I once received a call from a distraught man and his wife that begged me to come over to their house immediately to get their dog off of their bed. They explained to me that earlier that day they had given their dog a meat bone to chew. Their dog then promptly jumped up on their bed to “have at it”.

Realizing that the bone was going to cause a mess on their comforter, they asked the dog to get off the bed. The dog however, had other plans. He wasn’t about to give up such a prime spot so easily. When the man or his wife tried a little harder to get their dog to move, he growled, rushed at them quickly, and then returned to his bone when they backed off. After the first time this happened, they left the room to leave him alone for a while thinking that it would be easier a little bit later. This proved not to be the case. Each time they tried to move him off of the bed, he growled with more intensity and rushed at them with more vigor than before. It was now late in the afternoon and their dog had been in their room since morning.

I asked the man if this had ever happened before and he admitted it had, but not to the degree they were experiencing this time. When I told the man that I wouldn’t come over just to get the dog off their bed, he was disappointed. I explained that the problem was bound to repeat itself in some way or another even if they didn’t give the dog bones again. That this problem stemmed from a lack of appropriate leadership in the house and without him and his wife making some changes in the way they dealt with their dog, someone might eventually get hurt. This man even agreed this was likely to be true, but I never heard from him again.

I regularly get calls from people with similar problems. One call I received was about a toy poodle that would not let a man back into bed with his wife if he got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. So this man was forced to lie miserable in bed with a full bladder or go sleep the rest of the night on the couch after getting up.

I had another call that was a woman calling for her husband who was stuck at the local dog park trying to catch his dog which would not come to him and had been avoiding him for the past two hours.

It amazes me how much people will put up with before calling for help. Problems like these are very common and can end up being serious, not to mention how much tension there must be for people to live in a home where their dog is calling the shots.

These and many other problems are not really “dog” problems as much as they are “people” problems. The dogs in the above situations were probably not little terrorists in fur. More likely, they were simply doing what had worked on a smaller scale in the past to move up in status in the household. And since it worked in the past, they kept doing it. Dogs are very good at following the rule, “If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.”

As time goes by, dogs that are allowed to continue behaving like the one above using “dog language”, as I like to call it, to manipulate situations may cause a real problem one day. Imagine when a child or unsuspecting person, who doesn’t understand what the dog is trying to say, comes too close and gets bitten.

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There are four things that will influence dog behavior. When making reference to influencing dog behavior, two are referred to as reinforcements and the other two are referred to as punishments.

There is positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement and there is positive punishment and negative punishment. In a moment, I’ll give you a simple definition of each one followed by an example of what each one might be.

I say “might be” because one of the most common problems I encounter is that a person might think they are doing something to get rid of a problem when actually, they are making matters worse or vice versa, they might think they are reinforcing a behavior when, in reality, they are making their dog less reliable at that command. Let me explain more about this.

First, you need to understand that reinforcement or punishment is not defined by what you are doing to your dog. Rather, it is defined by how your actions affected the dog’s behavior you are trying to have an influence on. It is very easy to fall into the trap where you think you are punishing your dog for something it did when in reality you are reinforcing that behavior.

This problem exists in both directions. You might also think you are reinforcing something your dog just did, but in reality are punishing the behavior.

Sound confusing? It gets worse. Another related problem may rear its ugly head as well. You may be trying to punish one behavior and as a consequence, you punish something else accidentally that you want your dog to do.

Without taking care to look at the whole picture of what you are doing, you might be undermining your efforts in many ways. This will become clearer as you gain experience reading your dog.

For now, just be aware that what you think you are doing isn’t always being understood or taken by your dog the way you think it should be. It’s important to look at how your dog is reacting to what you’re doing. This will help you to determine whether or not you should continue what you’re doing or look for another solution.

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Did you know that the 5 basic commands we teach dogs in obedience classes have meaning behind them that goes far beyond what they appear to be on the surface. By teaching your dog the five major commands… heel, down, stay, sit and come you are setting your self up to have a well behaved dog that looks to you as a mentor.

Something interesting takes place when a dog starts to listen to those commands. It shapes how the dog looks at you and begins to define you in your dogs eyes as the leader. Each of those commands has a different psychological effect when used on a regular basis. They speak to your dog on their own level and in a language they understand.

And it’s not that we’re trying to dominate our dogs for nothing more than to be dominant. That’s not what we’re trying to do, but by using the four basic commands, especially ‘down’ and ‘stay’ we subtly take on a leadership role in a way that our dog accepts and we become the dominant one in the relationship because they give us that role willingly when they see we are capable of handling the responsibility of being the leader.

If you’re having trouble with your dog listening, try going back to basics and work on your dogs on-leash listening in distracting places until they start to prioritize listening to you where it should be… at the top of the list!

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You can reach me at 1-800-994-6239 or 818-561-5602 or email me using the form below…