EK9 Dog Training

DOG FRIENDS. This video is far from the reality of how my dogs actually are "socially" with other dogs. This is a video of them playing on the farm with 2 of their friends that they have known since they were puppies. I have not socialized my dogs with random dogs as they grew up, because for the most part I do not trust other people's control over their dogs. My own personal dogs are actually pretty under socialized compared to your average dog, and are not particularly good with dogs they don't know. They only have a handful of 'dog friends' and I am more than okay with that. Your dog doesn't have to love every dog. Your dog doesn't (and as far as I'm concerned shouldn't) have to function at a dog park. Your dog should however be neutral around other dogs, provided they are leashed and giving space, and should be able to coexist with other dogs in your home. As I've said many times they don't need to play or even be "friends", they just need to be able to exist in the same space, while also respecting eachothers space.

"LEAVE IT" has to be one of the most important commands you can teach your dog. There are 2 important parts of this command. Part 1 is MOVE AWAY from whatever it is. Part 2 is to DISENGAGE. In this video you can see me demonstrating the leave it command with one of my own personal dogs. Although she immediately moves away from the cat, when the cat starts moving she becomes very interested/fixated on her again (even though she doesn't move from her distanced position). Typically, I do not repeat commands as it can teach your dog that they then do not have to do whatever it is that you want them to do, the first time you ask them. However, my dog had already moved away and disengaged, even just for a split second. I repeated the command to get her to move further away, and after doing that you can see she's now disengaged and waiting for me to give her more instructions. Does your dog move away AND disengage if you say "leave it"?!