A potato chip for Lisa, a meaty dog kibble for Max.
Lisa -- the leader of the pack -- gets to eat her chip first. After she munches, she gives Max, her golden retriever puppy, his dinner.
It seems like a small gesture, but this routine is one way to reinforce that Lisa is Max's pack leader and she's in charge of the food.
She's saying, "I've eaten, here's what's left for you," explains "dog listener" Shane Tyler, who is doing a home consultation with Max's family in Woods Cross.
Learning who's in charge of the pack is a key part of Max's development, says Tyler, who teaches a method of working with dogs called "Amichien Bonding."
But Tyler's goal isn't so much to train Max the puppy -- he's working on the humans in the Northcutt family who are responsible for this 3-month-old golden retriever.
"It's not me teaching the dogs, it's more me teaching the people," says the instructor for the International Dog Listeners organization. "I tell people they are going to learn a new language."
That language -- the canine language -- is something dogs have known since birth, Tyler says. Amichien Bonding, developed by dog trainer Jan Fennell of Great Britain, teaches humans to understand this language and also how to work with their dogs without using force or gadgets such as choke chains or shock collars.
The dogs aren't doing things because they HAVE to, Tyler says. "They're listening to me because they want to."
'Friend of dog'
Tyler, of Kaysville, and Tery Binkerd, of Bountiful, are the only Utahns approved to teach for the International Dog Listeners. The organization, which Fennell created in the 1990s, has just 150 dog listeners worldwide and 30 in the United States, Tyler says.
"We're still working on getting it into the public -- it's a new thing," says Binkerd, who sees about three new dog clients per month.
Amichien Bonding takes its name from the French words "ami," which means "friend," and "chien," which means "dog."
"It stands for friend of dog." Tyler explains.
Fennell studied dog behavior after watching Monty Roberts, the famous horse whisperer, at work, communicating with horses in their own language rather than using traditional "breaking" practices. Tyler says that Fennell realized: "If you can do this with horses, you've got to be able to do it with dogs, too."
The British trainer started observing how wolves, dingoes and African wild dogs communicate in their natural environment and wrote "The Dog Listener," a 2001 book explaining her findings.
Too often, pet owners expect dogs to see and understand the world from the human point of view, Binkerd says -- instead of the dog's view.
"Most people think of their dogs as little kids in fur coats, and it causes a lot of stress on both the dogs and the owners," says the high school teacher.
Who's in charge?
Amichien Bonding focuses on four prime areas of dog/human interaction: reuniting after separations, feeding, walking on leash and handling perceived threats or dangers.
Pet owners are shown how to assume the role of pack leader in these situations, Tyler says, since dogs, who are pack animals, are continually wondering, "Who's in charge now? Who's making the decisions?"
Humans often give the wrong signals to their four-footed pals, the dog listeners say. For instance, when you return home after working all day, do you fuss over and smother your dog with attention the minute you walk in the door?
In the dog's eyes, you're "groveling" to him and treating him as the pack leader, Tyler explains during his visit with the Lisa and Greg Northcutt family in Woods Cross.
Instead, he advises Max's family to ignore the puppy when they first come home and go about their own business. When they are ready, they should call Max over to them to say hello -- not go to the dog.
"Any attention given is going to be on you guys' terms, and not when he demands it," Tyler says.
Losing the pack
One problem the Northcutts have faced with Max is his nipping at the children, Carter, 7, and Sydney, 5.
The puppy must learn it's not OK to grab any part of a person's body with his mouth, Tyler says, so if Max nips or bites, someone should calmly put him in another room by himself for five minutes.
Being isolated from his "pack" -- the human family -- is a big deal for a dog, Tyler adds. "(Max) will figure it out really quickly that every time I bite, I lose the pack."
Lisa Northcutt found out about Amichien Bonding through her veterinarian and thought it sounded like a good way to help Max become a well-behaved dog and "fit in with the family."
"I liked the concept of not punishing, not using force," she says. Although Lisa says she knows there have to be rules for the puppy, "This was a nice way of being in charge."
It's also helpful to have Tyler talk with the whole family, she adds, "to get everybody on board, so everybody has the same knowledge going into it."
Changing it up
When her two dogs, who had lived together happily for six years, suddenly started fighting, Elizabeth Barksdale of Farmington says she didn't know what to do. But using Amichien Bonding techniques helped the dogs learn to coexist again.
"It really was an eye-opener for me," says Barksdale, who adds that the technique can help pet owners have a "better relationship with their animals."
Gina Fox had never been a dog owner before she got two puppies within a few weeks of each other.
"I wanted to do them right," Fox says, so she turned to Tyler, a former co-worker, for assistance. Using Amichien has made her dogs -- Dakota, 2; Isabella, 2; and foster dog Georgie, 8 -- docile and friendly, Fox says.
"They don't have the neurotic tendencies -- they don't bark and bite and snap at people," the Bountiful resident says. "They're just pretty mellow."
A one-to-one home visit is $200, Tyler says, and includes unlimited follow-up support.
Not a quick fix
Pet owners call the dog listeners with problems ranging from barking to aggression.
"Just about any bad behavior that a dog does is something that can be fixed this way," Binkerd says.
Some concepts of Amichien Bonding are similar to those of popular "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan, Tyler says, but not using force or gadgets like choke chains is where Fennell's method differs from Millan's.
How long does it take for Amichien to work?
"It's a lifestyle," Tyler says, adding, "It depends on the consistency of the people and the persistence of the dog."
Although some Amichien methods, like greeting your dog, seem to go "against the grain" of traditional interactions, Tyler says, "It will eventually become second nature so you'll automatically do it."
But the method isn't without its critics. Some are after quicker ways to change behavior. Some find it cruel to ignore or isolate their pets.
"They try to put these human emotions on the dogs," says Tyler, who will attend a dog listening workshop in England this September that will train him how to give similar workshops in the United States.
Happy dogs
Binkerd, owner of Moose, a puggle, and Winnie, a poodle-terrier cross, says she thinks pet owners will find Amichien a simple but effective method.
"If you step into that role of leader and take that off their shoulders, then they're just free to be a dog," she says.
Tyler, who, like Binkerd, traveled to San Francisco and then England to study with Fennell, has two dogs -- Fydget, a Jack Russell/red heeler mix, and Lily, a pitbull-terrier mix -- and works as a supervisor at the Utah Dog Park in Woods Cross.
Amichien is about managing your dogs and giving them self-control, he says, which is really the ultimate method of control.
"I don't want robots for my dogs," Tyler says. "I want my dogs to be free-thinking and work it out for themselves."
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