Читать книгу Dog Behavior Book: Everything You Need to Know to Correct Dog Behavioral Problems - David Inc. Christopher - Страница 5

As dog owners, we love our dogs, and we want to do the best for them, so we often inadvertently contribute to their bad behavior, we do not mean to, but it happens.

We tend to forget that even though our precious pets are part of the family, they do not think the way we think, and they do not react the way we react.

Dogs are at still wild animals at heart, yes, they are tamed and domesticated, but they still have the instincts of their wild ancestors, and we tend to forget that.

Often, when a dog begins to misbehave, we notice only the behavior itself and we do not question the how or why of the behavior.

Often, there is an underlying cause to the behavior, such as a dog who barks at anybody at the door is usually only doing so as a warning to protect his pack, which is you.

When you stop and think about why a dog is doing a certain behavior, then it becomes easier to correct it.

Dog behavior that you want stopped can be digging in flower gardens or digging up the grass, whining, and crying due to separation anxiety, chewing up things in the house, barking excessively, going to the bathroom in the house and many more.

The good news is that they are all fixable and it does not require expensive dog training classes. 99% of all behavior problems are fixable.

The goal is to work with the dog, not against it and to do so in a positive way. We often negatively reinforce bad behavior without meaning too.

For example, our neighbors had a dog who would throw himself at the fence, barking and snarling, every time we went into our own backyard.

We complained to the neighbors, and when they heard the dog doing this, they would go outside and give him a doggy biscuit, and he would stop, while eating the biscuit.

Yes, the dog would stop the bad behavior, but only because he got a biscuit for it. Pretty soon, he was throwing himself at the fence whether or not we were in the backyard because the dog had learned that when it did that behavior, it got a tasty biscuit!

A great deal of bad behavior stems from owners who have not established themselves as the pack leader, or the alpha dog.

Dogs are pack animals and if you do not establish yourself as the leader, then they will take the leader role and they will not listen to you.

Yes, you want to be your dog’s best friend but you also have to be the pack leader, which does not mean that you are always stern or mean.

You should never be mean to a dog, never punish a dog physically, ever. Being pack leader is all about respect and your dog will love you even more if you treat him with respect, he will treat you the same way.

These methods will work on a dog who has been obedience trained or on one who has not, some basic obedience methods will be taught to you in here in order to help you train your dog to correct his behavior.

Our methods center around positive reinforcement, as all dog training should focus on. By establishing yourself as the alpha dog, your dog will learn to listen to you and you will reinforce their good behavior.

Sometimes it is not easy, especially with separation anxiety, you want to comfort your dog but in that case, you are reinforcing their bad behavior by telling them that if they cry and carry on, you will come running.

This training will require a lot of patience on both of your parts, but it will be very effective.