Are You Being Fair To Your Dog
Friends - I want you to stop as ask yourself if what you are trying to do is "fair" to your dog. They deserve to be able to trust you and be treated fairly.
It is not fair to put your dog in a situation where he has no understanding of what you expect of him. Especially if this do is fearful, insecure, uncomfortable or even has an aggressive behavior in certain situations.
Here are a couple of examples I've heard in that last few days:
A dog is known to be uncomfortable around strangers entering the house -- another trainer told the trainer to set up a greeting at the door with visitors.... But to what end?
Flooding and sustained pressure aren't your best options if the dog doesn't know what to do besides growling or biting.
A better option:
Be very sure you have established a relationship of trust and respect for your leadership with the dog.
Teach the dog obedience first and leverage place or down stay, have folks arrive at the door and leave -- with the dog holding place down a reasonable distance from the door with a 2nd handler -- who's rewarding him for being calm! Build your way to the guest entering the house, sitting down, and eventually tossing high value, special food yumminess to the dog, ....
The point is to change the dog’s perceived association with the arrival of a visitor and the expectations in place for him when they arrive (which should be zero interaction required — observation only. And to remain in a new calm state of mind -- it takes time.
This dog was pushed too far to fast and has now been put down.
Another dog has bitten 2 people in the face!
First scenario -- with a dog who is known to not like people in his face has a visiting friend of the family trying to feed him a treat and forcing him to learn to roll over -- he didn't like it and bit her.
Another family member was visiting and petting the dog, trying to give it a treat, and also was bitten.
This dog didn't deserve to be put in that scenario. There is NO need for the dog to be required to interact with visitors. Period. Visitors need to listen and if it's your dog you need to be more protective of your dog and firm and demanding if needed to your guest.
The dog now has a bite record.
Sure we need to teach him better coping skills, and ideally, you can. (I honestly doubt this family hires me)
But it will never be fair to this dog to force strangers upon him. Especially around food, petting or trying tricks.
My point is -- training goes a LONG way to change the dog's behavior. But you must be fair to the dog!
You can't just demand that he cope with everything people try to put him through -- especially visiting strangers.
original post on the K9 Coach FB page May 2015