Dogs Need to Feel Safe Above All Else

By Annie Phenix, ACB-KSA

Dogs need to feel safe more than anything else. First comes safety, then comes learning.

I’ve shared my life with literally hundreds of dogs (if you count the several hundred foster dogs). I’ve always put a premium on giving my dogs the very best life I could give them. For some dogs that meant the best medical care. For others it meant buying acres of land where they could run to their heart’s content. I have always been keenly aware of what my dogs are expressing and I’ve always concentrated on what I felt made their lives worth living.

And now I am living with these two hooligans – Heeler-Border Collie brothers Finn and Cooper. They are – hands down – the HAPPIEST dogs I’ve ever lived with. It wasn’t a guarantee at all that they would be this well adjusted. They were taken from their mother at 5 weeks of age and thrown into a back yard with no supervision or enrichment. They came to me with several types of worms and fear in their eyes and little bodies.

Finn and Cooper were a LOT of work for my husband and me. We put the time in showing them they were safe. Eventually (it took 7 months)they believed us and now they are thriving. They are silly. They have fun every single day. They make us laugh as they out smart us. They are happy.

I didn’t train them (other than a reliable recall and they don’t jump on people).

My dogs will win no obedience titles.

I do not care.

They do the few things I ask of them very, very well. I don’t need a demo dog to prove I can train a dog to do this thing or that thing. I know I can. Why do I need to prove that to anyone else? I do not. I only need to prove to myself that I set up an environment with structure that made sense to these two dogs that they could grow up in and BE HAPPY.

THIS is what educated, modern and compassionate trainers do: we guide dogs who need our help living their very best – and happiest — lives. A shock collar would never have helped these two and it would have been the final blow proving to them that humans are dangerous and not to be trusted.

Dogs need to first and foremost feel SAFE.

We have an ethical obligation to provide this sense of safety for them. They are our captives, after all.

Check out my virtual and in-home training and behavior packages for individual help with your dog: https://choosetotrainhumane.com/utah-pet-dog-trainer-2/

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