Why Leadership Matters: Step One

Every day, I meet with wonderful dogs and their owners. Truthfully, I'm not generally called to be involved in their lives until the dog's behavior has reached critical mass, and the owner is overwhelmed with the "naughty doggie" syndrome of day in and day out with a dog who is a problem. The problem is often not really the dog, but the leadership that the owner has provided. To a dog, leadership is everything. Everything. Nothing else in a dog's world is going to be more important, except maybe food and water. I see so many owners who mean well, and buy toy after toy, fancy leashes and matching collars, expensive plush dog beds, filtered water, etc., all as a way of spoiling their dogs into loving and respecting them. Some folks treat their dogs like glorified dolls, dressing them up and fussing over them like they are the center of the universe...and therein lies the problem. Dogs are not and should not be the center of anyone's universe. I love my little widget, Rugby, like crazy, but he's a dog, and I want him to know that. To some people, I suppose, that sounds unloving, but believe me, it's a very, very loving attitude. Rugby was created to be a dog. Everything about him is a dog. He thinks like a dog. He reasons like a dog. He acts like a dog. He looks and smells like a dog...especially after he's been out in the rain! If I don't treat him like a dog, I deny him the right to be who he is, and I think that's disrespectful and unloving to him. I also strip him of a key element that creates security for him, and that's my leadership. Any time I elevate my dog to a status that he's not entitled to, I'm causing him to feel less secure in his world. I confuse him, and put him in a position where he has to lead whether or not he really wants to, simply because in a dog's mind, someone has to wear those shoes or the pack might not survive. All dogs are hard-wired for survival in a pack, no matter if that dog is a Chihuahua or a Great Dane. Dogs are pack animals, and they think and reason, according to membership as a pack animal. Don't all of us just want to be loved for who we are? Isn't it frustrating to be around folks who just don't understand how we tick and what we're made of? Don't we avoid people who try to make us into who they want us to be rather than accept us as we are and who we are? The best times I have are being around people who know and understand my history and who I am and who just let me be. It's exhausting to be with folks who are constantly trying to change us, and you know, I think we secretly resent them for that. It's a really great expression of love to just accept anyone for who they are, as they are, and not who we want them to be. We all want freedom to grow and change and develop, and dogs are no different in that. The first step in being a great leader to our dogs is just by letting them be dogs and accepting and respecting them as such. That's a very high expression of love and care in my book, and our dogs will love and respect us for that.