About Us
Leash Drop Canine (LDC) is a dog training service located in Chicago, Illinois.
​
The owner and Canine Educator, Hasani Davis, specializes in lifestyle based obedience training, behavior modification such as aggression and leash reactivity. He provides a step by step approach that educates dog owners on how to create an enjoyable stress free life with their canine companion.
​
Our services include board and train packages, and private 1-on-1 sessions. On this website, you will learn more about our programs, services, and our dog training philosophy.
​
We are committed to the continual learning and development of maintaining a training standard.
​
We ensure clients that their dogs are provided with the highest standard of training possible that is enjoyable for both owner and canine.
​
The Four Principles
​​​
Our approach to training revolves around four principles. These principles are structured around your dogs entire life from the moment you bring them home, until they pass away. These simple steps establish a baseline that anyone from complete beginner to avid dog lover can follow.
​Management​
​
Setting your dog up for success by preventing failure. In order to achieve this, you must control your dog within their environment, because let’s be honest...dogs DON’T make good decisions.
This means establishing structure, rules, boundaries. You are the gatekeeper for your dogs decisions, and must be preemptive about your dog's behavior.
If you cannot keep an eye on them, place them in their crate, an exercise pen, isolate them to one room, or keep them on a leash...yes, even in the home. Your dog is less likely to get into mischief when tethered to you. The more a dog is able to practice naughty behavior, the more it becomes reinforced.
By taking this approach you can prevent those happy accidents and reward the behavior you do like, thus you establish that freedom is a privilege that must be earned through obedience and maturity.
Obedience
How you live with your dog determines how your dog will live with you. Achieving the obedience most owners yearn for is by having a strong relationship with your dog. This relationship is built on trust. You earn that trust through proper leadership. We all love our dogs, but dogs don’t have behavioral issues due to a lack of love and affection. They have behavioral issues due to a lack of structure, rules, and LEADERSHIP! Constant love and rewards with no accountability is not a relationship.
Did your parents shower you with cookies and ice cream just for being a good boy/girl, or were you expected to behave based on the rules and boundaries that were set?
Did your parents take you outside for 15 min a day to teach you how to behave in society, only to ignore the other 23hrs in the day with no accountability? Or did they RAISE you providing guidance every step of the way?
Dogs are no different. It doesn’t matter how many sit-stays you practice, commands don’t create a well-behaved dog, consistency does, otherwise, why bother if you aren’t going to follow through. Dogs are transparent, they miss nothing. They learn from everything we do both good and bad. Your dog will change when you do.
It’s not about being overly militant, but you must hold your dog accountable in moments that are appropriate to the situation. If you are wishy-washy with your rules then you’re going to have a wishy-washy dog. Having your dog understand what’s appropriate versus inappropriate is for their safety and everyone else’s.
Socializing
Create a calm state of mind that allows the dog to feel comfortable in any environment you place them in. They pay attention to you, and don’t get uncomfortable or stressed in different environments. Environmental socializing or desensitizing comes first.
Your dog experiences the world through you.
So get them around different noises like cars, trucks, people on bikes, and skateboards. Get them around different people with various outfits or accessories like big coats, hats, glasses, even masks.
This is not an invitation for random people to interact your dog however. You decide who and what you interact with. Random people have no business touching your dog.
“Oh my goodness, he’s adorable!” Of course people are going to want to pet your dog. But is that really going benefit them? Not really...
Nobody who is not you or your family should touch your dog if there’s no solid obedience established. Strangers on the street don’t need to pet your dog, the general public is not good at this. Any person who can’t help but want to pet your dog is not someone you should have around your dog, it does nothing to benefit. Based on your dog's personality this can either reinforce hyperactivity or create a more anxious dog. We have rules for our dogs, but we must have rules, and boundaries for people as well. Always advocate for your dog.
The same goes for dogs on the street. This idea to meet every random dog on the street is just insane! Just because a dog wants to play doesn’t mean they should, if a dog has poor social skills (yes, that's a thing) that’s how fights occur. Most casual owners are blind to the signs. So to advocate for your dog and only introduce them to people you know are safe such as friends and family.
CHILDREN
Children make lots of noises, move around a lot, and this can make some dogs uncomfortable.
It’s important to read the obvious signs...
- dog backs away
- stiffness in body language
- hackles stand up
It’s important not to put your dog in uncomfortable situations when the don’t have the tools to handle it. This usually comes from a poor relationship and trust, check the previous pillars of management and obedience.
If that same child wants to pet your dog with their excited noises, you fail to read the signs because you think it’s so cute, then the dog scratches the kid's eyes out, you're just asking for trouble. It’s never the dog's fault, it’s always human error.
Exercise
Casually walking your dog for 15 min a day doesn’t count as exercise, neither is leaving your dog to run around mindlessly in the backyard. A dog that is left alone in a yard will either build up boredom or frustration that leads to destructive behavior.
Does your dog to one or more of these things?
- Runs away
- Chew things
- Bark
- Jump
- Counter surf
- Dig holes
- Scratch the doors etc...
Most of these behaviors are driven by curiosity or a buildup of excess mental/physical energy which causes boredom and frustration. Casually walking your dog provides enrichment, it allows them to be a dog, but for most dogs its doesn’t provide enough physical or mental exertion.
Most people are pretty good at doing activities with their dogs such as jogging with them, having them run alongside you while you’re on your bike, skateboard, or rollerblades. A game of fetch or tug, an agility club, or building a mini obstacle course in your backyard.
These are great things to do but we must not forget to challenge our dogs mentally. If you only focus on the physical aspect you'll end up with a dog in phenomenal shape but can't focus. To challenge your dog mentally you're going to have to work at it, and I don't mean one of those puzzle pieces where the dog figures out how to get the food. That's the equivalent to giving your kid an iPad.
Think about how mentally stimulated we get after a long work day. Have your dog work for the items they want like food, a tug, or ball. Have them wait and hold a place until you release them. This makes it more rewarding and can build a deeper bond between you and mans best friend.
