Posted by Wolf on February 15, 2009, 7:43 pm
I could comment on the article on training and it could take all day. I like Milan but I do not subscribe to most of his training theories nor do I like flooding or some of the other methods.I went to his seminar and loved it and yet I do not agree with much of it. Having said that I would like to bring in Common Sense. It is not hard to train a child, friend, fellow worker, or dog if you use common sense. It is the one sense that will not fail you. Control and dominance will.
So lets have some fun with common sense. If you are standing on the tracks and an oncoming train is speeding towards you but in theory this train will be able to stop before it gets to you....would you wait or get the hell off the tracks?? Would you stand on a cliff with the wind blowing?
If your dog was holding a 5 lb raw roast beef in its mouth(like mine was) that it found thawing in the kitchen sink with a delightful twinkle 
in its eye would you wrestle this 120 lb male dogo for the meat or let it go? I opened the door to the porch and let him out with his "catch" and laughed.. 
It was dog dinner anyway but I knew he would not understand the logic in giving it up. By the way he was not wrong and he found something wonderful. It made perfect sense to him I should have thought in advance before leaving it readily available. I was at fault.
My point.....it is not about always being right or getting your way. It is about common sense. It is not about control in every situation but in the situation itself. I oftimes call it the better part of valor. When my son was small and being bullied by the bigger kids he asked if he was supposed to fight?? I asked him if he would win and he said no they were to many and too big so my advice was not to fight. He was five and they were 10.
(Mom went back after hours and kicked some butt)
Dominance is not always the way. Being alpha is not important. Positive reinforcement with tolerance and treats if need be are important training tools with dogs. If you are bigger than the dog you will probably win but if the dog is bigger than you....well now its different and this is where your behavior modification steps in and you might just have to use some common sense.
Once again it is the old thing about putting human traits on dogs. Think like a dog and your world will make more sense.
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