Fred Zorn Dog Training

Often thought of as a domineering profession that is shot through with individuals that have deep seeded control issues, dog training has a dirty word that for a long time now has been misunderstood. The word obedience has long been thought of as “telling others what to do” but the roots of the word are very different. The word “obey” comes from to latin roots “ob” and “audire”. The root “ob” means “in the direction of” and the root “audire” means to hear. When put together they mean “to listen in the direction of or “oboedire”. Teaching our dogs to listen in the direction of their handler takes on a very different tone when you consider this original definition. Many times when a dog has difficulties with aggression, cowering fear or over excitement it is because they don’t have any idea of what to listen to or where to look. Their focus is fractured and they are unable to interpret there surroundings, resulting in erratic behavior. Teaching obedience should be about helping a dog to observe their world without immediately reacting to it. Eventually as new more healthy habits are formed a dog is able to be trusted to engage in the world instead of constantly pushing it away and this is how obedience can actually result in freedom.

Besides being and adorable life companion dogs can be given credit for allowing the human race to exist in the first place. There are anthropologists that posit that the dog is resposible for our abitity climb out of the stone age and establish farms during the agricultural revolution. We owe them a lot and so it is therefore imperitive that we use best practices in order secure this bond. I am a dog trainer yes, but I teach you how to be one too and that is why I love doing what I do.