Dog behavior can be both fascinating and confusing. Many of the most common puppy behaviors are often misunderstood and mishandled by dog owners.
Barking, jumping up, biting, separation anxiety, etc. are some of the behaviors all dog owners are faced with.
To change these and other behaviors, we first need to understand why dogs behave the way they do.
Before we go over some undesirable behaviors and how we can modify them, I want to explain the difference between behavior training and obedience training.
The goal of behavior training is to teach your dog to act in a certain way, while the goal of obedience training is to teach your dog to follow your commands. In my opinion, because behavior is something more basic and ingrained, it's more difficult to change than to teach your dog to follow your commands.
These two types of training complement each other, and both are required to raise a problem-free dog.
For example:
You can have the most obedient dog in the world, but if that dog is a non-stop barker, when you call that dog to come and tell him to "sit", he will sit, but he may continue barking. Behavior training will help you to train your dog to bark less.
One more thing...
Dogs don't behave the way they do just to frustrate us, even if it appears to be so!
What exactly does bad behavior mean?
A lot of behaviors we call abnormal are actually pretty normal as far as our dogs are concerned. On the other hand, any dog behavior that interferes with our normal daily activities is abnormal from our point of view and needs to be addressed before the problem gets out of hand.
Some behaviors are learned, while others are instinctive. A group of related dog breeds will share some common behaviors. To complicate things even further, all dogs have their own personalities and traits that make them unique.
All of the above explain why we have shy dogs, dogs that are overly protective or aggressive, non-stop barkers, dogs that love to dig, etc.
From my experience, learned behaviors are easier to change than instinctive behaviors but with patience, any behavior can be changed or, at least, made less problematic.
Here are some suggestions that will help you during behavior training...
Many dog behavior problems are due to miscommunication between you, a dog owner, and your dog. Contrary to what you may have heard, dogs don't understand human language. In most cases, problems occur when a dog is not aware of what you expect from him.The younger your dog is when you begin behavior training, the better your chances are of modifying a behavior you are trying to change.Often, we inadvertently encourage the same behavior we are trying to change. I talk more about this when I discuss individual behaviors.Always be consistent and make sure your dog understands what you expect of him.Finally, make sure your dog understands who the leader is (Hint: it's not your dog).Why do dogs growl, bite, or bark? Why some dogs love to jump up and down, while others always dig for something? Is frequent urination a sign of a dog marking his territory or of a dog in need of some house training?
How can you make sense of all these confusing dog and puppy behaviors?
Follow the links below for more information about a specific behavior.
If you don't find the behavior you are interested in, make a selection from the list below and click "Go".
Aggression is a very serious dog behavior, so don't take training aggressive dogs lightly, especially if you have small children in the house.
I know some may consider them controversial but electronic collars and trainers can be used to successfully modify dog behavior. Visit electronic dog training collar for more information.
Finally, a lot of undesirable dog behaviors can be changed with the help of puppy socialization training.
If you would like to learn more about dog behavior training in general or need more advice on how to change some specific behavior in your dog, I highly recommend you read and follow this behavior training guide. This is the book I often refer to when training my dog.
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