by Paul Knight

Created on: May 25, 2010

Let me begin by telling you a little about my history with dogs, as a family we have always kept dogs and at age eight I was bought my first very own puppy to train and look after a King Charles spaniel named “Rambo” (I know it’s silly) and since then I have been hooked. Now that I am all grown up I have just the one permanent dog a small jack X who we love very much, however, upon realising that many dogs are abandoned on the streets we live on I decided to take action and put a sign outside my house that say’s “To anyone wishing to abandon their dogs please tie them here and we will at least make sure they are re-homed to loving families”. I of course had no idea what I was letting myself in for and now receive up to ten dogs a month which is a mammoth task as I have to access the dogs, keep them with my family and exercise them together.

The first thing we must get rid of in this situation is our natural urge to humanise dogs, they do not understand the meaning of the word tolerance or fairness they are both totally alien concepts for the mind of our four legged friends. Instead you have to remember that they understand discipline, strong leadership and the hierarchy of the pack. With this in mind I will tell you how I get the dogs I work with to play ball (Pardon the pun) and live together as a solid pack of calm happy dogs.

One point to remember before we go on is that you must not panic I know this is difficult if you’re trying to separate fighting dogs as the image can be very scary but at all times you are the leader and any bad or incorrect behaviour must be dealt with immediately and you must always correct the dog that begins the trouble. The best way to do this is to bark and bite them, of course not literally you merely make a deep agh sound and squeeze the back of their neck or shoulder as you do this and of course if needs be grab the collar and pull them away. In an extreme case roll the dog on its back and hold them there firmly not looking at them or making any sort of calm down noises and once the dog is back to a calm state reward them as outlined in the following paragraphs.

The first thing I do is use my own dog as the template for good behaviour and establish him as the enforcer of the pack. This does not mean aggression, it simply means the dogs whatever their behaviour are brought together (On a lead if needs be) and I set about giving them simple commands. When my own dog obeys he is immediately

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