Simba, my Anatolian Shepherd Dog, is the dog that
changed my life forever. She came to me at the tender
age of 10 weeks, along with instructions that this is a
dominant breed and to make sure she knows I am the
boss. Two weeks later I took her to puppy class, only
to have the instructor tell me that my dog was dominant,
and I was going to have problems.
Puppy class went well; we used only positive
reinforcement, and my puppy did extremely well. Then
we moved on to the advanced class where we had to use
choke collars, or pinch collars and were shown how to
alpha roll our dogs for mistakes, or as it was put,
dominant behavior. From there on things went downhill
for Simba and me. She did not respond to the
corrections and began to withdraw from me and ignore my
commands. I ended up dropping out of class, because it
got worse with each session as I was told to use more
force to "make her obey."
At around 7 months
she started attacking me, whenever we encountered
situations that she associated with corrections. I
began to fear taking her out of the house, because of
these attacks, which didn’t cause any serious injury,
just bitemarks and bruising, but to have an 80 lbs and
growing dog come after me was very frightening. In
desperation I called trainers and veterinarians, but
nobody could offer any help. All but one trainer didn’t
even want to bother meeting my dog. The message I got
was: it’s hopeless, she is dangerous – put her to
sleep. I couldn’t do it. I was hoping to find an
answer to our problem.
Then a friend gave me Karen Pryor’s book "Don’t
shoot the Dog", and after reading it, I learned
that corrections and force weren’t necessary to train
an animal. I took it to heart. It was such a relief to
know that it wasn’t necessary to hurt or frighten
dogs (corrections) in order to train them.
In my search for a positive approach to training I
came across some of the books that I recommend under Resources. As I started interacting differently with
Simba, no more corrections, but positive reinforcement
for good behavior, I saw our relationship change. She
wanted to be with me, she learned to follow new and old
commands with a wagging tail – and, she no longer
attacks me. Clicker training has brought out the best
in her; she enjoys solving training challenges and she
learns at an amazing speed. She is truly an amazing
dog.
Simba passed away Feb. 28, 2006.
