First things first: we have to talk about our assumptions and our foundations on which we think—they’re infinite, and that’s bad.
I call my approach Reflective Dog Leadership, or RDL. In my model, there’s three parts to all dogs:
- the physical dog you can see
- the non-physical brain
- and the non-physical mind
If your model doesn’t have these, we can’t compare notes, and you’ve got some work to do, elsewhere, to learn about these things I use. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Some Initial Takeaways
1) and 2) imply that the physical dog and its brain are separate. I believe that’s true. It’s supported by the way dogs act, it’s supported by the way reflexes happen faster than conscious muscle movement, it’s supported by the common sense understanding of how wild animals behave in the wild, and it’s supported by Nature and Nature’s designs.
That means, literally, the dog doesn’t think—it reacts.
If you think about a mountaintop of control, and if you consider there being two boulders, a brain boulder and a physical dog boulder, one of them must be on the mountaintop at all times.
Next, since newborn puppies cannot take care of themselves, and since they have no experience yet in this space, puppies are born with their physical dog boulders in control. That way, when Nature needs to, She controls the puppy; that’s common sense.
Fast forward to months later, after the puppy has experienced its environment for a while. If its human leaders are patient (patience needs its own post thread) and aware, they may be triggered to submit (submission needs its own post thread). As the puppy submits, they’ll cross a line where
- they’re holding their head up
- or they put their muzzle on the ground.
That line they cross on the outside—head up or head down—tells the patient and aware human leader-owner what’s happened on the inside. There’s just been an exchange of the boulders of control. The dog has gone from the physical dog being in control to the dog’s brain being in control, and that’s key because its life started with the physical dog in control.
The more time the dog spends at its low energy range, the better it is for everyone, leader and dog. The low energy dog doesn’t have problems like the high energy dog does. The high energy dog has problems because Nature is in control at the high energy ranges, and Nature can be quite ugly when She needs to be behaving ugly.
Low Energy, Muzzle Down
The high energy dog has problems—the low energy range dog doesn’t.
The dog with its muzzle on the ground has its brain in control in a low energy range—the dog with its head up has its physical dog in control at a high energy range.
The muzzle down dog is the relaxed, submissive dog with its brain present, and which has fewer problems. The sleeping dog is best.
You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog, with a cold, wet nose and relaxed, open mouth breathing. It’s not “panting,” which is a result of effort or exercise, and it’s not stressed breathing, which happens at the high energy ranges but with little to no yawning. All three types look almost identical, so make sure you’ve identified your dog’s breathing correctly.
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