Welcome spring ! And welcome to our chance for personal renewal as we welcome nature's  renewal. Dogs are enjoying the warm sunshine after what seemed a long and hard winter.

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Dogs provide an ideal prototype for the study of behavior in humans because they, like humans, are genetically social animals. Equally important, dogs are unique in their willingness to seek a bond of servitude with humans as strongly as with members of their own species. This trait makes them analogous to young children, at least in all the essential ways in which we need to understand the effects of early environmental conditioning.

" I have had a long, thirty-year friendship with an experienced dog trainer, William Meisterfeld, who has a kennel in Petaluma, California. For years I was impressed by his ability to take vicious dogs, and over a relatively small number of weeks convert them into friendly and obedient pets. I wondered if what he was doing could be applied to the raising of children since much of my practice, then, consisted of hyper-aggressive and rebellious children.

He began to refer the dog owners to me because we observed that these clients were having the same problems with their own children as they were having with their pet dogs. They all complained of having "no control" over their children’s behavior. Out of my conversation with Mr. Meisterfeld, I found that I could simplify the numerous theories and massive literature on child rearing and training into a few basic principles that work with consistent and dramatic effectiveness.(For both dogs and children; )

Discipline, to be effective, must be established upon a basis of mutual respect and trust, and requires minimal or no physical enforcement.

(Above quoted with permission from " The Violence Potential " by Dr. Ernest Pecci, M.D.)

 Puppies and children must be guided and taught with respect the proper acceptable behavior to become a trustworthy, stable member of society. Children who experience aggression through physical punishment become aggressive because they are imitating the behavior of the parent. Parents who use forceful, dominant training techniques with the family dog are teaching the child that physical violence and intimidation are OK.Dominant training breaks the spiritual link of mutual respect between man and man’s best friend.

Each time you create a threatening situation for your dog, you condition and strengthen the survival instinct - translated into its fight or flight mechanism which is influenced by mental and physical strength. The powerful instinct of survival will prevail, as a natural expression of self preservation.

Training with respectful, humane methods, as a responsible owner demonstrates to others, especially children, values such as compassion towards all life and instills a lifelong appreciation of man’s best friend. By applying the principles of mutual respect, the spiritual bond is reinforced.

For more information on this topic, please see " Dog Whisper" written by C.W. Meisterfeld.