I watch the dog whisperer sometimes and his philosophy is exercise, discipline and then love - in that order. It is so easy to spoil our babies to the hilt and as the same with children, they do want/need boundaries. Cesar thinks that too often humans do not let the dogs know who is alpha. I'm sure their is merit in Cesar Milan's philosophy. I don't have any idea how to go about implementing his guidelines - but I'm sure that there are trainers that do or trainers that have their own ideas. I also know that we had a schnauzer who tried to bite the vet the first time we took her and the vet said to us that we needed to get control of that dog as soon as possible. We were naive dog owners at that time and we did nothing. We had nothing but trouble with that dog and she bit eveeryone except my husband. Anyway, it made a believer out of me.
Just one more thing - we got Rowdy when he was only 7 weeks old - we too, didn't know any better (I hadn't yet found YT) and he is just the sweetest, most docile, best behaved dog I have ever had. So, don't beat yourself up about getting her so young - I'm not so sure that had anything to do with it.
__________________  Rex & Rowdy's Mom  |