If I could I would shout to the world this answer over and over again. Whether you have a dog with behavior problems or not, formally training your dog is the single most important gift you can give them and yourself.

Dogs and puppies are creatures of habit just like us humans. So, anything done consistently over a thirty to forty five day period becomes a habit. Now keep in mind that during that time those habits can turn into good and bad habits. The majority of dog owners don’t call us until their dog’s behavior issues are causing unwanted stress on their family and everyday life. I can’t tell you how many times people have called and after our spill about our programs, they will say, “I don’t care about the commands, I just want my dogs to stop fighting.” Well, sorry it just doesn’t work out that way and let me explain why.

When it comes to changing a dog’s behavior it all starts with teaching them obedience. Think of it like raising a child, parents don’t wait until a child begins kindergarten before they start teaching them obedience. I remember at a very young age learning the difference between right and wrong and what the consequences were for bad behavior and how to obtain praise. Another way to look at it is when a dog has serious aggression it is usually either euthanized or caged and isolated from others. And humans are the same way and you can see that through our over crowded prisons. Now keep in mind just like prisoners need rehabilitation so do dogs and with the proper professional, rehabilitations are successful and manageable. Make sense?

Whether you have a puppy or and adult dog, obedience can start at any given day you just have to commit to it. It takes teaching a canine obedience commands to be able to address behavior correctly. So if you have a puppy that barks and wines all the time and you have tried yelling, screaming, hitting them with a newspaper, squirting them with a spray bottle and throwing things at them, then you are not giving that dog a reason to stop. My suggestion would be to attach a leash and collar on the dog and each time the dog barks give a correction and say no at the same time. Remember a correction is a pull and release of the leash. A correction is a negative so remember to add the word no at the same time. Now continue this until the barking stops and at that time you need to give the dog lots of praise but be ready for the barking to begin again very soon. Here’s the tricky part and where the obedience commands level out training your dog. See just like with kids you can’t just go around correcting them all the time without them learning how to earn praise. Dogs are the same way so once you decide to commit to the thirty to forty five days of training now it is time to teach your dog what’s the difference between good and bad behavior and how to obtain more praise than correction. So I recommend addressing bad behavior with correction followed by praise and at least two times a day working with your dog on teaching them heel, sit, down, come and the place command. All of the proper instructions are on previous post on this website. Take it slow and feel free to ask me any questions you might have along the way.

Just one more thing before you begin, when you start training your dog try to always keep things level just like a teeter totter. On the dog training teeter totter we have praise, motivation and correction, if any of those are used incorrectly or with negative body and verbal language then the teeter totter is thrown of balance. Whether you are using praise, motivation or correction be careful not to over use any of them if you are not getting the results you desire.

Lastly I would like to close with a great statement my husband Jim uses; “Anything praised for will be repeated and anything corrected for will go away. Now keep in mind that it will take all of your tools to make this statement happen.

Tammy Molnar

Dog behaviorist