Sydney Dog Training & Behaviour Modification

Another one of those topics that I think I should write about because it seems to be coming up more and more.

It’s the idea that if your dog is not behaving right (or how you think it should), then you put them on some drugs such as Valium or Prozac. Not saying it is never required, I just think owners should be a little wary when someone from the pet industry suggests it.

My personal experience has found it’s a code for,” I can’t be bothered with your dog”

To illustrate, a few weeks ago I was training my dogs in the park when I noticed some people walking their two German Shepherd’s on a leash in an Off-Leash dog park. They approached me as they had worked out I was likely a dog trainer. Essentially the story was that they had their Dogs trained by another company and it had obviously not worked. They said they went to the dog park in case their dogs got off their leads as they were not confident they could recall or control their dogs in that situation. They had also paid a substantial sum to have their dogs trained.

When they approached the other dog company about their dogs lack of obedience after having paid the money and undergone the training, they were met with – “maybe your dog needs to go on Valium”

I took the opportunity to handle one of the dogs for a short while. It was a young dog, yes it was reactive to other dogs, but in a playful manner, yes it was excitable but only as would be expected by a young dog that had undergone none, or ineffective training. It let me put it into a sit (or sorts- not perfect) and was friendly towards me. It did not strike me as a dog that needed to go onto drugs. It just needed some proper training and leadership.

This is one example, and I have had clients and people enquiring saying they had been advised by someone in the pet industry to put their dog onto some sort of drug to address a behaviour issue.

There are a number of reasons for this proliferation, however one big issue is that when a trainer using a particular technique or method comes across a dog or dogs it does not work on, they immediately jump to the conclusion there is something wrong with the dog.

Never would it enter their heads that maybe, just maybe, it could be their training method. Even when they know for a fact their method only works on only 10% of dogs.

Dogs need to understand who is the leader and who they should be taking direction from. They also need a framework to get that understanding from. As I have said elsewhere, clients often report after starting training their dog is just overall a calmer dog. Which makes sense, as it knows who is in charge and what the rules are, so they can drop the anxiety from being in a perpetual guessing game and wondering if they need to take over as leader, even if they don’t want too.

So the message is that if someone from the industry starts talking about putting your dog on some kind of mind altering drug, and it does not sound right to you, get a second opinion. Especially if it looks like a failure in training.