They say that humans communicate 7% by what we say, 38% by the tone with which we say it, and 55% by our body language.

I have a chocolate lab that has many different types of bark. The whine usually means she’s trapped behind a door, a single high-pitched bark that says a family member is coming home, and the repeated bark that says a stranger is coming in.

The interesting thing is that in our house, we have taken the dog listener approach to dog training. When a stranger approaches and we receive the repeated barking, we simply acknowledge his warning by thanking him. Guess what, he stops barking because he understands that his job is to warn us when danger approaches his pack.

And this is important: dogs are pack animals. It is in his nature. You cannot fight it or change it, that is its inheritance. All you need to do is understand it.

Tony Knight, son of dog listener Jan Fennell, explains that there are 4 elements to a wolf’s life: food, hunting, status, and danger. Tony describes it as looking for food, not being eaten, and who’s in charge.

All of our domestic dogs have been originally bred from the wolf. Big dogs, small dogs, hunting dogs and show dogs. A dog is a dog and comes from the same gene pool.

With every wolf pack there is a leader. When that pack goes looking for food, the pack doesn’t know if the leader survived the hunt. So when the pack returns, the other dogs test to see if the leader is still the leader.

A dog’s behavior in the home is a response to the dog’s environment. His behavior often stems from the dog thinking that he is the leader. The problem is that the dog is in a world that he does not understand. That’s why he makes the decisions.

Dog Listener’s approach to dog training is to persuade the dog in a non-physical or violent way that the human is the leader and that we call the shots.

This relieves the dog of a great deal of stress. The next thing to understand is that the dog will continually test him to see if he is still leading. If you are, then great. If not, then the dog will take over and make decisions that you don’t want.

Tony Knight has condensed this into a single CD giving you the foundation for a listener’s approach to dog training. However, many people would prefer someone to look at their dog, because they think their dog is different.

We have weekly calls on the dog-listener.com community site to support members. Every week someone calls with their own particular problems and the solutions are always the same. You have to establish leadership and tell your dog not to worry because you have him covered.

However, if you want the convenience of having someone work with you personally, why not contact your local listening dog trainer in the Essex area?