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While dog training, here are 5 Easy Ways To Make Your Dog Mind. |
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Written by Regenna Deruso
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
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When you begin training your dog, you first need to establish that you are the leader of the pack over your dog. This will make your dog training sessions much easier and your dog will be more compliant to your commands.
by RegennaDeruso
When you begin training your dog, you first need to establish that you are the leader of the pack over your dog. This will make your dog training sessions much easier and your dog will be more compliant to your commands.
You see, dogs are pack animals and live with a hierarchy set of rules where there is only one leader and the rest are followers. The leaders do whatever they want to do and they get the best of everything from toys to food. The leaders also make all the decisions and the followers only do whatever the leader will allow them to do. So, by establishing yourself as the leader, your dog will follow and obey your commands. There are 5 simple methods you can begin carrying out today to teach your dog his position in your family pack.
One of the simplest ways to get your dog to realize that you are the leader of the pack is in the way your feed your dog. Your dog's meal time is excellent training ground and will not take any longer that it usually does to feed him. The first rule is you must eat first and your dog must see you eating first. Once you are done, then you can begin to prepare your dogs food. Place his food into his bowl, swish it around with your hands to distribute your scent all over his food, make him sit, and then feed him. By doing this every time your dog eats, he will soon learn that you are the alpha of the pack because the alpha always eats first. Plus, you are further enforcing your status in the pack by placing your scent all over his food. In basic dog language you are claiming that the food is yours and that you are letting your dog eat your food.
A further technique is to completely ignore your dog when you come home. I know this one will be very hard as it was for me when training my dog. Your first instinct is to praise your dog with a lot of love immediately, but this only reinforces to your dog that he is in charge because he is setting the rules on when he gets attention and love. You see, in a dog's world, the alpha or leader always gets the attention first, so be greeting your dog first and not your family, you are telling your dog that he is the alpha and that your family is the followers. What you need to do is completely ignore your dog when you come home and greet all the other people in your house hold. Your dog will soon realize he is being ignored and will calm down and sometimes he will lay or sit down, patiently waiting for you to be ready to give him love. Once he is calm then, go ahead and shower him with a lot of love. Your dog will soon learn his place and he will patiently and calmly wait for you to greet the humans first.
Another technique in your training your dog that you are the leader is to make all the decisions for him. In a dog pack, the leader makes all the decisions for the rest of the team and the rest of the team just follows what the leader says. So, if you are letting your dog tell you what he wants to do, like when to play or when he needs love, then he will see that you are the follower and that he is the leader. So try and make all the decisions for your dog. If he wants to play, ignore him until he gives up, then go pickup his toy and ask him if he wants to play. If he wants some pets and rubs your hand with his head, simply move your hand and wait until he gives up, then call him over and lather him with love and pets. I know from personal experience that this is the hardest one to implement, but when done, you dog will soon start seeing you as the leader.
Bedtime is another time that a dog will show his leadership in the pack. In dog packs, the leader always sleeps higher than the rest of the pack. Your dog needs to have his own bed and it needs to be on the floor and not on your bed. The leader always sleeps higher that the rest, so you need to be sleeping higher than your dog. You can buy him a nice and comfy bed for him to sleep on, but just don't let him sleep with you. You can still call him up upon the bed and snuggle with him, but just make sure when it is time to go sleep that he goes to his own bed.
The last technique is to have a grooming session with your dog and rub his belly. What you need to do here is to make your dog lie down on his side and then brush with and rub his belly. This will work wonders on him learning his role in the pack as a follower and not a leader. You see, when a dog lies down in front of another, he is showing the ultimate form of submission and a pack leader will never do this with his followers. This is why you need to do this technique as well. This will show your dog that he is the follower and you are the leader. Once you get into a routine, your dog will soon look forward to his grooming sessions and may even lie down for you with out you asking or making him.
A pack leader can do anything and they can also make their followers do anything without any complaints. Once you put these five tips into practice, your dog will soon learn that he is the follower and you are the alpha leader. He will then be more willing to listen to you and learn what you are trying to teach him.
About the Author:
Discover how you can stop your dog's behavioral problems and start to gain some knowledge on how to get your dog obey your commands. Visit this dog obedience training site to follow along with a comprehensive case study on dog training techniques where we experiment with some training methods to determine if they can prevent and handle problem behaviors in dogs. |
