Dog
Correction is often called re-education because it most often results from
previous poor training practices. If your dog's training needs a little
polishing, don't despair.
Eliminating Bad Behavior
There are two main approaches to Dog Correction. The first is attempting to eliminate annoying behaviors. There are several ways to encourage this:
- Punishment. In order to be effective, punishment must be well-timed, fair and stopped once the undesirable behavior stops. It should also be very consistent, applied every time you see your dog displaying the unwanted behavior. Never harm your dog. Acceptable punishment for a dog is a leash correction, such as that administered by a choke-slip collar, or a verbal reprimand like a loud "no" delivered in a growling voice. Squirt bottles of water and cans filled with pennies can also deter your pet's bad behavior. Try not to let your dog see you as you toss the can or spray the water. Come up from behind him.
- Counter-conditioning. This method is used to correct behavior that occurs in certain situations. This is especially helpful for dogs that behave poorly because they are fearful of certain sights or sounds. Gradually expose the dog to the frightening object or a toned-down version of the sound while playing with her or feeding her bits of a special treat.
Encouraging Good Behavior
Instead of making bad behavior disappear, you may wish to make better behavior appear. This can be accomplished with the following techniques:
- Rewarding. Also known as positive reinforcement, this form of Dog Correction includes ignoring unwanted behavior and rewarding desirable behaviors. The key is to help the dog understand which behavior is being rewarded. Praise and tasty treats are the most common rewards.
- Association.
This is helpful if your dog is friendly with another dog that displays the desired behavior. If your dog spends a fair amount of time with the other dog she will begin to imitate the behavior. Be sure to reinforce the new behaviors with lots of praise and maybe a special treat.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of correction, so try to avoid the most common mistakes when initially training your dog. Be consistent. Don't reinforce bad behavior (remember, even negative attention is still attention). Don't use your dog's name when correcting him so he doesn't think his name is Rover No! Don't leave your dog alone too much and don't yell or hit. Dog Correction can be challenging. If you can't find success on your own, consult a professional trainer.
