An Interview with The Dog Dude.
A new radical approach toward dog ownership is spreading across the Waikato.
Hamish Young has earned the nickname, “The Dog Dude” after founding a new approach to dog psychology and training.
While many New Zealanders struggle to control their dogs, Hamish has adopted a more natural approach to treating a dog from a dog’s perspective in order to achieve a balanced way of life for the dog.
As Hamish explains, when there isn’t a dominant pack leader to show a dog how to live, they try to take on this role and end up becoming mentally unbalanced because this isn’t the natural way for a dog to be.
Dogs are not humans, they are followers, so they need a powerful leader.
But so many of New Zealand’s dogs are unbalanced because kiwis tend to treat their dogs like humans which has the opposite effect of being an assertive pack leader.
This bad approach to dog ownership has caused dogs across the country to develop psychological issues as a side effect to this unbalanced lifestyle.
This can lead to dog aggression and, as a result, the potential euthanasia of an unbalanced dog who simply didn’t understand.
For this reason Hamish is getting involved with his community showing dog owners how to raise their dogs in a balanced pack-orientated world.
While dogs respond wonderfully to the Dog Dude’s methods, the challenge is getting through the owners initial beliefs about their dog and changing the way they view and interact with them.
“The biggest challenge in my work is trying to reprogramme the way owners view their dogs so that they can treat them like dogs instead of humans.”
Although some owners can be stubborn, Hamish is able to get through to the families he helps in order to achieve a happier lifestyle for everyone he comes across.
“Society’s attitudes are slowely changing and more and more people are understanding a dog’s true needs. This is resulting in happy families and balanced dogs which couldn’t make me happier. I feel the meaning of life is to create a positive ripple effect throughout the world, and I think I’m achieving that.”
Anyone who would like to learn more about the Dog Dude can see Hamish on December 2nd at lake Te Ko Utu in Cambridge as he presents a demonstration about his methods to the public at a free event about dogs and children.