Back to the Very Basics (part 3)

“My dog will not come on command to save his life,” says Somone Hicks of Riverside.  Her 5 year old bulldog, Gordo, has been ignoring her commands for years.  “I got him from the pound when he was about 8 months old.  He was a wild puppy but I excused a lot of his bad behavior because of his age.”  This is not an unfamiliar tale.  All too often the mistakes we make with our dog in the beginning wind up condemning us for the rest of that dog’s life.  In fact, this phenomenon has inspired a little saying we have all heard at least once, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  For those of us dealing with a disobedient dog at home, we ask ourselves; are they lazy, just plain stupid, or are they simply ignoring us?

Studies show that 70% - 80% of dog owners do not care if their dog can perform tricks or exhibit special skills (like tracking or fetching), they only ask that their dog come when called, get along with other dogs (and humans), and not destroy the yard.  In the grand scheme of dog training, those are three pretty basic requests, yet they are the top three issues plaguing most dog owners.  To make matters worse, these bad habits are usually only a product of the constant struggle between dog and dog owner to see who is actually in charge (and I can tell you it most likely isn’t the owner).  So where do we go wrong and how do we correct this problem after so much time has passed?

If you have a leaky pipe, you may be able to patch the leak and call it good.  But the integrity of the pipe has been compromised.  You’ve only given it a temporary fix which is not very reliable and at some point that patch will no longer work.  Dog training is similar.  Addressing only one individual behavior may fix that behavior but it won’t be reliable because there are still bigger issues that have not been addressed.   When dogs become serious problems, you have no choice but to start from the beginning.

To symbolize your truly fresh start, try this exercise with your dog:  Take your dog for a car ride around the block.  When you get home, pretend you just adopted him.  He has no past that you know of but you were told of a couple personality traits such as he doesn’t like cats, and he tends to bark (of course, your dog may have different habits). You took a couple of What to Expect When Expecting a Dog classes and you feel pretty confident about being the pack leader to this dog (since you made so many mistakes with the last one).  When you reach the front door of the house you enter first and invite him in.  You can ask (or make) him sit at the door first before you invite him in but the important thing is to show him that it is your home.  Keep him on a leash and have him follow you around for the rest of the day.  Do not let him on the couch, or bed, or in any room you don’t want him to be in (such as the kitchen).  Even if you are ok with him on the couch or bed, he must learn that it isn’t his right to sit wherever he pleases but that he must earn his place in the pack.  The point of this exercise is to teach him that you are the pack leader and you control what he can and cannot do in your home. 

This is not an easy exercise, especially for those who let the dog run the house.  It is hard to watch your dog be unable to do what he wants or play when he wants, but this psychological shift has to happen in order for you to regain control in your home.  Once you have your symbolic fresh start underway, you can start resetting the foundation of successful training.  That means going back and perfecting the basic commands that are often taken for granted.