Excerpt From The Evolution of Dog Training by Shannon Riley-Coyner One of the best ways to start helping your dog deal with fearful or stressful situations is to begin communicating by teaching them English as a second language (ESL). ESL was originally used in education as a method to help people from foreign countries to learn English. Because dogs communicate primarily through body language and humans primarily use verbal language, we must essentially teach dogs a new way to listen. When we teach our dogs to understand verbal cues, we can begin to tell them how we want them to act in different situations. This eliminates the need to force them to behave. I have also found that when humans think about teaching their dog ESL, it forces us to spend more time focusing on how the dogs are learning and interpreting our actions. As a result, we automatically become more empathetic and more understanding. How Do We Teach ESL to Dogs to Help With Stress? Learn to Listen to Your Dog’s Body Language The first step to teaching your dog ESL, to start opening lines of communication with your dog, is by reading dog body language; learning basic [...]