This is part 2 of the story of our inspiration behind Candace's Pack Dog Rescue
Candace wasn’t as receptive to me as she was with my wife and it ate me up inside. She was supposed to be the pointer I always wanted. I got very discouraged, negative and even resentful.
We decided to hire a behaviorist and from the first phone conversation we had with her it all started making sense. Janice Wolfe, founder of Merlin's Kids, explained to us that dogs are masters at reading our energy. That is how they communicate with each other in the wild; through non verbal communication. My energy was completely off and Candace knew it. Whenever I tried to “get down to her level” or “be softer”, it didn’t work because she knew I was faking it.
Candace is what Cesar Millan would call a “back of the pack” dog.
He explains in his books that dogs are born with a natural pack position: front, middle and back.
Front of the pack dogs are natural born confident leaders. Dogs born with this demeanor are perfect for jobs like police work.
In the middle of the pack are the “happy go lucky” guys. They just want everyone to get along. The “ideal” family pet.
In the back are the sensitive dogs. Sensitive to everything in their environment; they are the first to alert the rest of the pack to any potential dangers.
No position is better than the other, they each serve a purpose and each is needed for pack survival. Most of the time the middle and back have no interest in being the leader. But when we don’t provide our dogs with leadership through calm and confident energy, that’s when your dog will try and take over, and that’s when behavior problems can begin.
The last thing Candace (an anxious, back of the pack dog with a possible abuse history) wanted was to be the leader of a pack with two people she just met!
After our first meeting with Janice, I couldn’t have been more hungry to learn! Along with some basic leadership techniques and education in dog behavior, I learned to always be aware of what kind of energy I’m projecting, and what state of mind I’m in, not just with my dog but with life in general.
And this was just the beginning!
“Humans are the only animals on Earth that follow instability” - Cesar Millan
This post originally appeared on our IG feed on 5/6/2019