editor unleashed This might explain why
Friendship isn’t a big thing. It’s a million little things.*
friendships are so complicated. Humans misread each other all the time, simply because we aren’t paying attention to body language. Dancer and choreographer Martha Graham said, “Movement never lies.” Misinterpreting the written or spoken
word can provoke anger, sadness or confu- sion. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Okay, so sticks and stones might break bones, but, hey!Words can make or break the heart and spirit. Words matter. Think about how this applies to our
dogs. If we aren’t able to be straightforward in our relationships, and communicate precisely what we want from each other as humans, what confusing messages do we convey to our dogs on a daily basis? Dogs don’t lie. They succinctly
communicate to us what they want or need. Again, we’re not paying attention. As a result, some of us will tolerate the behavior from our dogs that we, as humans, have created. Other times, dogs with unwanted behaviors are owner-sur- rendered to shelters, or worse, turned out to fend for themselves. The dogs in our municipal shelters
aren’t there because they’re bad dogs. They’re in there because a human has failed them. We humans are the ones who domesticated dogs to live within the thresholds of our homes and society. We owe them better. And being better isn’t hard to do. When we’re mechanical with our
words, when there is no truth behind them, a dog can misread what we’re asking of them. Dogs need to know exactly what we want of them. Developing a relation- ship of trust with a dog is paramount. That’s why words and body language are equally important to the relationship. While helping a family with their
dog, Brian Kilcommons, author and dog trainer, noted that one member of the family seemed indifferent to the task at hand. Brian asked the teenager for a little more enthusiasm. He warned the teenager that if he didn’t at least smile when saying “Good Boy” to praise the dog, he was
6 THE NEW BARKER
Anna Cooke, Editor in Chief
Anna Cooke with Chloe, Dougie, Rita and Ms. Zoe.
going to bring in ‘the skipping lesson.’ As most teenagers do, he ignored Brian, who then stopped all training and instructed the teenager to start skipping. The kid looked at Brian like he was nuts. “Go ahead. Start skipping,” said Brian.
“Because, what happens when you skip?” Brian asked me, while recalling the story. “You can’t not smile or laugh when you’re skipping.” As soon as the teenager started skipping, he and his family began laughing. The training resumed, and the dog enthusiastically responded to the teenager’s smiling, “Good Boy!” praises. In this issue of The New Barker we
bring you several articles on working with dogs to earn their trust. One article, by animal reader Jo Maldonado, is about body language. The other, by Luellen Hoffman, discusses a scientific study conducted on what dogs love more: treats or affection. Mind you, the study is from an 8th grade science project, but it’s pretty specific, and the results may (or may not) surprise you. And finally, our feature on training, where we attempt to find out what the great divide among dog trainers is all about. We hope it sparks curiosity and conversation. People often say how much more they
like dogs than people. True friendship endures the good times, and bad; overlooks quirks and foibles. Nurturing a friendship takes work, patience, understanding, and kindness. That applies to our relationships within our own species, and the ones we share with our dogs. Let’s give each other at
least that much. *
A quote by Paulo Coelho U
www.TheNewBarker.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURA ALLEN STUDIOS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104
