You have a responsibility to teach your dog to fit into a human family and neighborhood. The first order of business is to find out how to communicate your expectations to your dog so that you can both be successful.

Animal training consists of rewarding desirable behavior without rewarding undesirable behavior, even accidentally. Most trainers use toys, food, praise and play to reward behavior they would like to see more often. A dog’s social nature makes him sensitive to disapproval from family members. Canine audible reprimands (growling) are used by dogs as consequences for inappropriate behavior. Reprimanding your dog by saying “No” will signal disapproval. Canine physical corrections (biting and pushing) are used by dogs as consequences for serious misbehavior. For this reason, Collar corrections are suggested as a way to communicate disapproval to your dog. The problem is that many people “disapprove” of normal dog behavior, such as barking, jumping and chewing without ever teaching a dog what they should do instead; being quiet, sitting and playing with toys. Additionally, a collar correction can injure your dog physically and change his motivation toward learning in the future. It can even cause him to fear you or the training equipment. This is most often described by people who say their dog is fine on a leash and not reliable off leash. This is not even close to what is happening for the dog. The dog simply knows that the collar is dangerous and complies with requests when the collar is on because it would hurt not to do so. When the collar is off, he is free to choose behavior that makes sense; chasing squirrels, taking food off the counter, playing with other dogs who pass by.

Punishment (hitting, yelling, rolled up newspapers) has even more drawbacks. Punishment must decrease the behavior it is supposed to punish. If you are correcting your dog by collar, yelling or any other method and the dog is still engaging in behavior you disapprove of, you understand this.

To be effective a punisher must

o Occur every time the dog makes the same mistake (even when no one is there to witness).

o Be associated with the act, not a person present during the misbehavior.

o Occur within a second of the unwanted behavior so it is not associated with any other action.

o Not frighten the dog so that he forgets what just happened.

o Be something the dog does NOT like (yelling or pushing a dog is often something the dog does like especially if it’s followed by a request and a “Good Boy!”)

Many things we do each day are punishing to dogs. Ignoring them, which we often do when they are quiet, reduces the amount of time a dog spends being quiet. You can see why this happens. Every time the dog is quiet, within seconds of being quiet he is ignored whether you are in the room or not. It is something he does not like so he spends less time being quiet; the perfect punishment.

So, each time you catch your dog doing something of which you approve, offer a reward. If your attention makes the dog happy, that is all you need to offer (be careful. Some people believe their dog wants certain kinds of attention the dog only tolerates). You’ll know it’s working if your dog starts offering the behavior more often to get that reward. Once your dog is offering a behavior to get your attention, add a name for the behavior so that you can request it when you need it. Be sure to reward your puppy when he sits, lies down, stays and comes. But more importantly, name these behaviors so they can be of use to you and the dog.

One trick that trainers use reliably is to mark behavior they wish to see more of with a whistle or clicker that never happens at any other time. You can use your voice but since your voice happens all the time, it’s not as easy for the dog to isolate in the environment.

Obedience classes will let you work with your dog in a distracting environment away from home, which is a huge part of training; generalizing the requests you make to other situations and places. Obedience class will also introduce you to other dog owners and open up doors to dog activities for you and your family. But a classroom will not help you teach your dog that you are the source of all good things every day and that there are ways your dog can get these good things; by responding to your requests. A truly obedient dog wants to work for you because you provide access to the outdoors, information about the world, opportunities to play and can be relied upon to be fair.  Be sure that this is what your dog is learning about you and his world every day.