Often times dog owners deal with bad behaviors like excessive barking, jumping on people, pulling on the leash, chewing household items, etc…. I think most dog owners find these behaviors to be unwanted, and difficult to deal with. So the logical question is “Can I manage my dog’s bad behaviors with obedience training?”
The usual inclination dog owners might have is that they need to enroll their dog in a obedience training class. While it is true that teaching a dog basic obedience and other training strengthens the bond between the dog and handler, stimulates the mind and body of the dog and can potentially give you a set of useful tools in life, we find that if we incorporate obedience training into the behavior problems we encounter in our social lives before the obedience training itself is finished, we lose those valuable obedience behaviors we worked so hard to create.
For example, if my dog jumps on people when they enter my house, and I command the dog to sit or go to a place, the odds of my dog staying fixed in the position in the presence of such a strong stimulus are slim at best. Therefore, I lose the integrity of the behavior when the dog releases itself, and the dog ends up jumping up on the person anyway, which in itself is reinforcing. So its a lose-lose situation.
I think the key to perfection in dog training is to follow a certain protocol to achieve, and maintain the behaviors we create. The dog, at that point understands the protocol and works along accordingly. Through countless repetitions, we fade the rewards, increase the duration of the exercise, proof the behavior in controlled environments with controlled levels of stimulus, and then bam! The behavior is perfectly trained. Which to us, means the dog executes the behavior on the command alone, with no visual cue from the handler as well or presence of reward, and with no assistants from collars and leashes. And lets not forget that the dog should perform the behavior anywhere anytime, regardless of the level of distraction, or external stimulus.
Again, if we do not follow our protocol and throw these precious behaviors around socially, so to speak, we sabotage our training that we work so carefully to create.
But, there is always another option in managing unwanted behaviors which is much easier and does not do any damage to our precious obedience behaviors.
You just have to teach your dog that certain things in life are not allowed.
Simple as that
Take care and safe training
