| I would like to write some more to this topic as I feel that my last post did not fully convey what I wanted to say and places me on totally opposing positions to Vicki. I have a shocking cold so somtimes things are not coming out right.
I agree with Vicki that on a lot of occassions dominance is blamed for a puppies behavior where clearly the pup has simply not learnt that the bahavior is not acceptable and that there has been no ulternative given. I do a lot of training with pups that have been described as "Dominant" or "Alpha" where this is a miss diagnosis. The pup is simply resisting as it has not learnt. For these pups I teach them with reward base systems (food for food, ball for ball etc) that there is a better way of doing things.
However, where I disagree with Vicki is with some of the more extreme cases that I face or where the dogs is very resistant. It is here that I feel a sterner hand must be used so that this type of dog or situation is not rewarded/ing to the dog as to do so will cause problems at a later date.
I would also like to clarify that I am not talking about belting a dog, or roughing it up I am simply saying that the dog must learn that to do such behavior will not be rewarding to it. Sometimes this will need some mild negative stimulas from the owner to make sure a similar behavior is not repeated but it must be just enough to stop the behavior from happening again.
Like I said at the start Dominance is miss diagnosed in many cases (such as the dog Vicki had under the couch. Anyone that diagnosis this as dominance better relearn their behavioral texts) but to ignore it from existing completely is in my opinion a mistake. I do not encourage my customers to give in to their pups but encourage them to find unternative training techniques so as to better teach them what they should be doing.
Having a good understanding of the many theories on this topic will undoubtedly make those reading a better pet owner.
Mick.  |