Problem dogs
Is there some reason for many those problems with our dogs? If it is possible to indentify the reason will that not make it easier to find a solution or at least a pathway to such a solution?
Boredom is often the cause of the problem. Dogs in their wild state are used to be able to roam free more or less as they wish and when the wish. What do we do we keep them penned up in the a room, the house or in the garden.
Should we be surprised that this may cause a problem for the dog and then ultimately for us? It seems a reasonable point that if dogs are free to roam, some owners do not always care to stop them, they are the ones who rarely tear up the furniture, dig holes in the garden, become very possessive of food and the other innumerable problem that come from being cooped up and being bored.
How would you feel if at 8 o’clock in the morning everyone in your life disappeared and you saw nobody at all for the next 10 hours or so. No television, no radio nothing to interact with. Boredom would soon set in, home becomes more like a prison. Repressing or stopping the dog’s natural behaviours, being a member of the pack and having the opportunity to hunt and roam, is ever likely to cause problems.
A dog needs opportunities to fulfil basic needs, investigating the environment in which it finds itself, making contact with other dogs and people and finding effectively some work to do to occupy the time.
The choice is we give our dogs a job to do or they will find their own work somewhere round the house or garden. As a trainer colleague of mine says “If we don’t give them a job they will become self employed.”
Using a Dog’s Hearing Ability to help Training
Train my dog to Come – the recall
Train my dog not to jump up at visitors
Train my dog to stop pulling on the lead
Train my dog to not show anxiety when I leave him along
Training my dog to use a crate
