Sam Basso, known as Sam The Dog Trainer, offers private in-home lessons, and is a professional dog trainer and behaviorist located in Gilbert, AZ, also serving Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Glendale, Paradise Valley, and surrounding areas. Some posts use AI-assisted drafting for clarity. This blog participates in affiliate programs (including Amazon Associates). Purchases via links may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I believe it is healthy and good to train dogs regularly. Correctly work some objectives several days a week. But also, take one or two days off per week.
Even the best training transmits some mental and physical stress into the dog and owner. Too much stress, even good stress, can cross over and become bad stress. Mental stress can create physical problems. Physical problems can develop with too much stress and cause mental problems. The mind-body connection should always be considered. Repetitive micro injuries also need to be healed regularly with training rest.
So, do your homework. I teach students how to properly use their time to work with their dogs. I also encourage them to take strategic breaks during lessons and between lessons. A day or two off each week is a good idea.
Obviously, most people don't even train their dogs. That isn't the type of students I work with. For them, the bigger question is what is going to be best for their dogs.
Many teachers, regardless of the field, are lazy. It is easier to get students to memorize material than to figure out how to use that material in the real world.
This is a serious problem in dog training, which in most cases is formulaic and doesn't prepare the owner or dog to solve the real world problems they will face outside of class. This is the problem with the debate over "purely positive" and "balanced training" programs. They teach a set of memorized rules. The dogs are subjected to a "method". That is lazy.
Life isn't always going to be that predictable, my friend.
Scientific experiments on dogs, about 100 years ago, discovered how to "break" a dog. These experimental neuroses were described by Pavlov, and he defined specific ways cause them.
Is the trainer you admire doing this to dogs? You had better figure that out.
You want to fix your problem dog. It doesn't work that way.
Dog training and behavior modification can only attempt to reduce the risks and probabilities of a future incident.
Bad past experiences are never forgotten, various dogs have various propensities, medical conditions (known and unknown) can cause unpredictable results, and the dog has a say in what will happen in the future.
The owner has their part to play, especially regarding training maintenance and situational awareness supervision, and they will have a say in what will happen in the future. The dog trainer isn't moving in with you.
Society, the environment, and unexpected situations will have a say in what will happen in the future.
Contrary to what you are being "sold" by online dog training gurus, there are no magic, quick fix solutions. Many of these people couldn't train a stuffed animal.
Many dogs live boring lives. Is that a fair and humane life for a dog?
Training can be a fun activity for dogs. I have countless training ideas that most dogs can do. I have had students that continued on with their dog's training, well beyond what was "needed", just to give them something to do with their dogs.
And, trained dogs can go and do more things with you. Too many dogs are left at home because they aren't trained. Because of training, many of my students have been able to take their dogs to work, on errands, to visit friends and family, go camping, on road trips, eat at restaurants, and such.
STOP! If you are having a bad day, don't train your dog that day. It isn't going to be a productive use of that time, and you are probably going to do it all wrong, and do wrong to your dog.
One of the advantages of social media is that it gives everyone the opportunity to have an opinion on just about any topic.
The one that strikes me today are the videos being posted by dog trainers who treat their dogs like slaves on a galley ship. These dogs are bullied, scolded, ordered around, given no freedom, and severely punished unless they do or don’t do anything these trainers say. They even implement group punishment: if one dog doesn’t do what is demanded, they are all punished together.
Who dreams up this garbage? What is in someone’s head to treat a dog like this?
I just read a post by a social media self-proclaimed dog trainer who claims that dogs should “consent” to whatever we ask of or do with them. The claim is to do otherwise is cruelty.
Consent has a definition, meaning permission or agreement. Dogs are incapable of either. Humans can give permission. Humans can enter into an agreement. Dogs can’t.
The claim is that if a dog is made to do something, that is cruelty. If that was the case, then should we take and shelter all young animals after they are born, because letting that youngster be around another animal, even their parents, might violate their right to consent? Do you think that prey consents to being eaten? Do you think predators ask for consent before they hunt? Do you think that male and female dogs should obtain consent from the others, dogs and people, before they breed? Do you think a dog feels happy when a stranger knocks on the door? Should we close our doors and gates, or should we get the consent of our dogs before we do so? Should our dogs consent to us entering a room, or holding hands with someone, or talking? Should they consent to where they sleep in a room, or where the food bowl goes, or the materials used in the making of a dog bed? What about whether we should have a dog go into a crate, car, vet office, wait at the curb as we wait for the light to change, or come away from that rattlesnake near that bush?
No species, not even humans, do everything by consent in this manner. Pick any species, and find any social system that is governed by consent. It does not exist, and would be unnatural.
This consent business isn’t science. It isn’t natural. It isn’t good dog training.
I sometimes wonder if such ideas are a product of some kind of psychological disturbance: possibly a personality disorder?
The smoke alarm goes off. Mr. Lowe says, he started waving a cloth to clear the smoke in the room…
‘“He went on, “At this point again, there’s so much chaos going on with the alarm going off, I give him like a very stern like, ‘Moose. No. No.’ And it was right about that moment where he shows his teeth at me and just attacks me, and I don’t mean like bite and run off like a lot of dogs do when they’re scared or defensive. I mean, attacks me, and I feel him just kind of ripping into the flesh of my arm. And at this point, I am doing everything I possibly can just to fend this dog off.”’
He goes to the ER. The next day, the dog gets out of the back yard, and attacks him again.
“Lowe added, “I’m just saying, ‘No, no, no.’ And then my dad is in the front yard too, and I’m like, ‘Help, help!’ Just again, feeling ripping into my flesh. And again, I’m not trying to exaggerate, I certainly don’t want to come across as, like, a victim or anything like that. I’m just telling you how it happened.”
“And so I’m able to wrestle him to the ground,” he recounted. “And this dog is so strong, he’s so explosive, but I’m able to wrestle him to the ground. I’ve got a hold of his collar, but I know that he’s ripped my arm open, and I just know, like I’m fighting for my life here, like I feel like if this dog gets up, he is going to kill me.”’
So this dog never cooled down, even after a day. The dog was unforgiving of the previous fight.
Was this canine PTSD? What was the background of the dog? The article isn’t clear as to what was or wasn’t known.
Do I think it normal for a dog to attack a family member, as described in the article? In my opinion, the attack was well beyond anything that would normally be considered self defense for the dog. Why would waving a cloth in the kitchen trigger this kind of episode over a 2 day period? My suspicion is dog PTSD.
If this dog had a history that indicated the above, then the dog should not have been adopted by this family, in my opinion.
You can never know the full story of something like this by just reading an internet news story. There may be details that further explain what happened. So, my viewpoint here is just my interpretation of what the article is saying, not a finding of fact. If you want more details, then you’ll have to do your own research. Maybe other information comes out from other sources to explain further what happened and more about this dog’s history. Who knows, maybe the dog has a medical problem that was going on that no one knew about. Boxers are known to have a predisposed tendency to have tumors and cancer, and that could explain this incident. My surface impression is PTSD, just to make the following point…
Always research the background of any dog you are planning on adopting, and do a deeper dig than the typical paperwork that you are provided. Furthermore, always do a full medical check on the dog, including a full blood panel, especially for adult dogs, and certain breeds that are prone to known disease risks. What was the trigger here? The waving of the cloth? The verbal corrections? The chaos going on and how the dog “interpreted” all of that as a threat? We will probably never know. What we can do, we should do: get a full background on every dog; don’t believe all you hear, and dig deeper; do a medical evaluation; train the dog from the first day in preparation for emergencies. Even if all this had been done, and even if the dog didn’t have PTSD or some medical cause, this might have still happened. The idea with dog ownership is to always lessen the risks from a variety of angles. We can't make a judgment of what happened here, or what could have been done to prevent it, without more knowledge, as well.
I hope this family recovers. My guess is that the dog will be put down due to this incident.
Here is an example how I teach my students to do the Place command. The Place command has a variety of uses in dog training if you do it right. Note this Chihuahua has excellent motivation to perform this.
The reason I posted this is because, in my observation and opinion, many dog trainers are making the Place a virtual prison for dogs. The dogs are forced on there and kept on there. They crush the motivation with negative reinforcement and punishment. They say they are teaching "impulse control". No, they are not. They are teaching helplessness. The dogs are put there until they give up.
Not even one correction was used in the making of this dog's Place command. This dog wants to be there, and the next step will be helping the dog to understand that they don't have to keep getting up there. In other words, there are times to get up there (and something very good is going to happen), and other times when there are other fun things to do, so the dog has a clear break and knows the difference.
The Place command has a wide variety of uses in dog training, and that includes with working dogs. Since I train all dogs as if they are working dogs, everything is about motivation, getting dogs to clearly understand and want to do the things we are asking of them. The Place, therefore, isn't a prison.
What you are seeing here is the second formal lesson this dog had on this command. The first introduction was a long time ago, just getting the dog to understand that his bed was a temporary place to go or to rest. The owners then explained recently that they are going to have a baby, so they wanted some ideas on making that easier. So, lesson number two. The video you are seeing is them practicing lesson number two. They had several needs for this command, so that is why I came back and showed them this. They will use it in a variety of ways, not just when the baby is being fed or when the diaper is being changed. Like I said, there are many other uses.
Can your dog do this, and can you teach it without negative reinforcement and punishment?
Don't get a Cane Corso unless you are going to do it right. It is unfair to the dog to not raise them right, only to abandon them to a shelter when things go sour... I've met properly raised ones that were great, and improperly raised ones that became a mess.
Dogs bark for a variety of reasons. To punish a dog for barking usually causes the dog confusion. They don't "know" you are punishing them for the noise, they just know you are threatening them in situations that, often, they already feel threatened. Owners put them in impossible binds this way. In a dog's world, they might think they are in trouble when they are at the front door, or in the kitchen, or when playing, or when there is an intruder. They don't "know" it is the noise that is bothering you. In reality, you are being unfair and a bad owner.
Diagnose the barking before attempting a behaviorally correct solution.
Is your dog out of shape? If so... not good. Talk to your vet if your dog is waaaay out of shape to figure out a plan. Fitness is important to have a healthy and happy dog. It is also the humane way to raise a dog.
NOW is the time to get your dog ready for your summer vacation. Whenever I travel with a dog, I prepare my dog long in advance in preparation for whatever activities we are going to do.
It's now mid-March. The year is moving along very quickly and summer will be here faster than you might think.
I recommend Puppy Parties to all of my students with new puppies.
Case in point: I had a student with a Chow Chow puppy. She followed my recommendation with her 8 week old puppy. The second day the pup was home, she invited all her friends and their friendly, healthy, vaccinated leashed dogs to her home. She did this once per week, after the second visit, one dog at a time was allowed off leash to play with the puppy. When that puppy was 16 weeks of age, that puppy was as friendly with everyone and every dog as if it was a Golden Retriever. Usually Chows are much more reserved regarding strangers and strange dogs. Not this pup. She also did this with a second Chow puppy... same result.
So long as she avoids any harsh social interactions with her dogs into the future, her dogs are going to be friendly and safe with strangers. We blunted the suspicious nature of her dogs. The long term will be a well balanced set of dogs that will be all a Chow Chow should be when an adult.
