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Natural Dog Training

Welcome to the official page of Natural Dog Training: Kevin Behan's dog training methods and theories on behavior.

21/06/2022

A tribute to Kevin Behan on what would have been his 70th birthday. Thanks to Melissa for creating ❤️❤️ Your Dog Is Your Mirror

16/02/2021

The official online NDT Study Group is still going strong. New users can now test drive the study group for free for the first month with code NDTstudy at https://bit.ly/NDTstudy. (The code is case sensitive and can be entered after the initial sign up.)

Watch videos, read questions from other owners and trainers, and get involved in a strong and growing community.

31/01/2021

"...the clearer and stronger your heart gets, the more your thoughts will align with what you feel, and your actions will then flow from your heart. Follow your dog: he knows your heart, he feels your heart, he knows the way back to your heart."

- Kevin Behan, Your Dog Is Your Mirror

29/01/2021

27/01/2021

This Sunday marks one year since we lost Kevin Behan. Are there ways that you'll be remembering him? We'd love to hear them. Perhaps it's an extra long walk with your pup, or as Kevin would say: a 'rub-a-dub' after a training session, a Zoom with NDT friends, or a simple moment of reflection.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or provide suggestions for others. We'll be thinking of you all and this special community.

16/12/2020

That time of year! Buy direct from our publisher, New World Library and save 50% off Kevin Behan's book, Your Dog Is Your Mirror, plus free US shipping with orders over $20. Enter code FRIENDS by 12/21!

https://www.newworldlibrary.com/Books/ProductDetails/tabid/64/SKU/80887/Default.aspx #.X9onaOlKjOQ

22/09/2020

"At the crossroads of the Constructal Law, Immediate Moment Theory, Human Systems Dynamics, and Concentric Ring Theory, you'll find the Thermodynamics of Emotion Symposium."

Now a virtual event, learn more about these theories, founders, and their roles in physics, emotion, animal behavior, and more, this October 3rd. Register at https://thermodynamicsofemotion.com/

12/08/2020

From the archives: An owner new to the NDT method said they found this article in a guest book this past summer. From our local paper in 2014, the Brattleboro Reformer:

https://www.reformer.com/stories/dog-training,326020

20/06/2020

Over the decades that Natural Dog Training has existed, there have been bonds built not only between people and their dogs, but also between the people who've found their way to this method. One such group is NDT West. They've been around for a good while, whether that's been to organize a meet up in California, an event in Oregon, or to begin their own training careers.

Today, in honor of Kevin’s birthday, they've launched a new site to continue to build connections, expand their group, and honor the NDT legacy.

Take a moment to learn about them, read their stories, and, on Kevin's birthday, remember and celebrate a piece of what he's left behind.

https://www.ndtwest.dog/

04/02/2020

Dear friends and family: It is with the heaviest of hearts we write this update about the founder of Natural Dog Training, Kevin Behan. This past weekend, Kevin passed away after battling an illness. He was surrounded by family, and we have already received so much support and love from members of this community. Thank you.

Lots of you are like family to us. If you have photos or stories you would like to share, we would love to see them. We will also be posting updates to this page with information and resources on how to continue learning about Natural Dog Training.

All of our love,

The Behan Family

"Two emotional beings that connect and bond form one heart. And everywhere they go, whether together or separate, they feel a tug on their strings." - Kevin, Your Dog Is Your Mirror

09/12/2019

Until 12/19, you can save on Kevin's book, Your Dog Is Your Mirror, plus all of New World Library's titles. Visit their site and enter code FRIENDS at checkout.

GIFT IDEA: Our book publisher, New World Library, is offering a special 50% discount (and free US shipping on orders of $20) on every book they publish, including Your Dog Is Your Mirror.

Enter code “FRIENDS" at checkout by 12/19 on http://www.newworldlibrary.com to save on YDIYM, plus other books by Eckhart Tolle, Shakti Gawain, Dan Millman, Joseph Campbell, and more.

06/10/2019

"The mind is saturated with feelings. Almost every perception and thought has valence, or is emotionally weighted with some attraction or repulsion quality."

https://aeon.co/essays/human-culture-and-cognition-evolved-through-the-emotions via Aeon

Universal emotions are the deep engine of human consciousness and the basis of our profound affinity with other animals

15/09/2019

13/07/2019

Little dogs need too. Our study group has helpful videos showing you how to do things like Push of War, and more NDT techniques. Tap to learn more about joining or visit bit.ly/NDTstudy

18/05/2019

In regards to a discussion on stress as a form of emotional “heat” Lee found a study that seeks to objectively quantify the experience of stress. “Human Psychophysiological Stress Indices Using The...

17/05/2019

Thanks to Scott for this interesting science: From the end of the article after these words I would add: "it seems that your intelligence is likely to be the product of a huge collection of ...

15/05/2019

You can read more about the dog in this clip at the owner's blog . Laszlo, the doberman in the video, was a rescue dog that "upon adoption [he] instantly manifested all the most disturbing rescue-d...

14/05/2019

We often hear in dog training circles the expression "high value reward" as in find what your dog loves best, be it food, toy, type of praise, and then begin from there. But this immediately begs t...

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Videos

Turning Stress into Flow

Stress, emotion and movement are all related in the animal mind. Given the right conditions, stress can actually improve flow through social interactions. All you have to remember is that stress is simply conserved emotion.

The Heart of the Dog

When you understand the Heart of the dog, your training will set him free.

Update on Rufus

Update on Rufus: After months of diligent work, Kevin has made great progress in transforming rather severe food aggression issues into trust and flow. Here are the results!

Demonstrating the bite-and-carry

The bite-and-carry with Rufus during the Regional Animal Shelter NDT event at Harvey's Home, Garden and Pet Center (May 20, 2017).

Rufus' First Bark.

Rufus expends so much energy by tippity--tappetying his feet while I'm asking him to bark, that he can't concentrate enough to muster an "articulated" breath without moving. By using the cross tie, I can limit his range of movement making a bark more likely. The first step was to acclimate him on the cross tie with push, bite, rub-a-dub and that set him up for getting over his inhibition about giving the bark to his handler. Now it's not that Rufus doesn't know how to bark, currently his bark is channeled into aggressive discharges to stimuli (stranger or dog) on-the-horizon. This is the only time he feels safe enough to move all the pent up energy that he holds. And therefore the bark isn't available in a therapeutic context. This is the first time Rufus was able to look me in the eye and generate a fully formed "punctive" bark. The work from here is to strengthen by deepening the bark's register and to develop his confidence so he can give me the bark in every situation. Rufus can do it, it's a law of nature.

Turning Fear into Flow

Pushing with Distractions

Now that I have a strong contact with Rufus, I can take a reading for where we stand when in the face of an intense distraction. Because his Drive to me is so intense, I can introduce an equally intense distraction. Bear in mind that the dog does not know how to heel. He pulls like a tractor. So I let him plow ahead and into the other dog's area and then attempt to attract him. And because he overcame an intense resistance with me, it is easy for him to channel his attraction to the other dog into me. He feels attracted to me with the same intensity he feels toward the other dog. Being with me FEELS like being with the other dog because he's engaging the same core motor responses and Drive state. Pushing to me is what Playing (or fighting) with the other dog FEELS like. Therefore he can Push to me and I can introduce a note of complexity in asking him to discriminate between when I'm inviting him to Push, and when I'm in passive mode. Later phases will involve channeling the Push into Heel, Sit, Stay, Down, Recall, and through the power of Pavlovian Conditioning, even obedience will FEEL like what playing (of fighting) with the other dog FEELS like. The connection between dog and handler predicated on full Drive becomes the foundation for everything else that is to be learned. Finally we leave and he doesn't look back because he's not in conflict between the handler and the distraction. We came, we saw, we played.

The Pushing Exercise

In order that the connection between dog and handler can conduct all the dog's Drive, there has to be a firm physical contact between dog and handler. It's like tightening the terminal connections on a battery. If the cables are loose, then electricity doesn't flow into the battery to charge it up. One day the driver "asks" for his car's energy, and nothing happens. So if the contact between dog and handler is not firmly grounded, in a critical moment the dog won't be able to give his owner all his energy. A dog doesn't care what happens when things happen, he only cares how he feels when things happen. So if giving all his emotional energy to his owner makes him feel good, then as far as he's concerned he made contact with the distraction that had the potential to make him feel good. The stronger the distraction, the stronger the force of attraction to the owner. In this video I'm working the dog to make very strong contact so that when I expose him to a distraction, he can choose to flow with me rather than respond instinctively to the distraction.

The Theory of the Pushing Exercise

The Pushing Exercise raises a dog's emotional threshold, so that things that might trigger unwanted behavior become neutral. The dog learns that his owner can bring his emotional level of excitation to fulfillment and therefore, in his mind, feels as if he connected to the distraction and so he is not in a state of conflict. Pushing, i.e. overcoming resistance, unlike other obedience behaviors conducts all the dog's Drive. We are channeling the emotion aroused by the distraction to the handler which increases the level of bonding.

Training Hunney, Part II

Please forgive the quality of the video! We're working on fixing it, but the content is still worth posting in the meantime. This is Hunney, who is extremely aggressive toward other dogs. Watch her learn how to redirect her energy, express her fear, and begin to play with some of the other dogs on the NDT compound.

Training Hunney, Part I

Kevin works with Hunney, an aggressive rescue dog. He's working with a shelter to find a new home for Hunney. Watch and listen to Kevin's instructions as he trains her to speak, and stay tuned for another video with Hunney around other dogs.

Training Video

Brief video of Kevin working on heeling with another dog:

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