Courtney - Essential Skills for a Brilliant Family Dog Books 1-4: Calm Down! Leave It! Lets Go! and Here Boy!

Books 1-4

Beverley Courtney

Copyright 2016 Beverley Courtney

The right of Beverley Courtney to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

www.brilliantfamilydog.com

Essential Skills for a Brilliant Family Dog

Book 1 Calm Down! Step-by-Step to a Calm, Relaxed, and Brilliant Family Dog

Book 2 Leave It! How to teach Amazing Impulse Control to your Brilliant Family Dog

Book 3 Lets Go! Enjoy Companionable Walks with your Brilliant Family Dog

Book 4 Here Boy! Step-by-step to a Stunning Recall from your Brilliant Family Dog

Essential Skills for your Growly but Brilliant Family Dog

Book 1 Why is my Dog so Growly? Teach your fearful, aggressive, or reactive dog confidence through understanding

Book 2 Change for your Growly Dog! Action steps to build confidence in your fearful, aggressive, or reactive dog

Book 3 Calm walks with your Growly Dog Strategies and techniques for your fearful, aggressive, or reactive dog

www.brilliantfamilydog.com/books

Free Training for you!

Jumping up?
Barking?
Chewing?

Get inventive solutions to everyday problems with your dog

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Disclaimer

I have made every effort to make my teachings crystal clear, but were dealing with live animals here (Thats you, and your dog.) and I cant see whether youre doing it exactly right. I am unable to guarantee success, as it depends entirely on the person utilising the training programs, strategies, tools, and resources.

What I do know is that this system works!

Nothing in these books should upset or worry your dog in any way, but if your dog has a pre-existing problem of fear or aggression you should consult a force-free trainer to help. www.brilliantfamilydog.com/growly will get you started.

By the way, to simplify matters I refer to our trainee dog throughout this series as she. He and she will both learn the exact same way. The cumbersome alternatives of he/she or they depersonalise our learner: I want her to be very real to you!

All the photos in this book are of real dogs either my own, or those of students and readers (with their permission). So the reproduction quality is sometimes not the best. I have chosen the images carefully to illustrate the concepts so well have to put up with some fuzziness.

Step-by-Step to a Calm, Relaxed, and Brilliant Family Dog

Beverley Courtney

Coco (15 weeks) says, If this thing is on the ground, I must need to sit on it.

You, your dog and your family have had a great outing, seeing the sights of the seaside town - the beach, the castle, the ramparts, the quaint streets, and the shops. You all are now exhausted and need to stop for coffee and cakes, fizz and crisps - the perfect finish to a family day out. But your dog is having none of it! Youd think shed be worn out by now with all that tramping along cobbled streets, the run on the beach, splashing in the waves, clambering up stone steps, rolling in that dead fish

Possibly its because shes tired that shes being so difficult now. She wont settle - shes poking and pestering at hands and elbows, jogging your arm so your coffee sploshes on your lap. Shes whining and pacing. Shes begging for food. She doesnt seem to know how to switch off.

Does this picture look familiar? What can you do about this other than nagging, tutting, and keeping her on a tight lead?

Theres a secret that a lot of family dog owners just dont know - and Im going to explain its mysteries to you here.

We all seek security and a place to belong, a place where we can relax and feel at ease. As soon as were in a strange place again, we get anxious and fidgety. Witness how long it takes people to choose a table in even an almost empty cafe!

A fretful toddler can halt her tears and become calm just by clutching her security blanket or beloved teddy bear close to her. Your dog is just the same. She needs to feel secure and safe in order to settle. She also needs to know that settling down is all she has to do right now.

Just before we start, lets have a look at some of the situations where this technique Im going to teach you can help. Do they resonate with you? Does your dog do any of these things? One or two of them may be major annoyances for you. There may be others that are minor irritations that you didnt even know could be fixed!

• Youve managed to infiltrate a visitor into your house and your dog will not leave them alone! Now your guest is giving you a stiff smile from behind a flurry of paws and tail, assuring you they dont mind - all the time wishing they hadnt come.
• You want to settle down for a picnic during a day out and your dog is trampling over the blanket, treading in the food, stealing the sandwiches You cant relax and enjoy some quiet time with your family.
• You open the car door and your dog comes flying out to play an infuriating chase game around the car, leap up at a passing pensioner, or - tragically - run into the road.
• Youre trying to help the children get their homework done while also organising their meal, but your dog continually interrupts proceedings by trying to steal the food youre making and disturbing the children. Youve tried putting her in the garden, but she just barks and digs up the flowerbeds.
• Youve had a nice family walk with your dog. You need to get everyone loaded back in the car with all their toys, bikes, and stuff. Your dog decides to play a game of Keep Away. She wont come to have her feet dried and get into the car.
• Youre at the vets and your dog is straining on the lead, trying to get at the cat in its basket, jumping up at anyone who walks past, making you feel quite inadequate at being able to control her.
• Your dog never stops. She goes on and on and on. She doesnt rest - in fact, she seems to get more frantic, busy, and difficult as the day goes on. She totally resists the vital restorative sleep you know she needs.
• You find yourself thinking, Whose idea was it to get a dog?

Recognise any of these? They are all common events in many homes, and they really add up to a lot of frustration and annoyance. You chose to get a family dog because of the pleasure and richness shed bring to your lives, but when your dog is driving you mad on a daily basis, you wonder how its gone so wrong. That pleasure and richness can feel so far away.

It was having to learn the techniques to make a Brilliant Family Dog with my own busy household of multiple dogs, cats, sheep, goats, hens, and children that set me on the road to helping others do the same. I learnt early on that forcing someone to do something only resulted in grudging compliance at best; whereas getting them to participate and enjoy the process turned them into eager and fast learners. This applied equally to the dogs, the goats - and the children! The sheep and the cats not so much.