Weekend at the beach...

How's this for a 12 year old dog?

Not much gives me more pleasure than hanging out with my best bud Romeo. 

We celebrated his 12th birthday in San Diego, on the beach. 

What is success?

I was recently interviewed by the Institute for Success and Goal Achievement, i-saga.net and one of the questions I was asked was "What does success look like for me?" My answer was a complete surprise to me and has literally changed the way I approach life. For as far back as I can remember, there was only one answer to that question, it was simple, a no brainer; it's financial success, in one form or another. Money, toys, travel, big home, etc. Ever since I was a kid I was planning how I was going to get rich. I got into residential real estate, then commercial real estate, then went with a real estate developing company. I was recruited into Primerica, a legitimate network marketing company owned by Citi Group. I did quite well, I was making a lot of money in my mid twenties. As what happens to many people, I had some major life changes and experiences that caused me to step back and analyze my life. I walked away from my business, traveled for a while, moved to Arizona and reevaluated my life.

Skip a few years and I find myself in a career that I love, married to a beautiful, inspiring woman, but struggling again for "success"; idea after idea, how to take what I love and make millions.

Back to the interview, Pete Winiarski, founder of I-SAGA asks the question. My answer flows from my mouth as easy as water glides over a waterfall:

Success to me is witnessing the transformation of a puppy that begins a puppy socialization class hiding in fear from the other dogs or from other people. With a little help confidence slowly begins to build and over the next few weeks watching the fear replaced with the natural joy of being a puppy and reengaging with life with a renewed sense of confidence.

Success to me is meeting with a family that has been told there is no hope for their dog's behavior problems and either giving the dog up or euthanasia are the only options. Being able to help them understand what's happening and why, then helping them fix the situation and keep the dog alive and the family together.

Success to me is teaching a family how to teach their dog anything without the use of any force or intimidation.

The list is endless. Through this one question my approach to life is completely different. I am wealthy beyond all material things, I am blessed to be able to get up each morning to do what I love and to be able to change lives. What is success to you?

Dog-Dog Aggression

This was an article we wrote that was published in the Ahwatukee Foothills news last week that I wanted to share with you. We were asked to write about an incident that happened when a pit bull got loose and attacked a small yorkie. It was and still is a very heated issue and there was a lot of editorials being written that were very one sided and opinionated. An incident like this can have much more to the story than any of us know, but I hoped that this would shed a little more objective light on the story.



Nora was mauled and is severely traumatized, Nick is severely traumatized, Christene Meyers was injured, faces mounting medical bills, and is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Jamie Delluomo is most likely grief and guilt stricken and Pumpkin lost her life. Nothing any of us say will take away any of the pain, the grief, or the guilt. Our hearts go out to Christene, Nora, Nick, Jamie and to Pumpkin. We would like to provide some insight from a behavioral perspective as it relates to unfortunate incidents like this one. There are many possible scenarios and explanations that one could surmise from the accounts that have been written about this horrible event so we hope to provide a neutral explanation of why these things can happen.

Dog - dog attacks can be caused or created in many different ways. First off, our beloved dogs have come to us through thousands and thousands of years of evolution from wolves. They still carry many traits that have been passed on to them from their ancestors. There are many scenarios that can cause a dog to attack another. There’s barrier or territorial aggression. Two dogs that have been barking at each other through a fence or a window for a prolonged period of time can build up an unexpressed anger or resentment towards one another that can result in a severe fight or attack if they are ever able to reach one another. Some dogs develop leash aggression; they exhibit aggressive barking and snarling while on leash but do not exhibit any signs while off leash. Lack of socialization is one major cause of dog – dog aggression. If a dog is not socialized properly by the time it reaches 6 months old, it can create a fear of other dogs which can then turn into aggression. Some dogs have higher prey drive (predatory drive) and running, barking or squealing will spark that instinct to chase and attack. We see pack mentality take over at dog parks quite frequently. One scared dog will start running away from another dog and within seconds all the dogs will join in the chase and the sweetest most social dogs can and sometimes do attack the fleeing dog. This is just a fraction of the psychology behind dog – dog aggression.

Some dogs are more prone to dog aggression but in our experience we do not feel it is breed specific. We have seen dog aggressive dogs in just about every breed out there; breeding, socialization, individual temperaments, how a dog is raised and training all play a part.

The Dog Whisperer

Okay, I have been very polite and very politically correct in regards to Cesar Millan. I have had advice from close friends and mentors not to take too hard of a stance against The Dog Whisperer for various reasons. As I've been holding my tongue, my stomach turns every time I hear of another violent and demeaning "technique" someone learned form watching the show. I was just forwarded a link to this op ed piece from the New York Times that was actually written in 2006. These are not my words but they echo my thoughts and feelings better than anything else I have read thus far. Here's the link for those of you that are interested; http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/opinion/31derr.html

Zamba

I finally got a chance to read the book I mentioned in my last post, it's fantastic. Great real life story of Ralph Helfer and a lion called Zamba. In a nutshell, Ralph raised Zamba from a little cub and proved to Hollywood and the world that you don't have to beat an animal to get it to cooperate. The book is a fast, entertaining read and what Ralph calls his "affection training" mirrors our Dogological training method. What a life he has lived, I believe he's living in California, I'm going to try and reach him. I love connecting with people that share the same philosophy and passion about animals. 

Welcome

Thanks for visiting and checking out our blog. If you've read "Conversations With Courtney" already, we thank you and hope you enjoyed it as much as we loved writing it. This has been a story in the making for quite a long time. Courtney wanted to set the record straight on how we should be communicating with our beloved dogs. This is just the beginning, as we are on a mission to create a world wide change to a compassionate approach in interacting with and teaching our dogs. Day after day I am hearing how confused and frustrated people are with training advice they are receiving that entails some sort of force. Whether it be choke chains, prong collars or shock collars most people want another way but have trouble finding it. There is no reason to resort to force with any animal. If 10,000lb killer whales can be trained without force or intimidation so can our 5lb, 20lb, our 100lb dogs.

My wife Tamara needed to get something at the bookstore today so I went along for the ride. While she was searching for what she came for I was just walking around to waste some time and this book just seemed to draw me right in. I didn't even know what section I was in, I just picked it up and after reading the back cover and a couple of pages I realized that the book picked me. It's about an animal behaviorist that trained and lived with a lion. He was so sick and tired of the abusive techniques he witnessed every day in his industry (animal training for the entertainment industry) he decided to prove to everyone that abuse was not needed. From the few pages I read it seems he raised and trained a lion cub without an ounce of force, using only love and compassion. The lion lived until 18 and there are amazing photos of this lion with children, and many actors and actresses. I will let you know more about it as soon as I get a chance to read it, but I already feel like he is a kindred spirit. Again thank you for visiting and if you have not read the book and would like to check it out you can visit www.conversationwithcourtney.com or www.teamcanine.com. Talk to you soon..... Brad & Courtney