a new method coming from a great experience 

by Aldo La Spina

I am an experienced behavior counselor and trainer. I help people to solve the so-called “behavior problems” of dogs, even if I don’t like to call them like that. More and more frequently, they come from owner’s wrong attitudes and behavior, or from the context where the dog lives in. This is why I teach both the owner and the dog how to live together in a better way. During my counseling, most of the owners say: “Oh, then it’s me the one who is wrong! Then you must teach me!”.  At the beginning, owners are sure I go there to solve their dog’s problems. Then they understand that the relation with their dog is the source of those problems. From here begins my work of “behavior counseling”, which I would rather define “familiar counseling”. When the owner is aware of that, the real work can start.

I worked a lot on the field. At first I was a "coach on the sidewalk:

 I used to visit dogs and owners at their homes, that was where I had to be to solve their problems. I often cooperated with vets and experts over the last few years and I put up facilities for dogs health, for owners and professional training. I wrote some editorials, I often took part in tv shows where I played the role of “live expert”. At the moment I collaborate with websites, training schools and universities where I teach.  After years of study and experimentation in the field, I developed a new method that I introduce for the first time in my first book. It is an original method, tested, although relatively new, which aims to restore and improve the relationship with our dog. I called this method: ”Emotional learning”.

The method of “Emotional learning” is a step forward when compared to the method of "gentle" education, even though I was the first to introduce it in Italy. The “gentle” method avoids punishment and harsh old-school techniques, and praises positive behaviors. But even this gentle method risks to be a limited technique (with the use of treats, toys, clicker as a reward or reinforcement). This method might help your conscience (“I don’t hurt my dog”), but it doesn’t solve the real issues of man-dog coexistence: it still remains on the surface. It is not enough to reward or punish the dog. The dog is not a robot responding in a mechanical way. He has emotions and feelings.

Dog and owner must know each other extremely well. They must enter into a deep relationship and understand what they feel for each other. When the dog receives a treat, he must feel our happiness and our joy. We can recognize our dog’s joy not only by exterior signals (excitation, his look, his tail), but we rather need to feel his joy at a deeper level.We must give our dog the best of us, so that he will give us his best. The dog is an intelligent and emotionally complex animal. He lives with us and helps us to improve our life. We must understand and accept him all the way if we want evolve together as we do for more than 12,000 years. If we are men, no more primitives, we owe it also to the dog, who helped us in many ways. At the same level, we helped the dog not to be anymore a wolf or a jackal.

per questa foto

si ringrazia Simone Olivo

Often colleagues ask me whether I use the treat or the ball educating the dog; I reply: “the relation”..

So they say: «Ah, you stroke him!» «Well, not really», I answer. How can you think to build a relation with a dog, becoming a dispenser of strokes, food, or balls? To "feel" really your dog and build a real relationship with him, the best way is emotional. Emotion is the force that unites us more directly to the dog and that he recognizes better.

The real answer as to which method I use in interacting with the dog is: “I follow the emotions”!. I want the dog to feel my emotions. I want to strengthen with emotion the message that I want to send to him, instead of using a tug, or the clicker or a treat. At the same time, my method is to feel his emotions in order to understand him in a better way. I would really like to spread and share my method because I see it’s good, positive and effective.