[Dailydrool] communicating with dogs & understanding them etc

[LOIS LEMA]

now i'm no dog whisperer...nor do i even play one on tv...but i don't know...i believe that actions and body language are more important too...and maybe the tone of your voice as well than what you say.

i have been a dog sitter for almost 10 years now...and done some training as well...i tell people that if you are calm and confident then your dog will feed off of that ...and the opposite as well.  relax.  some folks enter the d..and they weoog park like its the battlefield in world war 3 so of course their dog is all fired up or curled up in a ball ready to be the scarificial lamb..and they wonder why the poor fido isn't having fun.

i try to approcah every dog calmly and safely and usuing a voice that is "normal" not some squaky, high pitched weird thing...that no person on earth would ever use.  it puts me on edge...no way will it make a strange dog come to you.  i also call every dog "puppy"  its a happy word...makes me happy...calms me down...makes me smile..good thoughts...puts me at ease...same flows to dog...dog flows to me.  problem solved.

i don';t chase dogs.  i move slowly and let dog come to me...i talk low and tell it i am safe, and will keep it safe...forever.  and then i stop and kneel.  and keep talking low.  eventually dog will come to me.  (most times)

dogs trust me for some reason.  they let me look at their wounds and treat them.  i can break up their scuffles.  i have been bit twice so its not always perfect but thats okay.  
 my life is far from calm and peaceful (ask anyone who knows me) but for dogs (or any animal...except opossums) i always present  calmness....you get far more in the way of compliance with than than screaming and yelling...oh and sometimes a milkbone doesn't hurt either.

last summer i was helping a friend with her sick rottie...i stood inside the dog park with about 1/2 pound of cold cuts inside my pocket in a baggie for about 30 minutes and not one dog bothered me.  now there are dotgs there that will sniff out a shred of a cookie and make your life a miserable hell for that shred...no one approached me at all.  even when i took the stuff out to wrap his meds in it and dose him up!
i think alot of it is how you present yourself too.   it was august so i'm sure that those keen noses must have been able to sniff out the ham & cheese...but for some reason they knew that it was not cool to bother th crazy lady .  "we'll get when it's time to get" must have been the common thought.  and they did.   20 dogs of assorted breeds and sizes sitting nicely for overheated coldcuts...ah for a camera!

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.  Bertrand Russell
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