Dog Discipline Dos and Don'ts
No dog lover will deny that sometimes even the sweetest dog can try your patience in an excruciating way. But it's also true that there are as many ways to curb your pooch's naughty behavior as there are canine breeds in the world, and different things work for different personalities and situations. There are a few tips, however, that hold true in almost every case:
- Prevention is the key to dog discipline. Don't put your dog in situations where he will be tempted to make mistakes. Take him out often to do his business, and keep forbidden foods and household items out of reach.
- Physical punishment is rarely, if ever, an effective for of dog discipline. Constantly hitting, shoving, or pulling your dog won't really curb bad behavior; in fact, it often does the opposite. Physical violence can actually provoke aggression in your dog, and you may end up with more trouble on your hands than the occasional cookie pilfered off the table.
- Try to catch your pet in the act of misbehaving. Scolding or punishing after the fact is practically useless because your dog won't correlate your correction with what he did to bring it on.
- Be consistent with your dog discipline. Don't punish your dog for something today that yesterday had you laughing and giving him treats.
- A training course or notable guidebook can save the day. Learn from the experts who have years of experience in dog discipline. It's worth the little bit of extra money to have a dog you actually enjoy being around.
Techniques to Correct Your Dog
- Use noise. Often a dog will learn to stop its negative behavior when it begins to associate it with a loud noise, such as an air horn, or even a shaken soda can filled with pennies. The trick is to not let the dog see that it's you making the noise; it's more effective if he believes his behavior is actually causing it.
- Withhold your attention.
It's safe to say that one of the things your dog values the most is your attention and
praise; in fact, most dogs can't get enough of that. When your furry friend jumps up on you when you walk in the door, simply stop, turn around, and do not acknowledge him. Only turn around and give hugs and kisses when he's standing on the floor again. If you lavish your dog with praise only when he's doing the right thing, he'll want to do it more and more often.
- Use treats. If your attention is the first thing a dog wants, yummy treats are probably second on the list of what makes his tail wag. If you use food as a training tool, make sure not to overuse it, and make sure that the size of the treat is very small each time. Otherwise, it might lose its effectiveness in your plans for dog discipline.
