the puppy wizard

Praising BAD Behaviors Is GOOD
Date: 2003-06-17 23:38:10 PST

HOWEDY People,

This post will cover most of what you never thought
of and MOORE than you already know about stuff...


Interesting X. I've never seen one of them
before, and I'm not big on "breed" issues,
but I just got to laugh at that picture I got
in my head of a Aussie runnin around in a
Newfie suit. I'm fallin outta my armchair
and my sides are splittin!!!


Fine. I prefer to see pups get into their new HOWSES
as soon as they're weaned. Many folk prefer to allow
the pups to stay with mom till twelve weeks or so, but
I've never seen a problem for pups who'd been "orphaned"
and into their family much earlier. My preference is six
weeks. But that's not addressing your questions.

My 40 years experience and some studies I recently
read indicates some aggression may be precipitated
by S/N. It's a hot button topic for many people, because
it's one of those things where "you're damned if you do
and damned if you don't." FWIW, according to Judaic
law, spaying would be appropriate, neutering would not.
There's other laws in their book about such issues as
muzzling working draft animals etc. Very interesting stuff.

Oh drat! You just burst my bubble! Now I can't laugh
about a Aussie dressed in a Newfie suit.

When I hear that, I think HYPERACTIVE. Hyperactivity
is caused by stress barring such outside influences
as toxins in the environment or malignancy of some sort.
Purdue recently did some stuff on OCD and determined
that stress percipiticpates OCD behaviors (Duh-Oh!). No
news to this trainer. That's HOWE COME it's SO EZ for
my students to break the anxiety SYNDROME and
rehabilitate their hyperactive dogs in a few days, maybe
less.

Thyroid problems could be involved there too, and I've got
a different take on that as well. I rather doubt the thyroid
or any system is likely to malfunction for no reason. I
believe that the constant on/off stress of ORDINARY
DAILY LIFE in an ORDINARY NORMAL HOWEShold,
is enough to push dogs, and some breeds more EZily
than other's over the edge, resulting in obsessive
compulsive behavior disorders like hyperactivity,
excessive chewing,barking, digging, pacing, HOWEling,
separation anxiety, self mutilation, fear of thunder, and
even most carsickness.

When I hear THAT, I don't wanna ask what's after
the most part...

Bummer. I hate that. Scares the beejeesus outta me.

Good, I'm relieved.

Dogs don't do things for no reason. Do you know
what will provoke her? There's a commonality
between all behavior problems, so if you can think
of what when and where she'd had incidents in the
past, you might isolate the triggers, and then you're
half way done training her...

Perhaps even just your scrutiny can be pressuring her.
Dogs are very sensitive critters, it doesn't take much
to throw them outta whack.


Probably true, but that's the half of it also. I'll try to explain
later...

Right. That sez to me, she's insecure. It's a survival
instinct. HOWE COME should she be insecure and
thinking of herself first, rather than "feedin the family,"
as a mom dog would do? Well, mom dogs do not,
they need to sustain themselves first, so they can take
care of the bigger picture, even if that means culling
her litter.

Greed is what it looks like, but dogs aren't capitalists,
so it's got to be something telling her there's not
enough to go around. Perhaps she's been teased with
treats or had rewards withheld? Dogs are scavengers.
They steal scraps of food and run to hide with their back
to the wall in a heightened state of alert.

Putting food or bribes into an untrusting dog's face
will likely make him think fight/flight/survive... so I
never use food bribes. Sure you can train animals
and slaves by withholding or treating with food, it's
the bottom line when you think about it. You'd need
a mighty big treat bag to control all the food in creation
Anything that takes precedence in your dog's mind
over you, is usurping your authority and diminishing
your dog's esteem for you.


Right. That sez to me she's not entirely trusting, that
something is concerning her that she's not SAFE.
AGGRESSION IS FEAR. We don't attack for no
reason, we attack to defend ourselves from a real
or perceived threat.

In looking for answers, I am not looking to make excuses
for the dog's behavior. I personally don't care HOWE COME
the dog does something, I deal with the whole problem from
another perspective entirely, and many of these insecurity
issues will be AUTOMAGICKALLY CURED, just by removing
the inconsistencies and stressors in her daily life.

Whoever said "it's a dogs life," never put on the hat...
Dogs are just as sensitive about family tensions like children
squabbling and parents correcting them or the dog, for
whatever. LOOK at HOWE many times a day you probably
have to say STOP THAT! and correct all of them? At bedtime
the kids may give you the standard bedtime runaround, a kid
falling and crying about it can make the dog nervous, anything
goes.

Hmmm. That makes me very suspicious. I like CONSISTENCY.
Even if it's bad. But that may be good too, cause it could give
us some insight into what's goin down here.


By 'someone else,' you mean the kids, anybody else
or everybody else? That too, may give some insight
as to what's cookin.

Hmmm. She's OK with the kids and food? That's got
my antennae up. I believe you're sayin she's SAFE
with the girls passing her while eating. THAT makes
me very happy, if that's correct. At least about the
food issue but it offsets itself with the dichotomy
of her incidents with the kids. There's too many
inconsistencies, and that's gonna tell us what's
the problem, I think.

Good. Tell us what you know of will set her off,
and we can figure out what's upsettin her and
HOWE to break the response.


That doesn't give me a clear picture. Again, if
you can predict when a behavior will happen,
we can set it up to break or extinguish it, if
it's still a problem after we do some simple
preliminary conditioning exercises.

Forget respect. FEAR. Something concerns her,
it's not disrespect.


You just did.

No problem.

Likewise. I do all my work from sittin right here stark
ravin nekkid.

I'm wondering if you've done any training with her
and if so, HOWE was she trained. The fact she does
not growl at YOU when you're near her food is probably
not because it's you who gave her the food.

That she doesn't growl at the kids around the food,
makes me wonder if she's ever been corrected for
'food guarding' with the children.

That could explain HOWE COME she won't growl at
them near the food, but will in other situations particularly
play, concerns me, but in a GOOD way. That's displaced
aggression, I expect. That's cause by repressing behaviors.
My methods use alternately variable distractions and
prolonged non physical praise to extinguish the reflexive
behavior through triggerin and non fulfillment, not by ever
offering REPLACEMENT or alternate behaviors, because
THAT disavails us of training opportunities and leaves the
problem behavior intact, waitin on the whim of the dog.

That suggests to me that she may be reacting to
an incident perhaps long ago where she or the kids
had been scolded or corrected for roudy play? That's
called superstitious or flashback behavior, whereby
a former incident is thought of by a similar cir***stance
and the dog simple flashes back to that former state
of mind and isn't even thinkin of the present, and usually
ends pretty quickly, soon as he realizes this is a different
time and place.

All we got to do is play with that thought a few times if
everything else is in order, and the dog will quickly override
his BOOGEYMAN...

The food guarding is not against the children, is that correct?
Perhaps I'm a little unclear on the scenario. I think you're
saying she's fine with you and the kids around the food, the
food being an issue for other family members, visitors etc?

Has she ever had an incident of growling at you? If so,
when, where, and HOWE did you respond to it. Also,
HOWE do you currently respond to her incidents with
the kids now and HOWE often does this happen?

Do you give her treats? Will she 'go off' around a
treat or only AT her food bowl, and is she OK with
your children around their food and do the children
give her treats and is she OK with that?

Finally, do you crate her? If so, does she go to her crate
on her own? If so, that too, can be causing or exacerbating
these issues. Crating can cause a lot of problems for
insecurity. Because the crate becomes a safe haven for
her, kinda like hiding under the covers from the boogeyman,
when the door opens, it's like havin to get outta bed in the
dark to go to the toilet... SCARY!!! You might crawl over
the bed to get close the light and then run and jump to
hit the switch before the monster under the bed can get
your by your ankles.

Those answers will give us a better idea of exactly
HOWE COME the dog is growling. But after all is
said, it still doesn't matter to me except as a curiosity.
We'll fix this behavior problem EZ, I'm certain.

She doesn't sound too scary to me now that we've
looked at what she's doing. In fact, and please
correct me if I misunderstood, she's ONLY staring
and growling and showing some teeth? She's never
tried to assault the kids, right?

What do you feed and are you using any chemicals
around her like floor cleaners containing phenols? I ask
about food because some contain BHA, BHT, ETHOXYQUIN,
or propylene glycol as preservatives and they're suspect
of causing some hyperactive like behavior.

You might break the food guarding malarkey by simply
moving the dish to another location, preferably a neutral
area. IOW, take her out of the environment in which
she's accustomed to having incidents, and desensitize
her there.

But don't start messin with that stuff till you know
HOWE to handle it just in case she should go off
when you try testing it out. Besides, after an hour
of training that food thing will probably disappear
on it's own, just from the basic conditioning exercises.

You might try taking her dinner bowl in hand and
slowly walking her around while eating and making
passes by other folks. But not yet, you got a little
study to do and some practice... about two hours
work. Must be COLD out there.

Lets get the lesson plan in mind so you'll have your
wits about you if she should growl so we don't lose
an opportunity to address an incident should she growl,
because doin so in new environment would make it
that much easier to break, due to the change of environ.

Same question goes for the growling. Is that a generalized
behavior or does she only do it say, in the living room
or only inside the HOWES, will she growl if they're playin
outside.

Does she growl ONLY when she's in play? That
could be VERY telling. Does she growl when she
is NOT ALREADY EXCITED PLAYING (besides
at the food bowl, I'm over that)? If so, that's the
problem, BUT, that still leaves the question of
WHO does she growl at around food? That too
could tie up another loose end.

Does she always / sometimes / not often come to
the kids when they call her? Will she always come
to you when you call? Is she walked on leash often,
and is she well behaved or is it a struggle, and what
kind of collar do you use. Even though you're not
writing about an on leash problem, we're still gonna
need to work her on lead and longe line for the initial
conditioning exercises.

The program I teach begins by stopping all negative
or corrective responses and interactions with her. That
includes scolding the children, because that may be
what provokes her to growl. That's called allelomimetic
behavior. IOW, if you scold the kids for jumpin on the
sofa, the dog will copy your action and attitudes and
likewise correct them.

Sibling rivalry is not caused by siblings, is cause by
mishandling. Scolding one peer in front of the others
causes animosity towards the others whom the subject
was scolded in front of. That causes 2 things to happen.
The scolded party gets embarrasses and assaults
the observers of the scolding, or the observers copy
the disciplinarian, and likewise scold the subject.

Catch22.

HOWE are we gonna control three kid critters and
one Aussie runnin around in a midget Newfie suit???
Could take three juvenile detention and one AC
officers 24/8 to throw down on them when they get
goin like kids will do.

I'm pretty EZ going, but I require strict discipline. I
can't have a child interrupting me while I'm doin this
and have my dogs going kookamunga while I'm
trying to teach someone on the phone HOWE
to control their dog's barking, for example.

NOW I'd be curious about the ages of the kids
"children under age 13," cause if there's things like
hyperactive or disabled children or autistic kids or
an infant who'd maybe cry or have seizures or
whatever that could upset the dog.

I'm not lookin for excuses to mitigate her behavior, just
to understand it better so's we're lookin at the facts
of the matter based on what is happening Vs feelings
about HOWE whatever we may emotionally feel about
stuff.

We want to back away from the micro aspects
of the behavior so we can take in the big picture
and then we can see what parts don't fit, and figure
out what to do to remedy the etiology rather than
fightin symptoms of the problem, because as we
repress symptoms, they change, to other, often
worse, seemingly non related behaviors as
trainsfer or replacement behaviors.

That's HOWE COME so many dogs go through
every behavior problem in the book before simply
runnin outa behavior problems that haven't already
been repressed.

Think about it. As we repress all the normal puppy
behaviors we make the pup nervous cause he's only
a animal. They cannot know right from wrong, only
what's nice and what's not. They're not a human child,
they cannot understand BAD.

Dogs do not DO, BAD, dogs only do dog, and of curse,
they also copy us. As the dog matures to 8-9 months
they go through their 'adolescent rebellious' stage (Scott
&Fuller). HOWE can a dog have a rebellious stage if
there's nothing to REBEL AGAINST? Well, he still
has not run through all the behavior problems he can
be provoked into, so when he's maturing as a ****ager
and trying for more freedom, we become more repressive
because the dog is out of hand, and there goes the shootin
match.

My student's dogs do not go through that because we
never have a negative or forced interaction with them,
we NEVER tell them NO or INSIST on a command,
because THAT triggers the opposition reflex and makes
the dog rebel.

Our dogs are eager to work because we PRAISE IN
ADVANCE, with the command, all in one breath not
after the dog has finished doin his behavior. Dogs do
not work for credit. By the time the dog comes to
you when called, he's not longer thinking of the
command.

Dogs respond in predictable, instinctive, reflexive, ways,
to situations and cir***stances of their environment
which we provide for them. That means we can change
or control the environment to set the dog up to perform
as predicted, and know when to do what you've planned
in advance, to properly trigger / distract / praise / trigger /
distract / praise the behavior till it's extinguished, MUCH
LIKE FLOODING, but not quite... Or, we may use traditional
flooding techniques with distraction / praise to extinguish
behaviors.

Before addressing behavior problems we condition the
dog to praise with every brief eye contact and learn
HOWE to handle the lead so we're not pulling on the
collar and triggering the dog or hyping him up for
a random outburst. Proper leash handling techniques
insures safety and teaches the dog gentleness and
conditions them to respond to our praise, as it entices
the dog in and settles him down in just a few minutes.

It's kinda like Dr. Ian Dunbar's "make like a tree," but
not really anything at all quite like it. They just look similar
at first glance. The Hot & Cold Exercise is like the kid's
game "gettin hotter gettin colder" with the dog's attention
and body as we stand and handle the lead properly to
get the feel for it and reassure the dogs we ain't gonna
be pullin no more on them.

After a few minutes the dog will be hangin out waitin
for you to do something, then you're ready to go into
the Family Leadership Exercise where we very subtly
work the dog in a conditioning routine we'll rely on for
other situations and begin to install the come command
as a conditioned reflex.

That usually takes my students about one hour, often less,
very rarely four hours, but that'd get a perfect recall on
the most difficult critter. Once we've got that dog willing to
work with us we can begin to break his behavior problems
using variable distractions and praise techniques.

Using praise in advance relaxes the dog and encourages
him. For training, isn't that all we need?

Praising BAD BEHAVIORS is GOOD. If your dog were
boltin out the door, it's not "NO! STOP!," it's GOOD
GIRL NICEDOG YOU'RE A GOOOOD FELLA!!.

The dog ain't goin NOWHERE except come back over
to you. Might even ask if he wants to go to the park.
Sure he wants to but you don't. Who cares? He's only
a DOG. Tell him you're gonna put your shoes on to
go but it'll be a minit. Dogs like kids FORGET in a
minute... Tomorrow when you ARE going to the
park, tell him you're goin cause you PROMISED him
yesterday, and now it's time. They'll think you're the
kat's pajamas for bein the greatest mom/dad in the
whole wild world.

Dogs and kids just wanna have fun. Therefore my dogs
never see me frown on them. NO MATTER WHAT. I
never tell them NO or DON'T, or physically reach to
restrain them, partly because THAT would trigger the
opposition reflex and compel the dog to "outstep me"
and rush the door or eat the steak or whatever AND
teach the dog that doin THAT, will command 100%
of your undivided attention...

That's HOWE COME proper understanding of the
methods and developing the feel for leash handling
is imperative, so's we don't sabotage ourselves by
reacting to our own fears of dangerous situations
we're gonna work through in a few minutes if you
can refrain yourself from saying NO DON'T! and
pullin the lead to force control.

Of course I know that your dog isn't having leash
problems, but it fits here...

Our dogs naturally want to do everything they're asked,
cause just like kids, dogs just wanna have fun.

Your Puppy Wizard. <YPW;~}

----- Original Message -----
From: <n>
To: "Jerry Howe" <jhowe2@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 5:21 PM

Subject: Re: Damned Family Leadership Exercise -
Re: Am I expecting to much


==================

----- Original Message -----
From: Eric
To: jhowe2@bellsouth.net
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 7:54 AM
Subject: just checking in..

Jerry!

You helped me with my pal Dundee about a year ago
regarding submissive peeing. Just wanted to let you
know he's doing great- he was "cured" in about 2 days
using your techniques!

He has since become the "smartest dog in the world"!
Once I stopped thinking like a human and got inside his
head, I can teach him ANYTHING, usually in a matter
of minutes. Makes me look like an expert dog-trainer.

I rescued two strays last week, cleaned 'em up, wormed
'em, and am getting them their shots. Time to get inside
their heads and teach them to teach themselves how to
be good dogs!

Instead of feeling like "training" is a chore, I look forward
to working with these guys a couple times a day...

Although I don't follow your instructions "to a T", I learned
from you to "think like a dog" and stimulate their brain rather
than beating ass or pinching, or any of that nonsense.

I know damn well I would NOT be loyal to someone who beat MY ass
lol!

Well, just wanted to thank you for rattling the bushes
out there and teaching folks the RIGHT way to "train" dogs.

A horseman friend of mine uses very similar techniques in
training his horses- he calls it "natural horsemanship". He
is hated by nearly all the local "trainers" yet somehow he
repeatedly wins at every show he attends. He rarely shows
any more, but goes now and then to rub their noses in it
(pun intended)... Too cool....

Have a great holiday season and keep up the good work!

Eric , Dundee, Sammy, and Maynard

==========================

Subject: Re: Dog will not listen to anyone but me!
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 11:33:36 -0500
Message-ID: uim43blqq1h67d@corp.supernews.com

Okay, I gotta speak up here... We've been using Jerry's
methods with our dog. We had the same problem as the
original poster has with Buzz. One day working with the
family pack exercise and practicing the recall command
with the family and she'll now go out with hubby and
daughter instead of needing me to reassure her or even
refusing to go with anyone but me.

I really urge you, regardless of the negative things you
might hear about Jerry & Wits' End here, to try the method
and *judge the results for yourself*.

Let's see what other areas she's improved in... always
comes when called, not chewing stuff even if we leave
it laying around, "re"housebroken after long shelter stay,
walks perfectly on leash, doesn't try to steal food from
our plates or beg... probably a few more things I'm
forgetting to mention. *(Yeah, the kats lay off the koi
and don't wander. jh).

That's in about a week's time.

Her overall demeanor has changed. When we brought
her home she was very untrusting and ultra-submissive
(except with her area/toys where she was possessive and
nippy).

She had been abused and beaten by previous owners,
then she was in a shelter for months. They (most of them)
wanted to give up and kill her Now she's gained confidence
and trust with us. Last night was another big breakthrough
(in my eyes). She barked! Big deal, she barked just once
when she heard the front door. Great!

Anyway, you'll be told lots of nasty stuff about Jerry or that
the Wits' End manual is culled from other sources. In my
opinion, even if it is, it takes only the good stuff and leaves
out the bad. Works for me.

(And I suppose I gotta say this... I don't know Jerry personally.
I've emailed him and instant messaged him. I have not bought a
"Doggy Do Right". He's offered help for free.)

Ms. Mick Owen Crneckiy
http://www.crneckiy.com & http://tarot.crneckiy.com
E-mail & MSN Messenger: mick@crneckiy.com
AIM & Yahoo!: MickCrneckiy ~ ICQ: 72461227

======================

==================

----- Original Message -----
From: Hoku Beltz
To: The Puppy Wizard
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 6:12 PM
Subject: Mahalo

Aloha Jerry,

Just wanted to let you know that the surrogate toy
technique is working wonders. I have not had a
shredded sheet for over a week now. It is nice
to be able to leave the bed made and come home
to a made bed.

Your program is awesome, but you already know
that. Keep up the good work!

Hoku

==================

Thank you,
Jerry Howe,
Director of Research,
BIOSOUND Scientific
Director of Training,
Wits' End Dog Training
1611 24th St
Orlando, FL 32805
Phone: 1-407-425-5092
E-mail: ThePuppyWizard@EarthLink.Net
http://www.doggydoright.com

the puppy wizard

news:<GDfUb.10002$jH6.3018@newsread1.news.atl.eart hlink.net>...

A reader writes:


Exactly. It's the same method as lyinglynn, lyingfrostydahly,
cindy moore, cindi long, lyingdogdirty, blackman, terri, steve
boyer, janet boss, and even our Britt friend Ludwig, amongst
many, many, other "respected" rpdb regulars here, all use and
endorse.

That's why I'm taking a lot of heat from them and their pals
trying to obscure the truth... That's O.K., I'm used to
dealing with incompetents like these sadistic, immoral,
unethical, corrupt, morons that only know fear, force,
confrontation, punishment, and violence, and are satisfied
fighting with and HURTING dogs because of their behavior,
instead of intelligently handling and training dogs...

The extent the trainer at Cloud9 in Atlanta GA went with the
method was excessive only because of her obvious pleasure in
tormenting dogs, but the actions she used was not much
different than what is used and taught here...but beauty is in
the eye of the beholder, isn't it?
http://www.apbnews.com/videocenter/player/govid.html?video=/vid
eocent er/othervideos/2000/04/20/petabuse0420 (broken link.
paste link into browser)

It's all in the book by koehler... It is based on incrementally
increasing fear force and violence, and when the dogs
object to the "training," the reader is instructed to suspend
the dog in the air either by hand or mechanism, and to hang
the dog till his eyes roll back in his head, his tongue
thickens and turns blue and falls out the side of his mouth,
and when you put the dog back on the ground, he should stagger
a few steps and puke... OTHERWISE, you didn't HANG the dog
CORRECTLY, and will have to do it over again...

Throughout the entire text, are sophisticated desensitization
and rationalization techniques that are intended to mislead
the reader to substantiate the reasoning behind his abuse and
convince the reader that everything the dog does, is a direct
affront towards the handlers "authority?". When the method
fails, he recommends that the dog be destroyed because the dog
was a result of "bad breeding"...

Our friend frantik fraud die obviates all physical punishing
contact whatsoever, preferring to rely on just turning up the
juice on his sadoelectroshock collar, and burning the dogs
till they piss and shit themselves. It's commonly accepted
that this will happen when using shock collars, there may have
been some discussion on that here just this week. It's an
admission also made by the staff "behaviorists" from some of
the ecollar manufacturers.

The abuse that went on at Cloud9 is exactly the same kind of
abuse that is recommended here. That is what is responsible
for the deaths of millions of dogs every year. These
"trainers" try to blame these incredible losses on ineffective
training methods used by non force trainers, or attribute it
to lenient or inconsistent handlers, and finally when they
have to hang and destroy dogs themselves, they lay the blame
on to the "bad breed stock" the dogs came from, as instructed
in the big book by the monster koehler. Those are just excuses
to justify their continued abuse and violence. Some of them
here are liars, although many of them are truly mislead
themselves.

Koehler was a master of human psychology, and he cleverly
designed a system of disinformation to desensitize all but the
most astute, competent, intelligent trainers, into believing
his methods are appropriate behavior. No one in their right
mind would accept what he's taught, until they've read the
convoluted methodology and erroneous theories he uses to
justify doing lousy, filthy, rotten things to our dogs, things
that we would NEVER be proud to do in public..., and IN FACT
would go to jail for doing... By now, this cruelty is so well
entrenched and accepted, that only serious efforts on the part
of competent trainers are ever going to stop this insanity...

Of course, our pal cindy moore has even more creative methods
for enhancing the bond between dog and "trainer." She
advocates twisting toes and pinching ears, to train her dogs.
I wouldn't say it if I hadn't read it myself in black and
white on her own web page in her own words...She won't post a
link to it, just ask her to and see...

Amy Dahl posted her links to articles she's written about the
forced retrieve, and has since LIED and said that she does not
use or teach those methods...she even whips dogs that are
restrained, to "teach" them to make a good start on the
retrieve...
http://www.oakhillkennel.com/library/force/force1.html
http://www.oakhillkennel.com/library/force/force2.html

These clowns agree that this kind of force is NECESSARY to get
the dog to excel at ANY advanced level of work...

People get confused when they see these highly respected
hypocrites criticized by myself and the more than half dozen
seasoned, competent, professional trainers here that have
learned through experience that those "techniques" are vicious
and counterproductive, and leads to ''collateral damages," the
deaths of millions of dogs every year, directly as a result of
their abusive efforts at training...

The problem is, that they won't change their vicious ways
until everybody here is aware of the violence they teach, and
until everyone else understands the ramifications of just how
counterproductive and dangerous these methods are, and stops
them in their tracks every time they post their terrible
insanity here. That's why they all despise me, I'm blowing
their cover. It's about time...

There is even considerable medical evidence of vertebra and
disc damage from ordinary training "corrections" as they are
taught here. These people just ignore the facts, and continue
doing what they have been erroneously led to believe is
appropriate.

There is comfort in numbers, misery likes company, and they
have a tight little clique that harasses and denigrates any
competent trainers with more intelligent solutions to training
and behavior problems, till they no longer fight with these
rotten bastards, and leave this group because they realize
that it is an impossible battle, that nothing lasting or
meaningful can ever come of their efforts to educate these
"pros"... That's why I'm here, I don't take on the easy
challenges.

"Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and
judge things by reason's way, not by popular say." Montaigne

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Salvor Hardin

If you cannot convince them, confuse them. H.S. Truman.

DRAINING THE SWAMP, AND RELOCATING THE GATORS... j;~)

"CUSTOM WILL RECONCILE PEOPLE TO ANY ATROCITY." G.B. Shaw.

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems
of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the
simplest and most obvious truth if it would oblige them to
admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in
explaining to colleagues, proudly taught to others, and which
they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their
lives."
Leo Tolstoy

Is it any wonder that the following sig file has generated
more complaints to my personal email than any other
controversial post I have made to date, bar none?:

caveat
If you have to do things to your dog to train him, that you
would rather not have to do, then you shouldn't be doing them.
If you have a dog trainer that tells you to jerk your dog
around, choke him, pinch his ears, or twist his toes, shock,
shake, slap, scold, hit, or punish him in any manner, that
corrections are appropriate, that the dog won't think of you
as the punisher, or that corrections are not harmful, or if
they can't train your dog to do what you want, look for a
trainer that knows Howe.

Sincerely,
Jerry Howe,
Wits' End Dog Training
http://www.doggydoright.com

Nature, to be mastered, must be obeyed.
-Francis Bacon-

There are terrible people who, instead of solving a problem,
bungle it and make it more difficult for all who come after.
Who ever can't hit the nail on the head should, please, not
hit at all.
-Nietzsche-

The abilities to think, rationalize and solve problems are
learned qualities.

The Wits' End Dog Training Method challenges the learning
centers in the dogs brain. These centers, once challenged,
develop and continue to grow exponentially, to make him
smarter.

The Wits' End Dog Training method capitalizes on praising
split seconds of canine thought, strategy, and timing, not
mindless hours of forced repetition, constant corrections, and
scolding.
-Jerry Howe-

the puppy wizard

HOWEDY eddie w of PET LOSS DOT CON,

Stick arHOWEND... you an The Puppy Wizard
are fixin to do up a nice Valentiens day cyber
memorial... BWEEEHAHAHAHAAA!!!

http://www.petloss.com

Hey you got any nice someWON else's
words for kwbrown and dierdre edward's
DEAD DOGS?

And are you still willin to accept fifty dollar donations
for warnin folks abHOWET The Puppy Wizard, eddie?

The Puppy Wizard. <{}; ~ ) >

the puppy wizard

Praising BAD Behaviors Is GOOD
Date: 2003-06-17 23:38:10 PST

HOWEDY People,

This post will cover most of what you never thought
of and MOORE than you already know about stuff...


Interesting X. I've never seen one of them
before, and I'm not big on "breed" issues,
but I just got to laugh at that picture I got
in my head of a Aussie runnin around in a
Newfie suit. I'm fallin outta my armchair
and my sides are splittin!!!


Fine. I prefer to see pups get into their new HOWSES
as soon as they're weaned. Many folk prefer to allow
the pups to stay with mom till twelve weeks or so, but
I've never seen a problem for pups who'd been "orphaned"
and into their family much earlier. My preference is six
weeks. But that's not addressing your questions.

My 40 years experience and some studies I recently
read indicates some aggression may be precipitated
by S/N. It's a hot button topic for many people, because
it's one of those things where "you're damned if you do
and damned if you don't." FWIW, according to Judaic
law, spaying would be appropriate, neutering would not.
There's other laws in their book about such issues as
muzzling working draft animals etc. Very interesting stuff.

Oh drat! You just burst my bubble! Now I can't laugh
about a Aussie dressed in a Newfie suit.

When I hear that, I think HYPERACTIVE. Hyperactivity
is caused by stress barring such outside influences
as toxins in the environment or malignancy of some sort.
Purdue recently did some stuff on OCD and determined
that stress percipiticpates OCD behaviors (Duh-Oh!). No
news to this trainer. That's HOWE COME it's SO EZ for
my students to break the anxiety SYNDROME and
rehabilitate their hyperactive dogs in a few days, maybe
less.

Thyroid problems could be involved there too, and I've got
a different take on that as well. I rather doubt the thyroid
or any system is likely to malfunction for no reason. I
believe that the constant on/off stress of ORDINARY
DAILY LIFE in an ORDINARY NORMAL HOWEShold,
is enough to push dogs, and some breeds more EZily
than other's over the edge, resulting in obsessive
compulsive behavior disorders like hyperactivity,
excessive chewing,barking, digging, pacing, HOWEling,
separation anxiety, self mutilation, fear of thunder, and
even most carsickness.

When I hear THAT, I don't wanna ask what's after
the most part...

Bummer. I hate that. Scares the beejeesus outta me.

Good, I'm relieved.

Dogs don't do things for no reason. Do you know
what will provoke her? There's a commonality
between all behavior problems, so if you can think
of what when and where she'd had incidents in the
past, you might isolate the triggers, and then you're
half way done training her...

Perhaps even just your scrutiny can be pressuring her.
Dogs are very sensitive critters, it doesn't take much
to throw them outta whack.


Probably true, but that's the half of it also. I'll try to explain
later...

Right. That sez to me, she's insecure. It's a survival
instinct. HOWE COME should she be insecure and
thinking of herself first, rather than "feedin the family,"
as a mom dog would do? Well, mom dogs do not,
they need to sustain themselves first, so they can take
care of the bigger picture, even if that means culling
her litter.

Greed is what it looks like, but dogs aren't capitalists,
so it's got to be something telling her there's not
enough to go around. Perhaps she's been teased with
treats or had rewards withheld? Dogs are scavengers.
They steal scraps of food and run to hide with their back
to the wall in a heightened state of alert.

Putting food or bribes into an untrusting dog's face
will likely make him think fight/flight/survive... so I
never use food bribes. Sure you can train animals
and slaves by withholding or treating with food, it's
the bottom line when you think about it. You'd need
a mighty big treat bag to control all the food in creation
Anything that takes precedence in your dog's mind
over you, is usurping your authority and diminishing
your dog's esteem for you.


Right. That sez to me she's not entirely trusting, that
something is concerning her that she's not SAFE.
AGGRESSION IS FEAR. We don't attack for no
reason, we attack to defend ourselves from a real
or perceived threat.

In looking for answers, I am not looking to make excuses
for the dog's behavior. I personally don't care HOWE COME
the dog does something, I deal with the whole problem from
another perspective entirely, and many of these insecurity
issues will be AUTOMAGICKALLY CURED, just by removing
the inconsistencies and stressors in her daily life.

Whoever said "it's a dogs life," never put on the hat...
Dogs are just as sensitive about family tensions like children
squabbling and parents correcting them or the dog, for
whatever. LOOK at HOWE many times a day you probably
have to say STOP THAT! and correct all of them? At bedtime
the kids may give you the standard bedtime runaround, a kid
falling and crying about it can make the dog nervous, anything
goes.

Hmmm. That makes me very suspicious. I like CONSISTENCY.
Even if it's bad. But that may be good too, cause it could give
us some insight into what's goin down here.


By 'someone else,' you mean the kids, anybody else
or everybody else? That too, may give some insight
as to what's cookin.

Hmmm. She's OK with the kids and food? That's got
my antennae up. I believe you're sayin she's SAFE
with the girls passing her while eating. THAT makes
me very happy, if that's correct. At least about the
food issue but it offsets itself with the dichotomy
of her incidents with the kids. There's too many
inconsistencies, and that's gonna tell us what's
the problem, I think.

Good. Tell us what you know of will set her off,
and we can figure out what's upsettin her and
HOWE to break the response.


That doesn't give me a clear picture. Again, if
you can predict when a behavior will happen,
we can set it up to break or extinguish it, if
it's still a problem after we do some simple
preliminary conditioning exercises.

Forget respect. FEAR. Something concerns her,
it's not disrespect.


You just did.

No problem.

Likewise. I do all my work from sittin right here stark
ravin nekkid.

I'm wondering if you've done any training with her
and if so, HOWE was she trained. The fact she does
not growl at YOU when you're near her food is probably
not because it's you who gave her the food.

That she doesn't growl at the kids around the food,
makes me wonder if she's ever been corrected for
'food guarding' with the children.

That could explain HOWE COME she won't growl at
them near the food, but will in other situations particularly
play, concerns me, but in a GOOD way. That's displaced
aggression, I expect. That's cause by repressing behaviors.
My methods use alternately variable distractions and
prolonged non physical praise to extinguish the reflexive
behavior through triggerin and non fulfillment, not by ever
offering REPLACEMENT or alternate behaviors, because
THAT disavails us of training opportunities and leaves the
problem behavior intact, waitin on the whim of the dog.

That suggests to me that she may be reacting to
an incident perhaps long ago where she or the kids
had been scolded or corrected for roudy play? That's
called superstitious or flashback behavior, whereby
a former incident is thought of by a similar cir***stance
and the dog simple flashes back to that former state
of mind and isn't even thinkin of the present, and usually
ends pretty quickly, soon as he realizes this is a different
time and place.

All we got to do is play with that thought a few times if
everything else is in order, and the dog will quickly override
his BOOGEYMAN...

The food guarding is not against the children, is that correct?
Perhaps I'm a little unclear on the scenario. I think you're
saying she's fine with you and the kids around the food, the
food being an issue for other family members, visitors etc?

Has she ever had an incident of growling at you? If so,
when, where, and HOWE did you respond to it. Also,
HOWE do you currently respond to her incidents with
the kids now and HOWE often does this happen?

Do you give her treats? Will she 'go off' around a
treat or only AT her food bowl, and is she OK with
your children around their food and do the children
give her treats and is she OK with that?

Finally, do you crate her? If so, does she go to her crate
on her own? If so, that too, can be causing or exacerbating
these issues. Crating can cause a lot of problems for
insecurity. Because the crate becomes a safe haven for
her, kinda like hiding under the covers from the boogeyman,
when the door opens, it's like havin to get outta bed in the
dark to go to the toilet... SCARY!!! You might crawl over
the bed to get close the light and then run and jump to
hit the switch before the monster under the bed can get
your by your ankles.

Those answers will give us a better idea of exactly
HOWE COME the dog is growling. But after all is
said, it still doesn't matter to me except as a curiosity.
We'll fix this behavior problem EZ, I'm certain.

She doesn't sound too scary to me now that we've
looked at what she's doing. In fact, and please
correct me if I misunderstood, she's ONLY staring
and growling and showing some teeth? She's never
tried to assault the kids, right?

What do you feed and are you using any chemicals
around her like floor cleaners containing phenols? I ask
about food because some contain BHA, BHT, ETHOXYQUIN,
or propylene glycol as preservatives and they're suspect
of causing some hyperactive like behavior.

You might break the food guarding malarkey by simply
moving the dish to another location, preferably a neutral
area. IOW, take her out of the environment in which
she's accustomed to having incidents, and desensitize
her there.

But don't start messin with that stuff till you know
HOWE to handle it just in case she should go off
when you try testing it out. Besides, after an hour
of training that food thing will probably disappear
on it's own, just from the basic conditioning exercises.

You might try taking her dinner bowl in hand and
slowly walking her around while eating and making
passes by other folks. But not yet, you got a little
study to do and some practice... about two hours
work. Must be COLD out there.

Lets get the lesson plan in mind so you'll have your
wits about you if she should growl so we don't lose
an opportunity to address an incident should she growl,
because doin so in new environment would make it
that much easier to break, due to the change of environ.

Same question goes for the growling. Is that a generalized
behavior or does she only do it say, in the living room
or only inside the HOWES, will she growl if they're playin
outside.

Does she growl ONLY when she's in play? That
could be VERY telling. Does she growl when she
is NOT ALREADY EXCITED PLAYING (besides
at the food bowl, I'm over that)? If so, that's the
problem, BUT, that still leaves the question of
WHO does she growl at around food? That too
could tie up another loose end.

Does she always / sometimes / not often come to
the kids when they call her? Will she always come
to you when you call? Is she walked on leash often,
and is she well behaved or is it a struggle, and what
kind of collar do you use. Even though you're not
writing about an on leash problem, we're still gonna
need to work her on lead and longe line for the initial
conditioning exercises.

The program I teach begins by stopping all negative
or corrective responses and interactions with her. That
includes scolding the children, because that may be
what provokes her to growl. That's called allelomimetic
behavior. IOW, if you scold the kids for jumpin on the
sofa, the dog will copy your action and attitudes and
likewise correct them.

Sibling rivalry is not caused by siblings, is cause by
mishandling. Scolding one peer in front of the others
causes animosity towards the others whom the subject
was scolded in front of. That causes 2 things to happen.
The scolded party gets embarrasses and assaults
the observers of the scolding, or the observers copy
the disciplinarian, and likewise scold the subject.

Catch22.

HOWE are we gonna control three kid critters and
one Aussie runnin around in a midget Newfie suit???
Could take three juvenile detention and one AC
officers 24/8 to throw down on them when they get
goin like kids will do.

I'm pretty EZ going, but I require strict discipline. I
can't have a child interrupting me while I'm doin this
and have my dogs going kookamunga while I'm
trying to teach someone on the phone HOWE
to control their dog's barking, for example.

NOW I'd be curious about the ages of the kids
"children under age 13," cause if there's things like
hyperactive or disabled children or autistic kids or
an infant who'd maybe cry or have seizures or
whatever that could upset the dog.

I'm not lookin for excuses to mitigate her behavior, just
to understand it better so's we're lookin at the facts
of the matter based on what is happening Vs feelings
about HOWE whatever we may emotionally feel about
stuff.

We want to back away from the micro aspects
of the behavior so we can take in the big picture
and then we can see what parts don't fit, and figure
out what to do to remedy the etiology rather than
fightin symptoms of the problem, because as we
repress symptoms, they change, to other, often
worse, seemingly non related behaviors as
trainsfer or replacement behaviors.

That's HOWE COME so many dogs go through
every behavior problem in the book before simply
runnin outa behavior problems that haven't already
been repressed.

Think about it. As we repress all the normal puppy
behaviors we make the pup nervous cause he's only
a animal. They cannot know right from wrong, only
what's nice and what's not. They're not a human child,
they cannot understand BAD.

Dogs do not DO, BAD, dogs only do dog, and of curse,
they also copy us. As the dog matures to 8-9 months
they go through their 'adolescent rebellious' stage (Scott
&Fuller). HOWE can a dog have a rebellious stage if
there's nothing to REBEL AGAINST? Well, he still
has not run through all the behavior problems he can
be provoked into, so when he's maturing as a ****ager
and trying for more freedom, we become more repressive
because the dog is out of hand, and there goes the shootin
match.

My student's dogs do not go through that because we
never have a negative or forced interaction with them,
we NEVER tell them NO or INSIST on a command,
because THAT triggers the opposition reflex and makes
the dog rebel.

Our dogs are eager to work because we PRAISE IN
ADVANCE, with the command, all in one breath not
after the dog has finished doin his behavior. Dogs do
not work for credit. By the time the dog comes to
you when called, he's not longer thinking of the
command.

Dogs respond in predictable, instinctive, reflexive, ways,
to situations and cir***stances of their environment
which we provide for them. That means we can change
or control the environment to set the dog up to perform
as predicted, and know when to do what you've planned
in advance, to properly trigger / distract / praise / trigger /
distract / praise the behavior till it's extinguished, MUCH
LIKE FLOODING, but not quite... Or, we may use traditional
flooding techniques with distraction / praise to extinguish
behaviors.

Before addressing behavior problems we condition the
dog to praise with every brief eye contact and learn
HOWE to handle the lead so we're not pulling on the
collar and triggering the dog or hyping him up for
a random outburst. Proper leash handling techniques
insures safety and teaches the dog gentleness and
conditions them to respond to our praise, as it entices
the dog in and settles him down in just a few minutes.

It's kinda like Dr. Ian Dunbar's "make like a tree," but
not really anything at all quite like it. They just look similar
at first glance. The Hot & Cold Exercise is like the kid's
game "gettin hotter gettin colder" with the dog's attention
and body as we stand and handle the lead properly to
get the feel for it and reassure the dogs we ain't gonna
be pullin no more on them.

After a few minutes the dog will be hangin out waitin
for you to do something, then you're ready to go into
the Family Leadership Exercise where we very subtly
work the dog in a conditioning routine we'll rely on for
other situations and begin to install the come command
as a conditioned reflex.

That usually takes my students about one hour, often less,
very rarely four hours, but that'd get a perfect recall on
the most difficult critter. Once we've got that dog willing to
work with us we can begin to break his behavior problems
using variable distractions and praise techniques.

Using praise in advance relaxes the dog and encourages
him. For training, isn't that all we need?

Praising BAD BEHAVIORS is GOOD. If your dog were
boltin out the door, it's not "NO! STOP!," it's GOOD
GIRL NICEDOG YOU'RE A GOOOOD FELLA!!.

The dog ain't goin NOWHERE except come back over
to you. Might even ask if he wants to go to the park.
Sure he wants to but you don't. Who cares? He's only
a DOG. Tell him you're gonna put your shoes on to
go but it'll be a minit. Dogs like kids FORGET in a
minute... Tomorrow when you ARE going to the
park, tell him you're goin cause you PROMISED him
yesterday, and now it's time. They'll think you're the
kat's pajamas for bein the greatest mom/dad in the
whole wild world.

Dogs and kids just wanna have fun. Therefore my dogs
never see me frown on them. NO MATTER WHAT. I
never tell them NO or DON'T, or physically reach to
restrain them, partly because THAT would trigger the
opposition reflex and compel the dog to "outstep me"
and rush the door or eat the steak or whatever AND
teach the dog that doin THAT, will command 100%
of your undivided attention...

That's HOWE COME proper understanding of the
methods and developing the feel for leash handling
is imperative, so's we don't sabotage ourselves by
reacting to our own fears of dangerous situations
we're gonna work through in a few minutes if you
can refrain yourself from saying NO DON'T! and
pullin the lead to force control.

Of course I know that your dog isn't having leash
problems, but it fits here...

Our dogs naturally want to do everything they're asked,
cause just like kids, dogs just wanna have fun.

Your Puppy Wizard. <YPW;~}

----- Original Message -----
From: <n>
To: "Jerry Howe" <jhowe2@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 5:21 PM

Subject: Re: Damned Family Leadership Exercise -
Re: Am I expecting to much


==================

----- Original Message -----
From: Eric
To: jhowe2@bellsouth.net
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 7:54 AM
Subject: just checking in..

Jerry!

You helped me with my pal Dundee about a year ago
regarding submissive peeing. Just wanted to let you
know he's doing great- he was "cured" in about 2 days
using your techniques!

He has since become the "smartest dog in the world"!
Once I stopped thinking like a human and got inside his
head, I can teach him ANYTHING, usually in a matter
of minutes. Makes me look like an expert dog-trainer.

I rescued two strays last week, cleaned 'em up, wormed
'em, and am getting them their shots. Time to get inside
their heads and teach them to teach themselves how to
be good dogs!

Instead of feeling like "training" is a chore, I look forward
to working with these guys a couple times a day...

Although I don't follow your instructions "to a T", I learned
from you to "think like a dog" and stimulate their brain rather
than beating ass or pinching, or any of that nonsense.

I know damn well I would NOT be loyal to someone who beat MY ass
lol!

Well, just wanted to thank you for rattling the bushes
out there and teaching folks the RIGHT way to "train" dogs.

A horseman friend of mine uses very similar techniques in
training his horses- he calls it "natural horsemanship". He
is hated by nearly all the local "trainers" yet somehow he
repeatedly wins at every show he attends. He rarely shows
any more, but goes now and then to rub their noses in it
(pun intended)... Too cool....

Have a great holiday season and keep up the good work!

Eric , Dundee, Sammy, and Maynard

==========================

Subject: Re: Dog will not listen to anyone but me!
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 11:33:36 -0500
Message-ID: uim43blqq1h67d@corp.supernews.com

Okay, I gotta speak up here... We've been using Jerry's
methods with our dog. We had the same problem as the
original poster has with Buzz. One day working with the
family pack exercise and practicing the recall command
with the family and she'll now go out with hubby and
daughter instead of needing me to reassure her or even
refusing to go with anyone but me.

I really urge you, regardless of the negative things you
might hear about Jerry & Wits' End here, to try the method
and *judge the results for yourself*.

Let's see what other areas she's improved in... always
comes when called, not chewing stuff even if we leave
it laying around, "re"housebroken after long shelter stay,
walks perfectly on leash, doesn't try to steal food from
our plates or beg... probably a few more things I'm
forgetting to mention. *(Yeah, the kats lay off the koi
and don't wander. jh).

That's in about a week's time.

Her overall demeanor has changed. When we brought
her home she was very untrusting and ultra-submissive
(except with her area/toys where she was possessive and
nippy).

She had been abused and beaten by previous owners,
then she was in a shelter for months. They (most of them)
wanted to give up and kill her Now she's gained confidence
and trust with us. Last night was another big breakthrough
(in my eyes). She barked! Big deal, she barked just once
when she heard the front door. Great!

Anyway, you'll be told lots of nasty stuff about Jerry or that
the Wits' End manual is culled from other sources. In my
opinion, even if it is, it takes only the good stuff and leaves
out the bad. Works for me.

(And I suppose I gotta say this... I don't know Jerry personally.
I've emailed him and instant messaged him. I have not bought a
"Doggy Do Right". He's offered help for free.)

Ms. Mick Owen Crneckiy
http://www.crneckiy.com & http://tarot.crneckiy.com
E-mail & MSN Messenger: mick@crneckiy.com
AIM & Yahoo!: MickCrneckiy ~ ICQ: 72461227

======================

==================

----- Original Message -----
From: Hoku Beltz
To: The Puppy Wizard
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 6:12 PM
Subject: Mahalo

Aloha Jerry,

Just wanted to let you know that the surrogate toy
technique is working wonders. I have not had a
shredded sheet for over a week now. It is nice
to be able to leave the bed made and come home
to a made bed.

Your program is awesome, but you already know
that. Keep up the good work!

Hoku

==================

Thank you,
Jerry Howe,
Director of Research,
BIOSOUND Scientific
Director of Training,
Wits' End Dog Training
1611 24th St
Orlando, FL 32805
Phone: 1-407-425-5092
E-mail: ThePuppyWizard@EarthLink.Net
http://www.doggydoright.com