The Alpha Project

This book will tell you how to educate your dog in a canine consistent way and change problem behaviours without the use of force.

What began as a handout for our workshops developed into a unique dog training manual that communicates holistic nonverbal dog training methods in an easy to understand, practical language.

The Alpha Project completely redefines our role as pack leader in our relationship to a dog. It demonstrates that forced obedience, physical violence, or the use of painful training aids, no longer have a place in modern dog education.

What is meant by nonverbal dog training?

For many dog owners, schooling their dog begins with basic dog obedience training. In obdience exercises, the dog learns to sit or lie down on command. Our four-legged friends usually learn to perform these kind of tasks very quickly. This does not, however, change their daily problem behaviours to any great extent. The reason for that is simple:

A dog who can obey commands is not automatically well trained. Or would you consider a child to have been well brought up only because it sits down when told?

As with children, obeying commands has actually very little to do with being educated.

Keeping a dog without giving commands is even today still hard to imagine for most dog owners. Wolfs in a pack, however, like dogs, do not act on commands but are guided by each other's behaviour. This book will help you understand the nature of dogs and how to design canine conistent training concepts.

What do we actually mean by education?

Education is defined as the guided practice of norms and standards that apply in a given social environment. The book shows you how to communicate our norms and standards to your dog so that he may comprehend them and that they also make sense from his point of view.

In future, your dog will learn to be guided by your behaviour - not because you are forcing him to but because it is to his advantage. You are communicating guidance principles that will help him all his life - entirely without commandos.

The book reveals how you can become the central figure in the life of your dog, how to influence relationships and how trust arises. You will learn how to relieve him of responsibility in everyday situations and prevent feelings of fear, stress or aggression.

Understand the feelings and emotions of your dog and find out how your dog perceives our world. Knowing this will enable you to assess his behaviours correctly in future. Benefit from your newfound confidence in managing your dog.

Changing problem behaviours

You will understand the causes of canine problem behaviours and learn how easy it is, within a short period of time, to change your dog's behaviour.

If your dog is already demonstrating problem behaviours, such as pulling on his leash, reacting aggressively, jumping on visitors or barking loudly at people walking past your garden fence, don't think he is doing this because he enjoys it. In his view, these behaviours are necessary and meaningful.

You'll come to understand that the cause of pulling on the leash, for example, is not the leash itself, and that aggressive responses do not originate in the dog but are instead a consequence of our own behaviour.

Every problem behaviour is a natural and appropriate response by our dog, which we need to understand if we want to modify it. Most of the time, the dog does not even have a choice but to behave as he does at that moment. Learn how to behave correctly in critical situations and how you can be of help to your dog in conflict situations.

You don't have to be a dog whisperer or specially gifted to understand the world of your canine companion. Your love of your four-legged friend and a willingness to make a positive difference in his life will make you the best dog owner he could wish for.