This can be difficult for some owners to accept, as giving gratis attention to a dog can often be therapeutic.
Anything less won’t stick in your dog’s head.Īttention and privilege must no longer be free for the taking. Once you have embraced the above owner reforms, it’s time to commit to a solid ten weeks of loving, regimented change. No dog gets better by staying home alone for ten hours a day. Commit to providing your dog with regular training each day, as well as ample socialization, exercise, and environmental enrichment.This is the essence of authentic training. Though a mannerly dog may want to do one thing, it chooses to do another because that is what you want her to do.
The rest, though lovable, have had niggling shortcomings that, if anything, defined who they were and made them all the more fascinating. Of the thousands of dogs I have worked with, only a handful were what I’d call “perfect,” or without behavioural flaw. Freddy’s bad behaviours began to leak out of every crack, and his owners had finally run out of quick fixes. Then came his digging and running away, followed by growling whenever dishes or toys were touched. His nipping during pedicures got passed off to the groomer.
Freddy’s furniture chewing was stopped by removing the chairs, sofa, and coffee table from the living room. They dealt with Freddy’s barking problem by closing the drapes, and his housetraining predicament by using pee pads and installing a doggie door.