FREE Seminar
Dorchester, Ontario - Monday, February 25
Learning (And Laughter) With John Wade - London's #1 And Most Referred Dog Trainer
When Your Rescue Dog Doesn't Listen
And What To Do About It
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Hours
Minutes
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Past Show Reviews
About the event
Rather than approaching rescuing or purchasing a rescue dog from the perspective of “saving” or “adopting” perhaps it might be better to embrace the process more like dating with the intent to marry. The good news is that after this seminar you’ll actually be able to make some changes in your rescue dogs’ behavior. (and who knows, it may even work on a spouse.😀)
Throughout our evening together I will be dividing our time with information about rescue dogs and behavior modification hands-on modifying the behavior of a dog (or two) that I will not meet beforehand (so the audience can experience in real time the efficacy of the behavior principles I will be recommending), a fair amount of humor, and thirty years of experience working with dogs to provide anyone interested in the science of canine behavior and companion dog training as it relates to rescue dogs more than a few pragmatic tools that will help make the lives of their rescue dogs as happy and as full as possible.
This evening will be useful for anyone that owns or is thinking of getting a dog from a rescue and will be especially useful to those that work or volunteer at a humane society, animal control, rescue, vet clinic and are interested in furthering their education.
Content Teasers
Baggage
Taking on a rescue dog is very similar to relationships from the perspective of dating and marriage. When dating we learn (more often than not the hard way) that people have baggage. If we’re fortunate we learn this in time to avoid a whirlwind romance, marriage, and honeymoon in Vegas.
That doesn’t mean we have to abandon romance, we just have to go in with our eyes wide open and understand that any prospective companion will have baggage of one sort or another, and if we’re in the market for a lifelong companion we’d better be okay with that.
However, while baggage may be Okay’, it is ‘Okay’, only up to a point.
What we’re looking for in a companion is someone that we enjoy enough that helping them carry their baggage will not be a burden. Not always an easy task. Part of this workshop helps both rescues and those interested in purchasing a rescue dog avoid a, “perfectly good dog/a perfectly good person but still a horrible or not the best match/marriage” scenario.
As with marital prospects, we will meet prospective canine companions that we may want to share our lives with because they seem a match, but if we miss, are not made aware of, or ignore baggage that we are ill-equipped to help carry, we may not only not be able to help, we may make things worse for both the dog and ourselves.
Baggage Has Been Delayed
When dating, in almost all cases, the people we meet as prospective companions are highly unlikely to meet us on that first or second or third date and open with, “Here is a list of the medications I’m currently on but don’t worry I’ve decided to wean myself off the mood-oriented ones.”, “My favorite color is wine.”, “But don’t worry, I learned my lesson and technically I’ve paid my debt to society.”
In real life with dogs just as with people, it takes time particularly with someone with limited “dating experience” to learn what the baggage is, and therefore make a decision as to whether a future relationship is viable. We will be discussing means that rescues and rescue dog owners can use to get the secrets out on the table as early as possible. This is for two reasons. The first is no one likes surprises, the second is that if we can identify early, in a significant number of cases the behavior can be prevented from resurfacing if the relationship with and approach to training is correctly focused.
Rescue Dog Suitcases Are Almost Always No Where Near as Full As They Might Appear
The vast majority of rescue dogs that are burdened with baggage are burdened by more ‘suitcase’ than actual baggage inside that suitcase. In other words, more often than not as much as 80% of the encountered symptoms are ‘drama’ and more importantly, addressable. Some aspects will be genetic and imprinted but not as much as one might think. 80% of its baggage is a huge chunk of baggage to relieve a dog from with enormous potential for positive lifestyle impact.
However, the vast majority of times baggage that could be shed isn’t, in part due to veterinarians, vet techs, dog trainers and rescues mistakenly embracing pseudo-science (‘All Positive/Purely Positive/Force-Free/Never Say No…’, treat, treat, treat) ideologies. There is no human therapy program on the planet that embraces such a model.
That is not to suggest that the default approach be the ‘Might Is Right’, Alpha, Pack Leader, Dominant, Alpha Roll, Yank and Crank nonsense.
Attendees will be learning an approach based on authentic behavior and learning science that will far better help a rescue dog to improve, and even completely let go of the baggage that has been holding it back.
That is not to suggest that the default approach be the ‘Might Is Right’, Alpha, Pack Leader, Dominant, Alpha Roll, Yank and Crank nonsense.
Attendees will be learning an approach based on authentic behavior and learning science that will far better help a rescue dog to improve, and even completely let go of the baggage that has been holding it back.
Monday, February 25, 2019
7 - 9 PM
Optimist Youth Center
1653 Richmond Street
Dorchester, Ontario N0L 1G4
Phone: 519-268-8885
Seminar Is Organized By And Sponsored By
