It is common for an
owner or trainer to address each individual behavior at a time instead
of looking into the "why." Often there are deeper rooted issues which
are causing the dog to do the bad behavior; its instincts are not being
met. When the owner satisfies these missing instincts the behavior
issues disappear on their own. For example, one friend who was having
issues with her dog found that the peeing on the floor and barking at
her while she was getting her daughter ready for school completely
stopped on its own when she started making the dog heel on the leash and
began to show the dog leadership.
A lot of owners and even some
trainers do not have the experience to understand exactly how to change a
dog’s behavior because they see the dog as a little, fuzzy human
instead of a canine animal. They do not consider the dog’s instincts and
the effects that not satisfying them will have on their dog’s overall
behavior.
Dog behavior and dog training are two different things.
Dog training consists of cues and
activities like sit, roll over, fetch, close the refrigerator, open the
door with a string, agility, retrieving, hunting trials, herding
trials, and so on. When teaching tricks, positive reinforcement
is the way to go. Fetch my shoes, roll the ball with your nose, catch
the biscuit from your nose and you get a treat, belly rub, verbal praise
or pet on the head, ”good dog.” These activities challenge the mind and
provide great bonding time.
Dog behavior is discipline. Heel
on the leash, stay, don't bolt out the door, wait at the door until I
pass, come when called, stop when told, drop that object, no jumping on
humans, stay out of this room, don't cross this line and so on, are all
rules that provide leadership and structure. Dogs crave leadership
because their instinct tells them they need rules and structure to
survive; the pack’s life depends on it. There must be a leader and the
followers must obey the leader. Dogs constantly challenge the order;
they test and expect to be tested. The order is not set in stone; it is
an ongoing test. If the pack leader shows weakness in any way the next
highest member will challenge that dog for the position. If the leader
loses the challenge the pack will rearrange the order. Structure,
discipline, boundaries, leadership... dogs should not get a cookie for
respecting these. It's the same with human kids; they don't get a cookie
every time they come home for not smacking their teacher at school
because their respect is expected. Your dog needs this same type of
structure.
If you have more than one dog, be
sure to consider the dynamics of all of your dogs. I run into a lot of
cases where an owner believes one particular dog has a behavior
problem, when really it's one of the other dogs causing the trouble. For
example, it is common for an owner to blame the big dog and try and get
the big dog to behave while they ignore the bad behaviors of their
small dog. Often times it is the small dog that causes the issues of the
larger one. You cannot achieve a stable pack until you address all
dogs. Do not play favorites and allow some dogs special privileges and
not others. If you have issues with any of your dogs be sure to take a
deep look into the entire pack structure to properly assess the
situation.
Dogs that live with humans are much happier when someone else takes over
the role as leader. It is very stressful for a canine animal to have to
be pack leader to humans because the humans do not listen to everything
they want. For example, kids will go to school and adults will go to
work or the grocery store without the dog’s permission; pack leaders can
leave their followers but followers are not allowed to leave their
leader without permission. So when the humans leave without the dog’s
permission, the dog will get upset and sometimes destructive. But when
the humans are in charge, the dog will relax and not worry because it
knows its leader will be back.
Any dog can absolutely go the wrong way
in their behavior, but they can also absolutely go the right way. It's
all up to the humans who live with the dog. When a dog has behavior
issues it does not mean it is a reject or bad dog, just a misunderstood
dog that is not getting its instincts met. Never forget that a dog is an
animal with very different needs than humans. A dog does not think like
humans and does not have the ability to fully learn human, but we
humans do have the ability to learn dog.
When a dog’s instincts are not
being met it often dominos into many other bad behaviors. If you go back
to the beginning and fix the first domino often times these behaviors
will disappear.
If you have dog behavior issues,
be sure to seek out dog behavior information as opposed to dog training.
Do not put a Band-Aid on an infection. Look deeper into the issues that
you have in order to stop the behavior where it started. Source
