Tip 50: Mastering Dog Behaviour – How to Understand Your Canine’s Actions

Dogs behave in doggie ways and not human ways. Understanding this simple principal may help to cure unwanted behaviours. When we are unhappy with a dog’s behaviour it is important to know that dog’s rarely do things to upset us on purpose. (There are exceptions to this rule like attention seeking. If we ignore our dog completely, it may well engage in bad behaviour to get our attention. From a dog’s (or even a child’s point of view, negative attention is often better than no attention at all.) However for the most part like all living things, behaviour is related to genetic makeup and environment. Therefore if the behaviour is bothersome to us humans, instead of scolding the dog for something that comes natural to it, we must ask WHY is it happening.

The needs of most dogs are fairly simple and predictable. Dogs need to be well fed and watered. Dogs need play and exercise. Dogs need attention and love. Dogs are pack animals and need to be part of a family, your family. Depending on what breed of dog you have, you can also expect to encounter breed specific behaviours. Obvious examples are terriers that were bred to dig and chase game, and hounds being able to sniff out even the weakest scents. These behaviours have been bred into particular breeds on purpose by humans. Those breeds that did not exhibit desired characteristics were not allowed to reproduce. Some of the behaviours that were originally bred into certain breeds and are now hardwired, are no longer attractive qualities for us humans. This of course is a good reason to do some research on dog breeds BEFORE you get a dog,

When bad behaviour arises it is important to ask WHY is this bad behaviour happening, A good example is chewing. Dogs often chew up their owner’s shoes and other clothing . This is very upsetting to many dog owners and they often scold or worse, hit the dog. This is the wrong approach. First off, hitting a dog for any reason is wrong. It is an old school approach like whipping a school child with a tree branch or a ruler. Instead, we must ask why is the dog doing this. Only then can we or with the help of a trainer, solve the problem. In this particular case it is because all dogs love to chew and chewing is absolutely normal dog behaviour. It gives the dog an activity, helps clean its teeth and gums and when it happens to be an owners shoe, it has the owner’s scent on the shoe so it is soothing to the dog. Now you know why and now you can solve the problem. The easy solution here is give the dog stuff that it is allowed to chew and hide or make less desirable things it is not allowed to chew. If you don’t want your dog to chew your new shoes, don’t give it an old shoe. Give the dog something it is allowed to chew like a large uncooked bone, or a Kong stuffed with peanut butter.

Only when you ask why your dog is doing what it does can you learn to solve particular problems. As a rule most behaviour problems are easily solved once you know what’s going on. Deal with problems sooner than later and puppies are easier to train and correct than adult dogs.