Blog — Natural Dog Training

I currently have my dogs on an “attention diet.” That means no touch, no talk, no eye contact—as Cesar Millan would say (and I promise you, this is both the first and last time I will ever quote Cesar!). Why do my dogs need an attention diet? Because they’ve had way too much attention indoors for most of their lives. They’ve been anthropomorphized, overstimulated, over-petted, over-cooed at, and wrapped up in a fairly co-dependent relationship with me. It’s only day two, and so far, so good. I was able to go almost completely cold turkey, and as I type this,...

I recently came across an article suggesting that when a dog “acts out,” it’s because he’s bored and in need of more mental stimulation (7 Signs Your Dog Needs More Mental Stimulation). While this idea is widely accepted, what is often more accurate—especially through a polyvagal and somatic lens—is that many dogs are not under-stimulated, but over-stimulated. And it is this state of over-stimulation that drives the behavior we label as “acting out.” From a nervous system perspective, behavior is not simply a matter of excess energy needing an outlet—it is an expression of autonomic state. When a dog’s system...