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home environment was serene and peaceful, neat and tidy, despite the fact that there were three two-month-old puppies, a breeding pair, and a senior male dog running around on the property. That’s an excellent sign right there. If you go to check out a breeder and walk into chaos, with jumping, yelping, or nipping dogs all over the place, it’s important to remember that this is the environment in which your puppy had its first formative experiences. A dog raised in a chaotic environment will naturally absorb that unstable energy from the moment it is born. I’ve worked with several clients with miniature schnauzers who’ve told me they just assumed that hyperactive energy and incessant barking were part of the “package” of the breed. Brooke’s pack quickly disproved that myth. The atmosphere was quiet and calm, although her pups were still curious or playful.
    We sat on Brooke’s well-tended flagstone patio and observed the pups as they wrestled and explored, delighting in every new sight and sound they encountered. Watching along with us was their vigilant mother, a schnauzer named Binky who was nearly two years old. While she seemed relaxed and interested in our human activities most of the time, every now and then one of her pups’ antics would catch her attention. I noticed that when the female pup harassed one of her brothers a little too long, Binky jumped down from her perch on the stone firepit and, in a split second, gently mouthed the offender and put her on her side. A mother dog allows her pups to play dominance games with each other, but when they get too intense, she will step in and manage the situation. As soon as the female pup relaxed, as if to say, “Okay, Mom, I got the message,” the mother went right back to nosing around Brooke and me. Such is the speed, precision, and matter-of-fact nature of a mother dog’s corrections, and it is this calm-assertive, gentle but firm, natural discipline that I advocate owners emulate with their own dogs. Observing and imitating good canine mothers such as Binky is exactly how I learned my own techniques.
    Brooke had three schnauzer pups to show me—two males, one with a blue paper collar and one with a green, and a female with a pink collar. The female was the smallest of the three. Upon observing her pouncing on her green-collared brother, however, I could tell that her energy level was still quite high. Brooke’s clear favorite, and the dog she assumed I’d choose, was Mr. Blue Collar, a coal black schnauzer with glistening silver eyebrows, chest, feet, and tail. She introduced him as “the pick of the litter.” “He was the first to do everything. He was the first to climb out of his whelping pen. He was the first to bark. He was the first to go over to the other puppies when he was just in ‘swimming’ mode, and he was even the first one to get on all fours. He has a lot of natural intelligence, a lot of leadership qualities.”
    Her description of the first two dogs’ energies placed the green-collared male at the bottom of the family hierarchy. But it was clear to me that he was not a fearful or anxious dog, and his energy was medium level, not low. To test their different temperaments, I put each of the three pups up on three different garden chairs. Mr. Blue immediately jumped right off the chair and came running back to me; he wanted to be in the middle of things. When Brooke put him back on the chair, he jumped right off again. It took a little longer for the female, Ms. Pink, to jump off, but eventually she couldn’t take the waiting anymore and followed her dominant brother’s example. Of all the dogs, only Mr. Green was able to sit on the chair and just observe. He didn’t whine, he didn’t squirm, he simply waited, alert, to take his next cue from me. I asked Brooke about her experience with him. “I think he is going to make a fabulous pet because he is so, so loving. He’s more mild-mannered than his brother, less