Effective communication with your dog maintains the pecking order in your home and ensure that you remain the top dog.  Allowing your dog to dominate you in any way is unhealthy for your dog (as well as potentially dangerous for you, particularly if you have a big dog).

Failure to understand your dog’s behaviour and how to properly train your dog is the cause of dissatisfaction with their dog.  Some people will even give up on their dogs and could even abandon them in some instances.  All because they failed to properly communicate and undersrtand their dog.  What a terrible tragedy!

Actually, your dog really does communicate with you for much of the time you spend together.  So not learning to understand your dog’s body language is similar to living your life with someone who speaks another language, and never learning to communicate with that person by learning any of that other language.

Two way communication with anyone in your life is obviously important, and especially with your dog who does “speak another language”.

Dogs love to play, but their primary concern is often their position in your “pack”.  Dogs will always make attempts to get to the top dog position if you allow this to go on.

Some dogs do this as a game to see how much they can get away with, (my Kara is like this).  Other dogs can actually take this issue very seriously, and may threaten any “pack” member who doesn’t defer to them – sometimes even including their owner.  Large dogs often like to jump up and stand with their front paws on the owner’s shoulders. This can be a friendly gesture,  but is often actually a posture of dominance.

A better greeting to encourage your dog to use is to have your dog sit and then for you offer a greeting to your dog. In this way, the dog has assumed a subordinate posture, and you retains your leadership role and your position as the “top dog”.  And your dog loves this exchange with you.  The important thing is that your dog understands his/her position in the “pack”.

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