Marco started a 2 week Day School program with us last week.  His owners had a host of issues they were looking to address, not least of which were Marco’s tendency to try to bite them when they attempted to leash him up, brush him, put winter jackets on him, move him when he didn’t want to be moved.  You get the picture.  It’s not that Marco is a bad dog, he’s not! But he had learned an effective way to manipulate his environment, especially when it came to dealing with his humans.

Marco has been doing great with the structure and obedience education that he has learned with us over the past two weeks.  However, with the weather dropping in here in Boston I wanted to make sure he was going to be able to put on his winter jackets for his impending sub-freezing walks.

So I decided to get the video camera out to document what was going to go down when I tried fitting Marco’s clothes on him.  I’ll spoil the ending… he did awesome!

When I sent the video to his owners I reminded them that I didn’t start day one with trying to put a jacket on him.  I also didn’t start by trying to brush him or move him off of things he didn’t want to be moved from.  I started with the basics.  The foundation.  Listen to me, walk with me, work with me, respect the rules I lay out for our relationship… and I will treat you like a prince.

Once I had established that component the rest was simple.

So remember, if you’re struggling with a specific issue with your dog, step back and see what it might be saying about the larger relationship.  Chances are that if your dog isn’t listening to you in a specific area, there are probably other places (easier places!) to get your dog working for you first.  Ask your dog to do the simple things and then build up to the jacket!