Tuesday, October 26, 2010

It's Not About Being A Drill Sargent; "Dominance".

Dominance in dog training is a very overused word. Some trainers explain every behavior as some type of "dominance", the dogs jumping on you, leaning on you, running out the door so he must be 'Dominant' . No; The poor dog just needs to learn some doggy eddiquite aka Manners! 




When your dog jumps on you, ask him to sit, ignore him, ask him to go get a toy.

If the dogs leaning on you chances are he just wants body contact and likes being really close to you! If you don't like that behavior ask them to "settle" or give him something else to do.

If he is a door dasher, simply teach him what "Wait" means. 

I think dogs need a teacher/guide not a drill sargent and Boss. Your dog already respects you as his teacher and the one who controls the resources ex. food,water,walks,attention,playtime. You don't need to be harsh and aggressive to have your dog understand that you have everything they want as I stated above. 

It's not about being dominant and alpha/pack leader it is about having a mutual bond and respect between dog and handler. Train with the most up-to-date training methods and bond closer with your dog.
No matter how you train be consistent.

Diana 'N' Kallie. 



2 comments:

  1. Awesome! I like that post. I'm also in love with your doggie footprint background, LOL. I totally agree, though. Too many people associate dominance with almost everything a dog does that is undesirable to the person and that simply isn't the case. Personally, I <3 using clicker training because it's most gentle. Truth of the matter is, though, if you aren't consistent with it, that can backfire on you as well. I think you covered your post very well and very to the point too! Nice!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Woof and wags; Happy Clicking!