Understanding Dog Behavior

We want to say from the start that this "Dog Behavior" section of the website will be focusing a lot on specific dog behavior problems, ways you can overcome them, and why dogs act the way they do. But before we want to start by giving you a general overview of why your pet acts the way he does.

First, it's important to understand that dogs are pack animals. You've probably heard that before. Dogs like teamwork for many activities. If you put a bunch of dogs in the wild, they will naturally band together in groups or teams, and much like an athletic team, will work together to accomplish their goal. In terms of the family pet, everyone in your household is a member of the dog's team. He will naturally rely on you to teach him the rules and help him survive. You, in effect, are responsible for conditioning that behavior.

Everyone in your family has a role, and that included your dog. Again, think in terms of a winning athletic team. If everyone performs their role well and with discipline, the team functions well, and the members of the team have a certain respect for each other. If no one performed their specific duties and instead went out and played however they wanted, chaos would result and the team would certainly lose more than they win.

Also note that every team has a leader, and your dog must understand who that leader is. It is essential for them to feel secure. He doesn't care who the leader is, as long as one exists. If no one in your family takes that role, many breeds will take it upon themselves to be the leader, and you can imagine how that works out. Your pet is just as happy being at the bottom of the leadership pole as long as there is structure. We have a large family, yet our pets know their place and are quite content and secure in it.

With that in mind, you can certainly see how most dog behavior problems result from a lack of leadership, rules and discipline in the home. In this respect, pets are a lot like children. If there are no rules enforced in the home, kids will generally have a lot of behavior problems. The same goes with your pet. Like your kids, your pet needs affection and approval. Dogs and children are at times carefree, as long as they are secure.

So what happens if your dog doesn't see a leader and doesn't see the family as a team? Obviously it can be a nightmare, and you might see things like chewing, excessive barking, problems house training, aggression and more.

We're not talking here about having a perfect pet, anymore than we are talking about having a perfect child. Your dog will almost always display behaviors that you probably find annoying. But we can avoid behaviors that are intolerable, save for the few that are genetically created by bad breeders who breed at their discretion poor-tempered dogs.

If the behaviors become intolerable, generally one of two things happens. The dog ends up in a shelter where he is basically on death row. Or he ends up sentenced to the back yard with very little interaction, human or otherwise. The back yard sentence generally makes all those intolerable behaviors worse.

The good news is that behavior modification in dogs works. Proper training can go a long way towards fixing problem behaviors. Teach the dog good behavior, and discourage the bad. Most dogs, no matter how old they are, can be trained. But it takes consistent and clear training from the owner or a professional trainer. You'll be teaching and communicating with your pet, letting him know that each behavior, good or bad, will have a predictable outcome.

We'll talk more about specifics in future articles, but if you need help immediately, either take him to a professional, or pick up a copy of Daniel Stevens SitStayFetch program. There are several great training programs on the market, but when it comes to modifying existing problem behavior, it is the one and only we recommend. So if your dog already has behavior problems you want to change, check out this great program now by clicking here.