Phyllis Smuland, Canine Counselor

Being a Good Leader to Your Canine Companions

Phyllis Smuland has been living with and training dogs for almost 40 years. She got started training dogs when she was in grade school and would take the neighborhood dogs for pack walks in the woods. She started officially training dogs for obedience and protection training when she was 17 years old. She rescued her first dog around the same time. In the late eighties, Phyllis answered a wanted ad in the newspaper that said hard work, low pay, aggressive dogs, demanding boss. Phyllis applied and got the job training pet dogs with serious behavioral issues. She opened her own dog training business, Canine Counselor Inc in 1990. Phyllis has utilized a pack of at least nine dogs to help rehabilitate and train her client dogs. Phyllis is now downsizing her pet dog training business to teach other dog trainers and dog professionals about dog behavior and understanding temperament, which is key to helping dog guardians and dog trainers communicate and live with dogs in harmony.

Our favorite tidbits from our chat with Phyllis

Tell us about you and how you got into dog training.

Phyllis Smuland: So I actually started when I was really young. I used to go about the neighborhood and take all the neighborhood dogs out and sometimes packs of dogs and teach them all kinds of tricks and fun things and go out on adventures.

Tricia Reilly Koch: What'd you do? Just knocked on the door of the neighbors and said, Hey, look, I'm ready. I want to walk your dog.

Phyllis Smuland: I mean, they kind of all knew me as the little girl that didn't have a dog and wanted to take their dogs out.

Dogs just kind of wandered about the neighborhood. So sometimes I would put leashes on them or a belt would work great and I would just take them out on adventure walks and I would teach them all these tricks and everything and bring them back home and show the people their buddy’s new tricks. It was just kind of what I did.

Tricia Reilly Koch: So…were you kind of born a dog whisperer? That sounds like it was an early thing.

Phyllis Smuland: I think we're all born with just some gifts and it's a matter of finding it. And that was just my thing, you know? 

Tell us more about your “pack.”

Phyllis Smuland: Fast forward to having dogs here in my home with my stable pack of dogs. I will bring a dog right in and they will tell me right away what that dog is made of. My pack helps me answer questions like: “Is it afraid?” “Is it trying to take over?”

Most dogs are insecure. So if a young puppy is jumping around and over excited, my dogs will stop that behavior immediately. And it's not physical. It's just eye contact.  

I help dogs find balance because humans encourage excitement and try to wear the dog out. So they end up energizing behaviors. And the dogs, they stop that right away because really what they're looking for is a calm coexistence. 

What do you think dogs need to live their best lives with humans?

Phyllis Smuland: I think the first thing is helping. Helping the dog by being good leaders and by being a good leader does not mean punishment and discipline. It just means that we guide the dog into good behavior. So if we're, for instance, wanting to go on a walk. If we're calm before we leave, the dog will be calmer on the walk and will be more likely to follow us. So we also put a lot of responsibility on dogs without realizing it. 

Tricia Reilly Koch: That's something that I know that Doro and I've talked a lot about recently, too, with Arnie, because you've taught me that Arnie doesn't really want to be the leader; he just wants to be in the middle of the pack. 

Phyllis Smuland: I think, of course, I mean, a lot of times dogs are barking and reactive because we're tense. We are embarrassed that our dog might bark at the neighbor.
So, we tense up and we kind of pull away at the dog and sometimes worse, we're verbal. So if we're yelling, we're kind of yelling right with the dog.

Tricia Reilly Koch: I said to Phyllis the other day, “Well, Phyllis, we want Arnie to be able to go over and say hello.” And she said, “Well, how many strangers do you want to go over and say hello to? You know what I mean?”

Phyllis Smuland: I mean, they don't want to do that. I mean, if they know each other, of course, neighborhood dogs walk together or you have family gatherings and the dogs come over and everybody knows each other.

You know how they say people say people can't change? Is that true of dogs?

Phyllis Smuland: It is to some degree. Yes. I mean, can we teach them things? Of course, we can teach human things. But we're not changing innately who they are, deep-rooted. 

If we have a puppy that is afraid at eight weeks, that is a fearful dog, we're not going to change that dog by training it. We can help build its confidence. 

What makes your dog training program successful? How do you accomplish such good results, which in return give owners and dogs their happiness and their fulfillment?

Phyllis Smuland: I think in the beginning it starts out with meeting with the family and meeting with their dog and answering a lot of questions that people have. Helping them understand the whys. Why is this behavior happening? Why does the dog behave this way? And then I start helping them understand by changing some of the things they're doing. They're now helping the dog. And I think people really need to have an understanding of what's going on. 

The second side of that is that I bring dogs into my home and I keep them for no less than a month. It takes 30 days for the neural pathways to change in the brain. So if we keep dogs for less than that period of time, they may just be starting to find balance. And then we put them right back in either chaos or somebody being frustrated because they don't know how to handle things right. So we have to get the dog balanced first. And a lot of that comes from my pack of dogs. When dogs come in, they help the dog get comfortable and balanced. And I'm part of that path, too, of course.

So what do you think dogs need to live their best lives with humans?

Phyllis Smuland: I think the most important thing is teaching humans to be good leaders for their dogs. The dogs don't have to be afraid and taking care of all these little things that we think we want from them. Giving them great diets. Giving them good exercise. Being calm with them - not always in an excited fanatic state. Join them in things they want to do. So we go out and walk in the woods and so on. Let them sniff, let them be dogs. 

For more of our conversation with Phyllis and to learn to help your dog live its happiest life, tune into Health Gig, Episode 212.