Rules for misbehaving dogs

March 22 2019

Does this look like an innocent face to you? Looks may be deceiving as Coco has bitten multiple human members of his pack, one case very severe which was aimed at grandmother.

Dogs have to be told No!! and this is better achieved when they are puppies, a firm no! or a poke with your finger, if your voice isn’t if you're voice, is not severe enough, the touch is quite useful in stopping the unwanted or annoying behaviors.

This is the same way a mother would correct her puppies even at a couple weeks of age she will nudge them over with her nose to move them for their safety, she may also pick them up by the head in her mouth, she does not worry if they squeal as nature knows best.

Dogs, like us humans learn from negative emotion, it protects us, it prevents us from doing certain things and dying. Positive sentiment is also needed to build self-esteem although not accurately balancing the pair and you will pay the price for the ineffective doggy parenting.

A negative stimulus is the quickest way to stop a dog's pattern of behavior, the issue with using positive reinforcement only is that you have to wait until the dog does what you want, voluntary! Only then can you give a reward. That's a lot of waiting around, and you cannot positively reinforce them not to bite or chase! That would be just like giving a young boy a cookie every time he did not hit another child on the playground. Nothing is learned.

The issue of playing the friendship role is that friends do not have much influence compared to parents. You can also play the part as the positive only parent or otherwise known as the push-over. When a puppy is play-biting a humans hands, it needs to be told to stop! Owners blame their inability to correct the behavior on the dog's age “he’s under one he’s only a puppy.” Correct! You want to assert yourself now, while you're a lot bigger and less afraid.

Your primary goal as a dog owner or mum/dad if you choose to perceive it that way is to properly socialize them to the point that they are acceptable members of society and people are happy to have them around. This means that they do not react to other dogs on walks and can politely interact with new dogs. If you fail to do this as a dog owner, they miss out. If you cannot control them around other dogs, you are contributing to their anti-social manner, his means they never play with other dogs and leave it any longer, and they become more anti-social, aggressive and possibly attack humans or other animals.

They sometimes come to me to be rehabilitated but usually given up on and put to sleep. This is unacceptable, it's not the dog's fault they were not taught how to interact with other dogs and our human environment, unnatural to them.

Dogs do not premeditate actions they only react, which mean they do not at all think abstractly and then make a decision or bring any emotion to the situation. Basic canine instincts are at play which can help us not take things too personally when they are misbehaving and stay calm, they are not testing us the way a conscious human infant would, although they act as if they do. Dogs have to learn not to jump or not to play too roughly or bite, there are not many rules they have to abide by, the fewer, the better.

Here are some rules that you may want to adopt

1. Use only the minimum necessary force 2. Do not let them bite, jump or bark except in self-defence 3. Do not let them tease or bully other smaller dogs4. They should learn to eat in a calm, sensible manner so that people will want them around

*At the bottom of this article, I have listed some extra rules for more dominant dogs to follow.

How do we discipline? I ask my clients to follow rule 1: Use only the minimum necessary force, this means If they are barking at a level 6/10 your response needs to be a 7/10 for them to take you seriously. If you use a sound correction any level equal or below the dog, you are now losing leadership with each time your request that is not followed with compliance becomes watered down.

Does time out really exist as punishment in the dog world?Yes, I believe it does but not in the way we usually perceive it. Think of it like giving time out to a toddler, the purpose of it is so the toddler to regain control of their emotions and then they can join back in once they are calm.

Sometimes holding them down, gently, remember minimum force necessary. There is to be no negotiation no bargaining between you and the dog. After all, we know what's best for them, right? And what's best is having a social dog that doesn't pay the price for our lack of knowledge or responsibility, remember early intervention is critical. Holding them gently down until they stop struggling requires an important feeling from you first, calm. We cannot ask of our dogs something we cannot practice ourselves, as soon as we feel frustrated they see as frustration, dogs can't be fooled.

They may throw a tantrum and squeal (literally) that sound is a good indication the bad behavior is coming to a halt, of course, they do not like it, no one wants to be dominated, and you will not tolerate being dominated by your dog.

When human babies faces and emotions were studied, it was found the majority of crying was anger crying judge by their facial expressions. It's much more common than the yelp of actual pain. Across the range of all ages humans span, two-year-old males are most aggressive by nature.

People will look past a small child attempting to hit his mother in the face with his fist during a meltdown, but let's say this is not corrected and the boy turns 22 years old.This time he strikes his girlfriend and society is going to punish him far more severely than when he was 2. A smack from mum seems a whole lot friendlier now when the adult punishment is imprisonment. We do not jail our dogs, they get sent to the pound, and if not saved by the likes of Starting Over Dog Rescue they are killed.

Here are the extended rules I suggest for more dominating dogs:

Not allowed on beds, couches or higher places. Cannot guard fences, front gates or doorwaysOnly fed when calm submissive, cannot be given people foodCannot be the first thing you greet when coming home or leavingCannot greet guests at the doorCannot be left with toysCannot lead the walk

Common dominant behaviors are:

Guarding food or toysResistance to commandsPull on the leadJumping on visitors and attempts to herd other animals or childrenHostile responses to authority or eye contact (licking lips, showing teeth)Marking (Peeing) in the house or on the walkHumping or climbing on a human or another dog, furniture or claiming humans feetExcessive Barking

It is important to understand these are circumstantial, depending on the intensity would determine how and the kind of correction needed so please reach out if you are even unsure what to do.