Dog Training in New York City: Emotional Grounding vs. Mental Stimulation
What Dogs Need Is More Emotional Grounding and Less Mental Stimulation
Originally published on May 06, 2016 at The Evolved Dog.
I saw an article online recently stating that the reason a dog acts out is because he is bored and needs more mental stimulation (7 Signs Your Dog Needs More Mental Stimulation). I think what’s more likely to be true is that your dog is probably already over-stimulated and that’s why he’s acting out.
What our dogs need today is more emotional grounding and less mental stimulation. Think about it, there’s no such thing as being over-grounded: emotional grounding is always good. But there is such a thing as being over-stimulated. We all get over-stimulated when we have too much mental activity and not enough things in our life that keep us grounded.
When you practice Natural Dog Training, you create an emotional channel to bring your dog’s energy to ground. When you create emotional grounding you allow your dog to feel flow. You also help him learn how to self-regulate by getting connected to his environment via his body, as opposed to his mind.
When a dog acts from a place of connection to his body and to his owner, he can access a flow state, develop impulse control, and diminish any neurotic behaviors. If you ask me, the less we stimulate our dogs mentally, the better off they will be. There’s enough natural stimulation in the world around us, let’s give our dogs a place to put that energy.
Here are some things you can do to help your dog feel more grounded emotionally. (These exercises were created by former police-dog and border-detection trainer Kevin Behan who is also the creator of Natural Dog.)
#1 Biting Games (outdoors)
If you think taking your dog to the dog run will help ground your dog, try playing tug and fetch instead and you’ll start to see a big difference. For one thing, there’s no way to know in advance the emotional make-up of the dog run on any given day. Another thing is that while “chase me” games are a lot of fun dogs, like wolves, are designed to chase things and bite them. So while wrestling and playing chase with other dogs at the dog run may be fun (on some days), at bottom, dogs have oral urges that can’t be fully satisfied by anything other than biting toys in play. Here’s the best ratio: tug-of-war (80%), push-of-war (10%), fetch (%10). Do this for at least 20 minutes every day, twice a day, outdoors.
#2 Pushing for Food (outdoors)
Just as there is virtually no difference between feeling grounded physically and feeling grounded emotionally, there is no difference between feeling off-balance physically or off-balance emotionally. The pushing exercise helps your dog feel balanced both physically and emotionally.
#3 The Collecting Exercise (outdoors)
This exercise is specifically designed to ground a dog’s excess energy. And, again, this exercise will help your dog feel more balanced physically and emotionally which in turn has the effect of grounding your dog’s excess energy. It also has many other benefits. It can be used to treat separation anxiety, aggression, and fear issues.
#4 Speaking on Command (indoors or outdoors)
When you teach a dog to speak on command the very act of barking releases a lot of internal tension, pressure and stress. I’ve written numerous times that when a dog is taught to speak on command, he’s no longer afraid of anything, including thunderstorms and fireworks. Speaking on command can also instantly change a frightened or terrified dog into a calm, happy and relaxed pooch. This is based on the fact that there are 3 types of fear: fight, flight, and freeze. When a dog learns to “fight” back against his fears by barking (instead of freezing or trying to run away), he immediately and automatically regains his physical and emotional stability.
#5 Deep Tissue Massage (indoors or outdoors)
By simply massaging your dog, particularly his shoulders and topline, every day you’ll find that he becomes more grounded emotionally. Some dogs resist being massaged at first. So if your dog is in that category, you need to go very slowly. The final goal is that when you start massaging your dog’s shoulders he becomes so relaxed that automatically rolls over on one side. Talk about being emotionally grounded!
Lee Charles Kelley
“Life Is an Adventure—Where Will Your Dog Take You?”
