Motivation

So I have an opportunity to add certified Natural Dog Training trainer to my list of accomplishments and I’m going to do everything in my power to make it happen! NDT is my thing with Athena. She is my rockstar and excels at the core work like its nobody’s business. NDT is not for everyone or every dog but the basic core work is a great fundamental base before starting any formal basic obedience in my opinion.

Here Athena shows her deep metered bark. My easiest explanation for this is a dog that can bark is a dog that is breathing. A dog that is breathing is a dog that’s not biting. Athena still has a hard time barking during high stress which means she is holding back energy that will ultimately come out in a bite.

Athena can also push or give me her energy on the “ready”. Ultimately our goal is to get a good push in a high stress time on a simple “ready”. Can your dog give you this much energy? Does your dog trust you to give you this much energy?

We also work a lot with collecting, which is her “collecting my energy”, you see this in the down as she pulls herself away from my food hand. She can also do this in a sit or on a box. This is important for impulse control. This shows most commonly as the “play bow”. Dogs that have a good balance can play bow each other, what happens after the bow is the important part.

You’ll also see me give her a check with the chain. It is important before starting to add the “correction” aspect alone that you check then treat. Check then treat. This gives the dog a positive association of the check to a good feeling.