These are the tools and techniques I've developed for you to use when you train your dog.

One of the first things I tell my clients is: Try to figure out what your dog is perceiving and feeling. This is the beginning of being able to reach an understanding with your pet and learning how to communicate with it.

Dogs, like wolves, have acute, highly developed sensory perceptions through which they observe the world around them. To be a successful dog owner/trainer, you need to work with these perceptions and use your dog's keen senses to help you train it.

When you work with your dog, you need to communicate with it in a language it can understand. Wolves and dogs use an elaborate system of body language and facial expression to communicate with each other. If you can teach yourself to read this language you'll know what your dog is trying to tell you. At the same time, if you can emulate this language, your dog will understand what you're trying to tell it.

Throughout the following chapters I"ll suggest ways you can use your voice and your body to help your dog understand who you want it to behave.

It is very important to develop a schedule in the beginning of your relationship with a dog or puppy. Life within a wolf pack is highly structured and ordered—each individual member of the pack knows its role and what is expected of it. Domestic dogs share this need for order.

For a dog to understand what you want it to do, it has to know what's going to happen, when. It should be fed, played with, exercised, and allowed to sleep on a regular basis. Then your requirements will seem logical—the time for elimination, for example, will follow the time for eating, or sleeping, and so forth.

Scheduling is probably the most important tool you can use with a dog while you're training it. I'll explain more about this as we go along. I'll also tell you how to use a crate to help develop a schedule. When used properly, a crate will provide a puppy or new dog with security and keep it out of trouble when you're not around.

Physical force will only seem like a challenge to most dogs, and you never want to indulge in a clash of wills with your dog. But at the same time, you must develop a foolproof way to let your pet know what you want. If you can stay calm and patient at the same time you insist, or persist, in making your wishes clear, and then praise your dog lavishly when it does what you want, you can teach it without ever having to resort to anger if you use the three P's you'll be successful in teaching your dog.

Hand in hand with the three P's, you need to continueously reinforce every lesson you give your dog. In order for a dog really to learn a command, you have to repeat it for reinforcement many, many times.

Every time your dog performs correctly, reward it with praise, which will further reinforce the lesson. Constant reinforcement accompanied by rewards for good behavior will make any training lesson stick.

Correction and praise mean nothing to a dog unless they're timed to occur at the exact moment of a transgression or a proper action. Teach yourself to read your pet's body language and anticipate its actions. Then you can correct your dog as it reacts to stimuli. Otherwise, it will be too late. If you do this with your dog, you'll soon develop a wonderful rapport.

This is a great tool to use at times when your dog becomes distracted, upset, or wild. When Mariah was frightened or her strong instinct made her aggressive, for instance, I found that if I immediately forced her to look at me—focus on me—I could calm her down and then make her listen to me. If you plan to go on to off-leash work with your dog you must learn how to do this to avoid potentially dangerous situations. I'll tell you how to use a number of different sound stimuli to help you make your dog focus on you when it's necessary.