, without inbreeding faults or any other genetic disordersand environmentwhat the owner does or does not do with that dog. In other words, you play a tremendous role in influencing your dogs personality, intelligence, and disposition!

Dogs, just like people, have a strange way of living upor downto the image you project for them. Give them high expectations concerning their own abilities, and theyll reach for the stars trying to achieve them and please you. Downgrade their abilities by constantly telling them how displeased you are with their behavior, and youll rip apart their self-esteem, making it impossible for them to believe in you and, most of all, in themselves.

Fido needs a good self-image if hes to attain the goals you set for him. Im obviously not talking about graduating summa cum laude from Harvard or becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but I am talking about Fido attaining certain goals of good behaviorbeing socially well adjusted and blending well into your family unit, while also maintaining his own identity and psychological well-being. We take this for granted when everything is right with Fido. Its the sort of thing you dont think about until its not there.

Its easy to tamper with how Fido feels about himself. There are three common ways. The first is a sin of omissionit often takes place without you even realizing it.

By doing nothing, by ignoring your pet, by not interacting with him on a regular basis, you can do great damage. It is simply not enough just to feed and walk your dog, then treat him like a piece of furniture the rest of the time.

Yes, I know you lead busy lives and your time may be very limited, but dogs have a real need to have their egos stroked, to be told theyre good, to understand how much theyre loved. They need image- and confidence-building as much as we do. And they need a certain amount of self-esteem in order to behave well. They need to develop inner strength if they are to try something new or to learn to trust in you.

Bad-mouthing Fido and spreading gossip about him is the second way you can rip apart Fidos self-esteem and destroy his self-confidence, thereby creating psychological problems where they never before existed. Dogs are very astute and can sense a lot of whats going on around them. Many are so clever that they can even tell when youre speaking of them in unflattering terms to other people. Theyll hang their heads in shame and drop their tails between their legs while you discuss their mistakes with the neighbors. Ive often said, if you cant say something nice about your dog, dont say anything at all. Believe me, they know! Some dogs get embarrassed. Watch their faces and youll see exactly what theyre picking up. They know whats going on!