Pro-Hunt

When a training program rests on permanently diverting your dog away from its instinct over a prey instead of just briefly turning its attention toward you for proper coordination on a hunting pursuit, you will never get your dog to indulge on its primary disposition which will adversely affect their entire framework. Their misbehavior hinges upon this problem, hence, when they get bored or anxious, they are allured to satiate that restricted instinct by either pillaging whatever is accessible to them, howling or excessive barking. However, coddling to satisfy them on a regular basis with a legitimate hunting treat will then permit them to anticipate another experience with you. On that account, the significance to hunt or indulge in their instinct without the directing, honing and the care of an alpha dog will somewhat be watered-down. They would now, to a greater extent, solicit your company to every hunt they take or whenever that indulgent instinct hits them.  And appropriately so since recent studies show that a dominant characteristic of an Alpha dog is not its prominence over its subordinate. Decades of wildlife observation done by biologists confirm that dogs, like wolves, do not control through aggression; while traveling, they do not take the lead position but stay on the hind end to have a more suitable evaluation; when a subordinate male matures, they do not compete to overthrow the pack leader but simply leave and find a mate to start their own family. What this means, is that the hypothesis that most trainers carry today about a hierarchical model is off base. They have been misled by stories and movies based on an anecdotal premise, not by scientific studies. They liken them with the behavior of horses in a pack that fight for dominance.

Unlike human beings, hierarchal conflict for dominance does not exist among the pack; this is taboo. They do not compete with each other but merely interact by assessing what works and what does not with each interaction. In other words, they simply draw conclusions based on the others’ action. Recall that contrary to human behavior, dogs do not have conscious minds, they do not reason or assume, they simply react to a given circumstance, as noted in our previous article. As a result, the one who knows how to direct them, sharpens their skill and cares for each of them ultimately becomes the Alpha dog. Therefore, to the one that plays that role on a hunting expedition that accompanies the likelihood of gratifying their ingrained impulse to catch prey - earns the title. This is distinct to the cruel and unnatural method of one who dupes a dog with emotional frenzy to permanently divert its prey instinct with an objective of making the dog stay at home politely. Howbeit, in our dog-training world today, the type of training that has been indicated is what is commonly known as positive or modern training, which is distinct to a more severe method known as traditional dominance or punishment-based method. They both differ on the trainer’s leniency and intolerance in meeting the same objective that is to permanently divert the dog’s prey instinct. I however call the method that I am publishing as the ‘Pro-Hunt Training’.     

What does this so-called ‘Pro-Hunt training’ have to do with our modernized world? What does a hunting treat do to man’s ultimate goal in domesticating a dog to live in their home? Well, it is not really far from an objective to keep a pleasant dog in the house, except that the manner that primarily drives them to be orderly is their forbearing temperament and not largely an indulgent sensation. I say that because a hunting treat exposes them to intermittently refrain from enforcing what is due them hastily; a hunting treat makes them use up their intense energy and enthusiasm; and a hunting treat conditions them to treat you as the alpha. More about this in the next article.          

Practical Application

Subjecting a dog not only to be familiar with byway trails but also to nibble the savor of those various elements that it brings, this is the strongest means of rehabilitating their juvenile qualities. Puppies need to rely on their ability to detect odor since they are born blind and deaf in those first 2 helpless weeks of their life. They also need to rely on their ability to move to be warmed and be nourished in the presence of a caring mother but within just a few weeks, despite their vulnerability, they are out exploring their world. Hence, the reason why reconditioning their native instincts is not simply to provide food (as mothers) since this is nothing but simply a subordinate determination for them, but rather, to recondition them in that same manner that they been intrinsically shaped. Therefore, to reformat this construction would then have an overwhelming effect on them. Nevertheless, many these days try hard to domesticate their dogs by killing those impulses and defining it as good manners or a good behavior. Its success however can only mean that whenever the dog earns a more positive bliss than hunting itself, they are bounded by it. Endorphin discharge in the body of dogs while hunting triggers a positive feeling similar to morphine. So like humans who are under the influence of drugs, it can easily be dazzled from reality. In similar manner, dogs too do not necessarily need to go that far to reach that trophy to experience, that self-rewarding rush, because it can produce its own instantaneous dupe anyway. Hence, humans through the medium of emotion like praise, adoration, approval or a pat can easily exploit dogs to their ruin.

Anyhow, if that is how to misuse that strange interference that abrogates a dog’s far-reaching interest which is somehow twice as good, lo and behold, that same median is also employed within the ranks of the dog’s pack life, and the reason why they are so coordinated. Moreover, a good master trainer also has a good reason to emulate that, but the objective must be to make it easier or encourage the dog to masterly control its own hunting instinct for better coordination. In other words, it is pointless to teach them to have self-discipline if they have lost their hunting instincts in the first place. Hence, one should never teach them anything out of their hunting instinct.

However, going back, the value of that strange interference which can either be abused or preserved by man; a result of showing dogs to be obedient which is worthwhile; why despite all the distractions and sensations they get, you are still their pack leader; or why refocusing their hunting instinct on shared activities always works better for everyone. All these same application is workable in both scenarios with the exception that it both carries a different goal. In addition, when used incorrectly, this in essence is really the reason why disorientation to both the owner and the dog emerges every now and then, and why uniformed trainers earn those sugarcoated outcome from their effort. Altogether, this somehow is the explanation why even those practical applications becomes its own handicap.        

In conclusion, teaching a dog to master or resist consistently its own instincts does not just depend on what you know so far, it will also depend on your dog’s experiences that require an appropriate training environment. This must never be overlooked. Besides, though it might take you a lifetime to expand their maximum capacity to excel, the lifelong connection between the two of you is somehow priceless also. Another word of caution is never introduce something new to test your dog’s ability; it should rather be to create short headways first to make them gradually reach your objective, or better still, allow your dog to train themselves to do what you are requiring them to do. Nevertheless, once they have already covered what you want them to do, testing those short headways is necessary to be able to stabilize its performance.         

Blending Time's 

The concept of training a dog to be well-rounded was rather too hilarious at first, for it needs not only to tell the dog to track the sky then the ground before acting, but must also be competent to retrieve an object in the water. Flexibility to adapt to variables without exception is the primary objective of any trainer, whether the end in view is a home settler or a dog engaged in a sporting match. Truth be known, most professional trainers fall short to their primary objective by being carried over with their client’s immediate needs. As a result, ceaseless attendance becomes necessary when another need suddenly pops up. Variables are variables; they are all unforeseen. However, the training philosophy that I certify involves that the dog owner must get involved. That is, to get involved into only two scopes to follow: the ability to let your dog respond to your ques, and the ability to use the dog’s natural responses as the premise of conditioning them further. In other words, this training requires a qualitative discipline for both the owner and the dog to widen their appropriateness to respond to all types of variables, instead of merely a quantitative restraint that a professional trainer, in such a short time, envisions. The former is about preparation, the latter is about correcting an already problematic dog. A problematic dog is an unhappy dog, period.   

Hence, since the scenario of a hunting expedition carries with it all types of natural variables that you and your dog share, the owner’s capacity to discern how the dog will respond to any of them becomes the only thing that is predictable. Diverting your dog’s attention to you, as its surpassing echelon in the picking order becomes the ornament that supports a more rewarding operation for both of you then, this includes a more ingrained connection that has been developed along with it. With this in mind, this training must never be delegated, master trainer and dog’s instinctive reflexes should be gradually established similar to their natal heritage in endowing a leader, master trainer has the obligation to cultivate further the dog’s prowess with repeated exercises to obtain greater proficiency.

With my background of a rural life and a lifelong association with dogs, this training concept became humorous to me. And more humorous when I see the influx of the so-called dog specialist carrying with them this trivial or nominal medication mentioned earlier. Dogs are dogs that we humans today calculate to our own loss for it not only limits the dog’s ability, it also curtail its usability. Hence, even in our indulgent age, we still need to keep this tailor-made rustic outland hunting expedition at hand that reverberates the conduct of a dog’s life in the pack while unwinding or when they are on the verge of a hunting quest. That is why to me, to take this away is to shape an artificial service toward our dog and its owner.

I want to let a dog owner see that we are here talking about a lifestyle living with your dog. Yes, training is gradual but it never ceases, there will always be another recreational task at hand to keep the mental health of your dog and its upkeep. And while you are not around, the possibility of owning or boarding them in a user friendly footpath is well worth it. They have been schooled enough already that they can somehow manage to flourish in that kind of atmosphere even without an alpha dog. And talking about pursuing a modern day sports activity; this really becomes a matter of diverting their energy towards that task. Nothing is new to them per se.                  

Toy's trade-off

While it is a proven fact that we can entice a dog to obey a command by luring them with food, the truth to the matter is that food means nothing to them when prey emerges. This only shows that food to them is a subsequent motive to obedience, or shall we say a dutiful coercion that drives them to instantaneous action. For by default, the appearance of an actionable target is the key and the dominant responder, it is not the food per se.  With this in mind, the better choice of a trainer is not to rely so much on food to coerce obedience but to contrive a way to re-enact the appearance of a prey, as how do you give that treat, as a starter. Moving forward, there is a variety of toys made available to enhance the appearance of prey, tools to evoke the trainer’s oversight in the field, and devices for your dog’s prowess and mastery. Sadly, though, there are countless green shoppers who are clueless of why they are categorized this way. In summary, it is one thing to be oblivious about what moves your dog to action, and it is another to buy extravagant toys, Tools and Devices that only detract and are worthless if not properly equated.  

There are two venues in which one can train a dog: one is indoor and the other in the open. There are also two tenures that a trainer holds in broadening the dog’s stimulus for prey: one is to situate them in an outland surrounding and the other is the use of toys, tools and devices. The ability to switch the actual from an artificial and vice versa must always be in the trainer’s mind in order to establish a more solid administration, since the trainer’s verbal expression and body language while in the field become the pattern communicated to the dog even while preying on an artificial. Dogs communicate through sonance and body language; they also react commensurately when communicated properly. This same pattern, however, is the posture of an alpha dog that is vividly transmitted to the rest of the pack either while they are unwinding or on the verge of a hunting expedition. 

Reeling back to toys, tools and devices, they are categorically found to support any sporting involvement carried over via a hunt quest and the dog’s natural prowess for prey. Toys - for the dog’s amusement over prey, Tools - for a distant oversight while in the field, and Devices - to master the dog’s aptitude to perform well in a given sphere. With this in mind, one cannot go wrong in picking the right purchase or the right use of those choices. Another thing to remember is that while Toys can easily be exploited to represent prey, one cannot overlook the choice of tools and devices. Take the case of a well-padded leash. If the desire is to abate your dog from eluding where you want it to be while on trail, then check an invasive tool instead. An annoying sound of a whistle to extend a verbal command for attention with close neighbors can easily be dismissed by a sonar whistle. On the other hand, a bicycle attachment device might well replace running alongside your dog for its physical nimbleness.

        

Again, one must have a hunting expedition in mind to be able to select a viable instrument and subject them to a realistic training field even if the sport activity that you are in is not directly equated to hunting per se. You can best get their full energy and interest as well as develop a more complaint communication skill that is germane to them. No more guesswork.   

Predatory Aggression

Going back to our allegory on the mind-frame of the child consequent to getting milk and oddly, how our modern world has gotten her into thinking of a neat grocery store while missing the cow that produces the milk. This somehow embodies the sentiments of why I insist that we, in the same manner, have to go back to the brass rudiments of why our ancestors have obtained an appeal towards the dog’s receptiveness as a hunting, herding, and retrieving partner. Our way of life may have been radically modernized but the crux of the matter is that we still get milk from a cow, and the disposition of a dog over a prey is well and the same even today. This reality check, I would argue, will somehow bring a substantial awareness to what we are leaving behind in our training. Today, it is common knowledge to most hardcore trainers and dog handlers that a dog’s life revolves around obedience in its own pack life. However, it is most important to remember that this innate predatory aggression of a dog does not only occur within the walls of its life inside the pack, but also carries the reality that because of their predatory aggression which leans toward hunting prey, it is only coherent to live in packs in order to survive more proficiently. To disassociate these two reciprocal bonds is to break the alliance in your training rationale. Hunting prey as a pack constitutes a big part of their natural character and therefore must likewise be looked upon in order to have a more valid guide in building them to undertake any form of performance we ask them to do, or to be able to undertake any of our modern day sports activities with better competence.

Admittedly, there is a variety of expertise developed by insightful breeders. But any dog as a whole has the ability to detect and capture prey, even the so-called lap dogs. This refers to a dog’s impulsive play behavior they carry even while young. Hence, hunger does not necessarily trigger this behavior, but it is triggered by its own stimulus of moving prey acquired by their matchless ability to smell, hear, and see. Hence, even while a puppy, their sense of smell alerts them to the presence of prey. So, they track them down as a sporting game while utilizing those two other auxiliary senses, hearing and visualization, and at that instant deploying those bodily skills to be able to win the trophy. Yes, with their impulsive play behavior, one can very well develop their overall skills, helpful to accelerate their ability to win the trophy. Hence, I should say that there is no better place to do this than in a rustic environment. See how the sequence works: with prey at hand, a dog tracks game by following the scent trail. This is done by spotting scent cues either from the air or in the ground. As it nears its target in a striking range, it flushes it from hiding and so prompts its chase impulse. It then follows that mastering all those expandable skills like scent, sonance, vision, and stamina can be accomplished through training. Furthermore, depending on what type of dog you have that carries those other special skills acquired through breeding, like pointing, herding, attacking, pinning and retrieving, this ,too, is likewise augmentable. But all this training cultivation is made clear if we place them in a framework of a hunting field rather than in a fancy venue were the dog can becomes careless, indifferent and clueless as to what and why we want them to fervently achieve it. Ever heard of adrenaline rush in humans? Endorphin release while a dog is hunting triggers a state of happiness in them.

By the same token, communicating a task with your dog is difficult to earn when both are detached from nature’s habitation and replacing it with a cold course that is artificial and lifeless. However, this does not mean to say that using tools and toys to enhance their skills and obedience has no place even while exposing them to their natural habitat. It has its own value and prominence in our indulgent age. More about this in our next article. 

The Outright Disconnect

It is inherent that whatever sporty initiative you are presently engaged in or wants to undertake with your dog, the call to duly communicates what you really want them to do rest on how to acquire that skill successfully. It not only saves you your bonding opportunity with them and the frustration to advance that cause in the first place. Sadly, though, with the barrage of fables that dogs think the way we humans think and that dogs can assume things because we humans are capable of assuming things, this certainly has affected our manner and method of communicating a directive to them. The message might sound very clear to us but foreign to them. Therefore, unlike us humans who behave by reason, dogs act by its genetic instinct, which then follows, that unlike us, they do things naturally without ever thinking about its consequence. Moreover, because they are bred with certain instinctive behaviors, they know how to do certain tasks well all by themselves already, so the problem now actually hangs on how to communicate with them to your advantage. This is also the reason why it is so extolling to see a dog in action or at work together with its master. But keeping them idle and inactive only dampens that chance, and a misfortune of keeping a luminary aside, it makes them uneasy and restless, which most call as an improper behavior! Now, all these expressed disconnects is so prevalent that many have even disregarded how a dog communicates. Unlike humans, dogs communicate instead with visceral gestures or bodily motion. They use their mouth, ears, eyes and tail to act something out and not by speaking them out like us. Therefore, it follows that those signals that they make is our only cue, or shall we say a catchword for us to take and to act on.    

In the past, maintaining a number of work dogs was practical since each dog carries with them an exclusive genetic instinct including size, shape, coat, and an instinctive behavior useful for a specific job. The scholarly approach in breeding then was fairly rare if not uninspired. However, the root component in owing a dog that time was its value in rustic living where hunting, herding, retrieving and guarding was vital. This meant that the more affluent they become, the more they would get their hands on a number from those choices. This however has changed drastically, for not only do we have commerce to take care of those basic livelihood needs, we also already have some well-rounded breeds that carries those multiple instinctive faculties, though some still have a slight dominant trait, like a pointer who points its tail to the direction of its hunt, some barks quite aggressively and etc. At any rate, we now have dogs that are now well-rounded based on those rustic living credentials. However, due to our modern day lifestyle that has convened indulgence and convenience, the pursuit for amusement has been advancing to greater extents. This includes the hunger for different kinds of sporting activities as its final demand.

This is the reason why I keep going back to a sporting dog training philosophy differently, because of the fact that these animals have their rudimental roots only made trendier today. This is like most children these days who envision a grocery store when getting milk is mentioned. The cow behind the milk is now out of the equation but replaced by a refrigerated and well-manicured location where all that it takes is to pick up a well packed, non-stale, non- breakable box, and pay it off. Therefore, to jump into a care and a playful activity with your dog calls you to first observe and mark why others do it well.