Mental "Switches" for Dog Training

In a recent dog class, I was attempting to help an athletic male teenager raise the pitch of his voice and interact with his dog with more enthusiasm.  Doing so is so important to convincing your dog to come to you rather than leaving you for other tempting environmental distractions.  However, this seems to be a more difficult thing for men to do than women:  1), our voices are usually deeper and 2), we have been culturally trained not to act silly in front of others; so goes the saying, "act like a man" (whatever that means, LOL).  He was unable to raise the pitch of his voice despite several attempts on my part to model the behavior for him which gave him permission to act silly with his dog.  Fortunately, I remembered an excellent neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) training program I recently attended regarding "switches".

In February 2010, I attend an excellent NLP seminar (described in an earlier post) in Orlando, Florida put on by Larry Sonntag of Salty Dog Farms and hosted by Robin MacFarlane of That's My Dog, both of Wisconsin.  Part of the training talked about "switches" which are mental images to form new experiences with events that occur in our lives.  As a very simplistic explanation, a "switch" means you switch or change an internal thinking error into the desired mental image which then changes your experience, mental and body responses and consequently your thinking and performance.

So I asked the young man, what was the most fun thing he enjoyed doing.  Without hesitation and with a sparkle in his eye, he exclaimed, "jumping on the trampoline!"  I then told him to see himself jumping on the trampoline and calling his dog over to him.  Immediately, he became care free, his pitch increased, and his dog came running to him with enthusiasm.  It was a true delight to see this young man "get it".  All it took was for him to blend, in his mind's eye, the fun experience of jumping on the trampoline with the training of his dog.

With another client, I helped her to refocus and build her confidence of walking her dog amongst other dogs at parks using NLP.  Through training sessions, she learned better dog handling skills and she taught her dog better manners but she just needed to match that with believing in herself.  Her confidence and dog handling skills have improved considerably.

Dog training requires not only knowledge, skills and good timing but also a belief in yourself that you can improve the relationship and working performance with your canine companion.  Sometimes it takes a moment to calm the spirit and see yourself being successful with your dog or other times it could be as simple as visualizing yourself on a trampoline.  Contact Michael Burkey , a professional dog trainer in Michigan to experience a similar positive coaching experience.  He will will help you solve your dog training problems and help you build the relationship you desire to have with your dog.


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