Love More. Bark Less.

https://lovemorebarkless.wixsite.com/lovemorebarkless

Home | Love More. Bark Less. Welcome to Love More. Bark Less., where we specialize in understanding and improving your dog's behavior through positive and effective training methods. Strengthen the bond with your furry companion through our expert guidance and support.

To learn empathy or how to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, get a dog! 😍🐕

Name(s): Huckabee (Tan) and Rainier (Black)

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: Over excited behavior, counter surfing, invades space, no recall, lack of control.

WHAT WAS PRESCRIBED: Unwanted behaviors, aggression, possessiveness, unruliness, are all by-products of a problem. The problem in most cases is a lack of effective discipline, lack of consistent rules, no clear boundaries, and confusing the dog by trying to apply human corrections. One example of confusing your dog is trying to reason or discuss the behavior with your dog. Obviously, they do not understand the words you speak. However, they can smell how you are feeling at any given moment. When they smell fear, frustration, anger, dogs will reject anything you do since these emotions signal danger to a predatory pack animal.
In addition, pet parents will usually reach down and give calm affection in an attempt to calm the dog down. Unfortunately, this touch is interpreted as being given affection for being in an excited state. The result is continued excitement since in the dog’s mind, it is being rewarded for being in an excited state.
The preferred environment of predatory pack animals is calm. Dogs will typically not want the alpha position in a pack since it is a position of direction and can be stressful to the dog. However, if an alpha is not present, they will assume the alpha position and start to create their own boundaries and limitations. This means counters with food are NOT off limits!

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their habits. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.

Name: Dana
Pic Credit: Pet Parent

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: (Copied and pasted from email request.) “He knows some basic commands, but there's a big issue with him having separation anxiety. Right now, my wife and I spend most of our time on the second floor with our newborn. Whenever we leave our dog alone on the first floor, whether it's for just a few minutes or up to an hour, he starts barking. We're also worried about him jumping on our baby when the little one starts walking.”

The pet parent’s concerns were obviously valid when I met Dana. There was no respect for personal space. He jumped on me repeatedly and tried to claim me by wrapping his leg and paw around my leg and rubbing up against me.

This was clearly a case of improper hierarchy. This is the most common issue I see. Jumping on people, aggression, possessive behavior are all byproducts of the issue. In other words, the unwanted behavior is not the problem, it is the outcome of a lack of trust, respect, and discipline. Consistent calm assertiveness tells your dog it's your way or no way at all. Follow through discipline, incorporating my point system will get your dog to elevate you to the alpha position. Then, you will gain your dog’s respect.
Once you have gained your dog’s trust and respect, you can essentially ask your dog to follow any of your wishes or intentions. It’s important that you never forget your dog is a predatory pack animal first. Not a human.

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their habits. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.

Name: Rudy

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: General disobedience, recall issues, excited behavior, jumping on people.
Sometimes, I can feel the frustration of the pet parent. Some people are great at communicating with people and have an ability to command perfection in multi-million dollar projects. It can certainly be frustrating when that same person has a difficult time in getting their fur baby to not jump on guests.
This is a prime example of the effectiveness of being able to reach your dog on their level. The dog will ignore or reject frustrated energy because in a predatory pack animal’s world, any energy outside of calm assertiveness can equal danger. This can lead to a dog creating its own boundaries and limitations. Only by reaching them on their level will you stand a chance of rehabilitating any unwanted behavior. Use my point system in every interaction to maintain the alpha position.
I demonstrated how to maintain a calm demeanor and different techniques of claiming guests and setting boundaries. I believe Rudy too was probably born towards the beginning of his litter mates.
So as a reminder: when you end up with an alpha prone dog, it is important to set rules, boundaries, and limitations early on so they don’t start setting their own. When a dog sets its own boundaries and limitations, it gets challenging and dangerous because we bring them into our human world. They don’t know that running in front of a moving vehicle is dangerous or ingesting a pill from the floor could be deadly.

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their habits. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.

Name: Trooper

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: General disobedience, recall issues, mind of her own

The owners were caught off guard with Trooper because the dog they had prior was easy to handle and fairly easy going. Trooper tends to do what she wants when she wants and the pet parents were not sure how to instill boundaries and limitations.

I demonstrated how to get Trooper to understand behavior on the parent’s terms as well as ways to get obedience from Trooper.

One reason that the parents were having such a different experience from their previous dog could be due to rank of birth within a litter. Through the years, I have found the rank of birth within a litter of pups can determine their personality. More so than the breed of dog. Pups born towards the front of the litter tend to be more alpha prone, pups born in the middle end up being more ‘ambassador’ type dogs and want everyone to get along, runts of a litter will be more happy go lucky and go along with just about anything.

When you end up with an alpha prone dog, it is important to set rules, boundaries, and limitations early on so they don’t start setting their own. When a dog sets its own boundaries and limitations, it gets challenging and dangerous because we bring them in to our human world. They don’t know that running in front of a moving vehicle is dangerous or ingesting a pill from the floor could be deadly.

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their habits. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.

Name: Wilbur (chocolate) Archie (tan)

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: Intermittent disobedience, random barking, potential distrust.

The very minute I entered the home, both dogs were jumping at/on me. I was being claimed by them and there was a total lack of respect for my personal space. This is essentially dogs being left to determine their own boundaries. If this behavior is left un-checked, it most likely will evolve into resource guarding or aggressive behaviors anytime you disagree with their behavior.

Because dogs are predatory pack animals, they live by rules from their alphas. If the human doesn’t assume the alpha position, the dog will since in their mind an alpha presence must be identified for safety reasons. This is one reason that reaching dogs on their level is critical.

I demonstrated ‘follow through’ discipline with setting boundaries and the toys. The owner also practiced with the dog’s toys by taking them away and giving the toy back only when the dogs exhibited calm submissive behavior/ energy. Its important to remember that ANY behavior is okay if it is on YOUR terms.

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their habits. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.

Name: Vincent or Vinny

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: Loves to steal baby toys and eat my baby’s food and lick his face while eating.

The first thing I noticed when I met Vincent was his ‘claiming’ behavior. Dogs will touch new people or objects sometimes as a way of claiming. The touch comes by rubbing their body, licking, biting, or invading your space uninvited. In Vincent’s case, he rubbed his body against me and licked my hands. These are signs that he had not been shown boundaries or limitations.

In the home, he grabbed the mask hanging on my neck to attempt to take possession and assert his alpha status in the home. I held on to the mask with calm assertive energy until he released it which is follow through discipline to let him know it was my way only. I demonstrated claiming objects and toys. And showed the pet parents when they could let him have his toy.

Generally, Vincent had been allowed to get his way by manipulation. The pet parents are well on their way in gaining the upper paw!

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their habits. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.

Name: BERENJACK

PET PARENT’S PEEVES: Aggressive lunging at people. Barking, growling at people.

The first thing I noticed when I met Berenjack was a serious lack of trust. She lunged at me a few times during the introduction and the walk up the stairs to the apartment.

In Berenjack’s case, the mistrust is the byproduct of a lack of boundaries and limitations. Typically, when she acts out, the parents would either lock her up or crate her. She was never allowed the opportunity to overcome or get passed the aggressive outbursts towards visitors or guests since she was always removed from the situation.

This becomes habitual since Berenjack is not asked to change her behavior or that the outbursts are not allowed. So, when the parents get nervous about the behavior, they are actually stimulating a ‘protect’ behavior. Berenjack only knows that the parents get nervous when people around from the way they smell. Berenjack will not understand the nervousness is because the parents think she will bite someone. This is why Berenjack will believe she needs to protect her pack from others.

I took a slow approach with a slip leash. I gave a slight physical suggestion to get her out of her crate. We then made a few rounds in the living room on the leash. This was a way to gain some trust from her so that she would stop barking, growling, and lunging at me.

Since the pandemic, I have noticed many dogs that have not been socialized frequently and since most people now are ‘work from home’ the pet is only comfortable around the pet parent. Persistence will change bad behavior. Consistency will create new habits.

There is always hope to rehabilitate any dog. It truly depends on the owner’s commitment to change their own approach. Any behavior is okay ON YOUR TERMS.

Love More. Bark Less.