"The Education of Violet - How one betalike writer tapped into his inner alpha male to train his sweet, scared dog" - as printed in Southwest Airlines Spirit, May 2006 It was obvious Violet would have to be trained. As would we. Durign that year that followed we would consult two professional trainers and uncovera mental issue that made training Violet a greater challenge. And I woud have an epiphany about how animals can help us become better people. But first, how to train Violet? I started laying down Millan's ground rules and some of my own. Violet couldn't sleep on the bed, and she wasn't allowed to eat before we ate. When she blocked my path (a no-no in the alpha world), I 'd gently nudge her out of the way with my foot until she learned to move out of the way on her own. Meanwhile I was recording and watching Dog Whisperer daily. I had develeoped a mild obsession with leadership. "Look how casually he's holding the leash, honey," I would say to my girlfriend while she flipped through one of her interior design magazines. "I'm telling you, the man is in total control of that animal." She referred me to Linn Boyke of ZEN4K(S Behavior Solutions, who had learned the Millan method. My girlfriend and I signed up for a one-and-a-half hour training session with Boyke, but not only two weeks after trying to convince my girlfriend that $250 cost was the down payment on our dog's happy future. (Alpha's always close the deal.) Boyke has more of a tough-love approach than Shelby Marlo ad was using treats to deal with fear. "If you give a dog a treat when it's afraid," Boyke said, "you're rewarding its fear." He said tthat this was tantamout to abusing the dog. This was ot good news becasue Viole had lots of phobias, and we couldn't always tell when to hold back the affection. (Over time, when Violet became extremely anxious at the sight of a blimp passng overhead and peed on herself, I'd picked her up and carried her several blaocks back to our condo. When Boyke herad the story , he was beside himself.) From the moment Boyke took Violet's leash, he was in total control, exuding an authority that I, even in my heightened alpha state, couldn't pull off. He taught us that a dog needed rules, boundaries, and limitations. He also taught us to challenge Violet by making her confront her fears. It's called "exposure resistance". By the time the session was done, Boyke had made Violet deal with a garbage can, a parking lot, a gas station, and a busy intersection. She wasn't shaking at the end; she was 'calm submissive," the nirvana of doggy mental states. I paid with a check. It's been four months, and , following Boyke's instruction as best we could (and using a trining collar he picked out) we've seen some improvement in Violet's condition, but not a lot. (These things, Boyke told us, can take time.) She no longer avoids phone booths or real estate signs, and instead of shrinking from pastic bags, she barks at them. I consider this to be some sort of progress. |
When my girlfriend and I rescued our black lab mix, Violet from the pound last year, we gave her a bath, let her sniff aorund our condo, and waited for her to pee on the carpet. We'd bought the food, a collar, a leash, and a few toys. as new doggy parents, we didn't have much of a clue to do next except take her for a walk, which was an exercise in frustration. Violet pulled on the leash, jumped on pedestrians, and lunged at other dogs. None of this was done in a violent way, but try to explaining the happy vagaries of a toothy 45-pound dog to a jogger wearing headphones.
