Welcome to Perfect Obedience Dog Training. I’m delighted to see you here. In this brief overview, I will give you some background on myself, the trainer, as well as my vision for training dogs.
MY STORY
Dogs have been a part of my life all of my life from my first little Cocker Spaniel, Trina, to the two dogs I own now —Mari and Lula. In between were my beloved Molly, Brewster, Twinkie and Ajax; my West Highland White Terriers Megan, Stormy, and Henry; and my Samoyed Canuck. Not all of them were trained. In fact it was only later in life when I got my Belgian Malinois Molly that I felt serious about training my dogs. Maybe this was because my husband and I would be taking her with us to horse shows and she had to behave.
I currently live on a 2 1/2 acre ranch property in Acton, California with two horses, one cat and, of course, the dogs. It is important that my dogs behave around a varied group of creatures. Below is a picture of Molly at 11 years old. The cavern in the background was dug by the dogs to keep them cool.
About the time we started going to horse shows, I took Molly to my local Petco and enrolled her in a dog training class offered by the store. The training was entertaining and interesting but as I was to learn later, not complete. It did not inspire in Molly the consistent response to my commands that I have achieved with my mixed-breed dogs, Lula and Mari.
I trained Mari and Lula on my own according to a fabulous method I discovered when reading the book Wake Up and Smell the Poop by Don Sullivan. In the book, Sullivan explains how he appeals to the dog’s wonderful intelligence to gain his respect through accountability. Accountability is the tool the alpha male and female in a dog pack use to gain obedience and love from pack members.
In 2018, I was honored to train rescue dogs at the Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation in Acton, California. This was a unique opportunity and exposure by fire into the many problems rescue dogs bring to a facility like Linda’s. It was my belief at the time that by training the dogs in the basic obedience skills they would need in a human environment, they would be far less likely to be returned again to the rescue. The results were extremely rewarding. Along with my God-given empathy, it was this experience that gave me the mental hardiness and fortitude to work well with dogs no matter what their background.
I will explain more about Sullivan’s method in subsequent articles on this site. But for now, let me give you an example of what a truly obedient dog looks like.
What You Can Expect From the Perfectly Obedient Dog
A Dog Who Will Give Up Her Prey to You
Very recently my mixed-breed Lula caught a rabbit in my yard. When I saw her with the animal in her mouth, my first thought was to get her to drop it. I didn’t want her to eat it or run off with it. I rather had it in my mind to retrieve the carcass to offer to the many ravens that frequent my neighborhood. As I came closer to Lula, she at first growled. I immediately growled back at her with a firm “no” and commanded her to drop the already dead rabbit from her mouth. She gave a slight whimper, tail tucked between her legs, and ended up doing just that. She dropped the rabbit and moved away so I could pick up the poor animal. I was amazed that my training had gone so deep into Lula’s being that she would give up her prey at my command.. Yet this is exactly how pack members behave towards the pack leader, and I had become the pack leader to Lula. A similar incident happened again when Lula caught a rat. I approached Lula and commanded her to drop the dead animal, which she did. Below is a picture of Lula.
A Dog Who Will Come to You Out of a Group WhenYou Call Her Name
This is an extremely convenient ability my dogs possess. It’s especially helpful when they are laying together and I want to take one of them out for a walk. I am able to call the one I want by name, and she will leave the other to come to me so we can go on our walk. Of note, is the fact that the other dog will stay because she knows she was not summoned and it is not her turn.
A Dog Who Will Lie Down When You Ask Her And Stay Until You Return
I will often walk Mari around my 2 1/2 acre property while at the same time turning out my older gelding, Leap, so that he might walk around the yard on his own. Our usual order is that I will turn Leap out first and then go get Mari to put her on a leash. This is so that we might practice our “heel” command. More often than not, however, I forget and reverse the order, fetching Mari first then turning Leap out. This is cumbersome because Leap lives in a big corral with a gate that is secured by a huge wooden two-by-four fastened by a chain. To open the gate, I have to command Mari to lie down and stay a ways away so she won’t be in the way of the horse while I undo the cumbersome gate apparatus. Mari has learned to do this beautifully, lying down while I deal with the gate and staying where I put her until I finish. This is an important obedience ability that ensures the safety of all three of us ——the horse, dog, and me.
Below is a picture of Mari.
Ultimate Test of a Good Training Protocol — Rescue Dogs
At the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, I had the privilege of working with dogs of a variety of different breeds and temperaments It was here that I was able to hone my skill using Don Sullivan’s training method. Dogs ended up at Linda’s for many reasons. Some were biters; others jumpers; some had been abused while others were just too energetic for the owner. Of note, was the fact that they were all anxious and hyper. Perhaps this was because they didn’t get enough exercise; also perhaps because a dog rescue is a noisy place where fights often break out and dogs vocalize their anxiety. It was a rough environment where dogs were rotated from crates to open-air pens and back to crates.
Working with these dogs and giving them the foundation training I have developed using Sullivan’s method showed me how with the right training, the right patience, and the right feel, it was possible to turn otherwise dangerous and rambunctious dogs around to be calm and loyal companions.
The process I used was to first give the dog a positive experience with myself as the competent trainer. The dog was then paired with the human would-be owner who wanted to adopt him/her and who could then be taught how to work with the dog.
Other handlers remarked how dogs were much calmer when they returned from their work with me. This is because dogs knew what the rules and boundaries were and who the leader was. Armed with this knowledge, they had an opportunity to succeed. Of note were demonstrations I performed with dogs who were considered to be particularly “hard” cases. Handlers were impressed at the achievements of these dogs who were otherwise thought to be rogues.
You Too Can Work Successfully With Your Dog
The goal of Perfect Dog Obedience Training is to help people develop harmonious relationships with their dogs through training that makes sense to the dog. I show people how it is possible to teach dogs to self-govern. This makes life so much more pleasant for both the dog and the person. But to do so we, the humans, must help dogs understand what we want from them. We must be able to teach dogs what the boundaries are in the human environment. This is often where we fall short; we often don’t know how to teach a dog how to stay when there’s danger ahead or to refrain from jumping up on little children and grabbing their sandwiches. The list goes on. The most common problem I see in my own community are dogs pulling their handlers around at the end of a leash as if the handlers were on water skis. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Yet people mistakenly tolerate these behaviors while sometimes enabling them. This is irritating, frustrating, and sometimes dangerous for the human and bewildering for the dog. I can show dog owners how to experience the incredible willingness of the dog to please and obey without question.
The goal is to have your dog respond to all of your instructions every time under all circumstances, no questions asked.
If you ever need a hand with your dog, give me a call or message me and I will be glad to help. Refer to the Services and Contact Information page on this website. Alternatively, if you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to read them and respond.
All the best,
Dr. Carole Francis-Swayze
perfectobediencedogtraining.com
