Dogs like my dogs – Labs, Border Collies, Rottweiler/Shepherd – know how to do many things, but they don’t know how to do one of the most important things – nothing. Working breeds (and other breeds) have enormous prey drive and we often crank them up tossing things at them, wrestling with them, taking them to arousing and chaotic play groups. The first thing I teach my dogs is a series of calming and obedience exercises. To show them how to calm down, to accept my authority, to allow me to control them when I need to.

It took Red  about five tries to grasp this, and we are almost there. One thing I do every morning when it is time to eat is let the dog in the back run, which is fenced. Then I prepare their food, which they hear. When I open the gate, I tell them to stay and I make them wait while I walk down the stone stairs, open the kitchen door. If one of them bolts ahead, I make him or her go back to the same spot, sit and wait longer. I do these kinds of exercises often – when we take a walk, at the street, in the house. There is never any playing in my house and very few todys. In their fenced run, they can wreak havoc. In the house, there is no need for play and arousal.

I don’t permit my dogs to be “push” dogs to plow ahead of through a gate or doorway. I go first, and they wait until I release them. After awhile, of course, they love it, are excited and pleased to do this and then get fed. Works out for all of us.