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FROM WOLF TO MUTT: Understanding Your Dog
Dogs have learned to live with and obey humans through successful training. When you and your dog build a trusting bond, there is a cooperation that is established. Wolves were able to adapt to us...
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Guest Articles by Sharda Baker
Understanding your Dog's Psychology to Understand your Dog Better
Taking the time to understand your dog's psyche a bit better will prove to be quite helpful in understanding your dog and in applying it when you train your dog.
The Basics of Dog Psychology:
Dog psychology is learning to understand why a dog behaves and acts in the way that he does. It is truly fascinating to think about how the dog-a descendant of the wolf-has adapted itself to the human social organization.
Dogs have learned to live with and obey humans through successful training. When you and your dog build a trusting bond, there is a cooperation that is established: the dog behaves well and he will be rewarded.
A Wolf Descendant
To better understand dog psychology it is important to understand how wolves live. Wolves live in the wild in packs of two or more. They use a strictly defined dictatorship system of males and females.
The leader or "alpha leader" of this system is almost always the biggest male in the pack. All of the other wolves in the pack follow the alpha leader eagerly and with the utmost respect.
Wolf Instincts
Wolves were able to adapt domestically with man thousands of years ago because of the similar social organization and instinctive mental or psychological structure. Wolves are accustomed to dividing duties, particularly when it comes to feeding: one determines the track, one stands on guard, one makes the attack, etc. The alpha leader is always the first to feed and when he is satisfied, he allows the other members of the pack to finish his "leftovers."
Part of the Pack - The Hierarchal System
When you introduce a dog to your household, he sees the family as a pack and all the members contribute to the hierarchal system. Your dog will be watching everyone closely until he can figure out who the alpha leader is and exactly where he fits into this new system.
He will be watching for clues such as the physical size of each family member as well as the tone of voice that each person speaks with. He will also notice how everyone interacts with one another throughout the day.
Establishing the Alpha Role
It is essential to establish yourself (or else another responsible adult in your household) as the alpha leader. The sooner this is established, the fewer behavioral problems you will see.
You need to not only establish yourself or someone else as the alpha, but you must also have a clear understanding that your dog is at the bottom of your family's hierarchal system.
If your dog sees that no hierarchal system is in place, he will create one and put himself in charge. This is when a lot of dogs can become overly dominant and destructive. It needs to be very obvious to your dog that he is subordinate to everyone-including children.
It is sometimes difficult for a dog to understand that he is lower ranked than children, because of their small size and their dependency on adults. For this reason, dogs can sometimes become very aggressive towards children, and they might even bite on occasion.
Through disciplined training, you can help your dog realize that his position is subordinate to every other family member. Good quality dog training resources can help you with this process.
Until the next installment of our newsletter, all the best with the process of training your dog.
Remember, training does take time and effort, but it is definitely worth it!
Housetraining - - The Good, the Bag and the Ugly
While housetraining is often an issue with puppies, it can also be a problem with older dogs at times as well.
One of the very first training exercises you will want to work on with a new puppy or an adult dog moving into your home is-housetraining! Housetraining is indeed a real test of your patience, but it is one of the first opportunities that you and your puppy will have to bond.
Housetraining is a lot of hard work, but it is necessary. You will need to have a lot of patience-and maybe even a sense of humor-as you train your dog. But don't worry, after all of your hard work, you will have a dog that is housetrained!
When it comes to housetraining, every dog succeeds at a different rate. It takes some dogs only a few weeks to learn, where it may take other dogs several months.
Here is perhaps the most important thing to know about housetraining: The rate at which the puppy succeeds is determined by the amount of consistent training that you as the owner give him. Good quality dog training resources can help you to make this process much easier.
You should begin housetraining your puppy as soon as he arrives home, which is generally around 7 or 8 weeks. It is important to understand that he does not have full sphincter muscle control, so puppies are not able to hold their bladder and bowel movements for very long periods of time.
Training the Older Dog
If you are bringing an older dog into your home that has not yet been housetrained, it may be more of a challenge. Older dogs already have developed their habits, so it will take time to retrain him. However, it can be done!
All of the lessons below can be applied to both the younger and older dog. It may just take longer with the older dog, so be patient.
Additionally, older dogs eliminate fewer times than puppies throughout the day, so you have fewer opportunities in the day to train him.
Things to Know about Housetraining
Before you begin housetraining with your dog, there are some basics that you should know. Including:
Where Dogs Won't Eliminate
Dogs develop natural preferences for where they want to eliminate. For example, dogs usually don't want to eliminate where they eat, sleep, and spend their time.
You may be wondering "So why does my dog eliminate on the rug?" The reason is probably because he was expected to "hold it" too long and wasn't let outside. Or, he may have gotten overly excited about something.
Physical Capacity to "Hold It"
Young puppies will need to eliminate every one to two hours during the day when they are active. If your pup has been eating, drinking, playing, or exercising a lot, he may need to go even more. They may or may not be able to hold it throughout the night. Generally, the younger the puppy is, the less he can hold it.
Older dogs that are healthy have the ability to hold it for six to eight hours during the day and eight to ten hours over night.
Then, once you see a pattern, let him out 10-15 minutes before that scheduled time. Of course, he may need to go out more if he has been eating, drinking, playing, or exercising more frequently.
If the situation arises when you need to leave your dog for a longer period than which he can hold it, don't keep him in his crate. Rather, put him in a small room such as a laundry room or bathroom where he can eliminate in an area on newspaper if he needs to, and still keep his sleeping and food area separate.
Handling Aggressive Dogs
While it would certainly be hoped that your puppy or adult dog would be quite compliant and well-behaved, the simple fact of the matter is that some dogs have a tendency to be rather aggressive. Read on to find out more!
There are some instances where a dog may be even more aggressive than the type of dog that we discussed in the previous chapter. The more aggressive dog will go beyond nipping and light biting and will exhibit behavior such as attempting to really bite humans and may even be aggressive with other dogs in public as well.
When handling aggressive dogs, it is important to make sure that you first avoid any triggers that would seem to set off your dog. This is part of the importance of getting to know your dog so that you will understand what might trigger your dog to display an act of aggression.
Behavior that is inappropriate is usually learned. The longer this type of behavior is allowed to continue the more difficult it will be to change. The importance of aborting this type of behavior as soon as it is recognized cannot be overemphasized. While it will take longer to teach an adult dog that this type of behavior will not be tolerated, it can be done. The key is to become committed to working with your dog and sticking with it. Good quality dog training resources can be critical in helping you and your dog work through these types of issues.
One of the most important things you musst do when working with an aggressive do is to teach him to defer to you. Your dog must absolutely learn to defer to you in everything that he does. Before your dog is allowed to do anything, whether it is go in or out, eat, play or anything else, your dog must learn that he must defer to you. Whether your dog is an adult or a puppy, this is absolutely critical. Although it may take longer, no dog is too old to learn this principle. This will provide you and your dog the opportunity to have a closer, more trusting relationship and also help you to control your dog as well.
Beginning immediately, your dog must learn that he will need to earn everything that he wants. The way he does this is by deferring to you. When you are working to teach your dog to defer to you, you will need to work with him consistently on a daily basis. As we discussed earlier, your dog has a short attention span, so you do not want to overdo training. Limit your training session to about fifteen or twenty minutes; once or twice per day.
In addition, make sure that you do not hit your dog or scream at him when you are working with him. This is completely unacceptable and will not accomplish anything other than to make your dog fear you and that can actually make aggression much worse.
Before you can actually teach your dog to defer to you, he must know how to sit and stay. Therefore, if he does not already know these commands, you will need to invest some time in teaching him the sit and stay commands.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sharda Baker has published several dog ebook and audios, including The Complete D.I.Y. Dog Training Guide . You can learn more about Sharda's work at PUPPY DOGS INFO!
www.puppy-dogs.info
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