Dog training for desired behaviors

Teaching a dog proper behavior while it is young is very
important. While playing and having fun with your new puppy or
dog is certainly important, it is also important to teach your
canine companion just what is expected – which behaviors are
acceptable and which behaviors are not acceptable.

Teaching these lessons early, while the dog is still a puppy, is
the best guarantee that these lessons will be learned and
retained. Dogs learn quickly, and every interaction between
human and dog is teaching the dog something. Making sure you are
teaching the right lessons is up to you as the dog handler.

Proper training techniques are important for the protection of
the dog as well as the protection of the family and the
community at large. While dogs are loving, protecting members of
the family in most cases, a poorly trained dog can be dangerous
and destructive. Making sure your new addition is a pleasure to
be around and not a menace is up to you as the owner.

The relationship between humans and dogs goes back for many
thousands of years, and dogs have been domesticated longer than
any other animals. Therefore, humans and dogs have developed a
bond not shared by many other domesticated animals. This strong
bond is very useful when training any dog.

All potential dog owners and would be dog trainers should
understand how dog society works in the absence of humans. It is
important to understand the pack hierarchy, and to use that
hierarchy to your advantage as you train your dog. All pack
animals have a lead animal, in the case of dogs it is the alpha
dog. All other members of the pack look to the alpha dog for
direction and guidance. The alpha dog in turn provides important
leadership in hunting, fending off other predators, protecting
territory and other vital survival skills. This pack arrangement
is what has allowed wolves and wild dogs to be such successful
predators, even as other large predators have been driven to
extinction.

What all this means to you as the dog trainer is that you must
set yourself up as the pack leader – the alpha dog if you will -
in order to gain the respect and trust of your dog. If the dog
does not recognize you as is superior and its leader, you will
not get very far in your training program.

Respect is not something that can be forced. It is rather
something that is earned through the interaction of human and
dog. As the dog learns to respect and trust you, you will begin
to make great strides in your training program. A training
program based on mutual respect and trust is much more likely to
succeed in the long run than one that is based on fear and
intimidation.

A fearful dog is likely to at one point become a biting dog, and
that is definitely one thing you do not want in your life.
Rewarding the dog when he does the right thing, instead of
punishing him for doing the wrong thing, is vitally important to
the success of any training program.

Punishment only confuses and further frightens the dog, and it
can set a training program back weeks if not months. It is
important to give the dog the option to do the right thing or
the wrong then, and to reward the dog when it makes the right
decision. For instance, if the dog chases joggers, have a friend
jog by while you hold the dog on the leash. If the dog attempts
to chase the “jogger”, sit him back down and start again. You
are not punishing the wrong decision, you are simply providing
the choice. When the dog remains sitting calmly by your side,
give him a treat and lots of praise. The dog will quickly learn
that sitting is the right choice and chasing the jogger is the
wrong choice.