Is it Possible to Train Your Dog?

He was so cute when you brought him home. (Let's get the sexism out of the way right now. When I write "him" or "he" I am referring to either gender.) All he wanted to do was to shower you with love and to be loved in return. Euphoria cascaded all around. He whimpered and cried for the first few nights and you were willing to put up with that. After all, here he was in a new environment and this was part of getting use to his new surroundings.

Very quickly he developed some habits which were bothersome. He barked when the wind rustled in the trees. He barked when someone came near the front door. He barked at other animals, dogs, cats, squirrels; he didn't discriminate. He barked when he heard or saw humans even though he saw the same ones every day. He barked for no good reason.

Then he developed the attack mode. After all humans were meant to be loved and the best way to show love was to pounce on them. So your dog would jump at or up on the humans that entered his territory, at the same time furiously and lovingly wagging his tail at warp speed. What an deluge of love, but past bothersome and annoying especially if his victims got injured and threatened to sue you.

Your favorite slippers all chewed up? I wonder who could have done that. Answer - an untrained dog. But even worse is nipping and biting. This could be a major problem with young children in the house. I won't even get into urinary (and worse) problems though they are probably the most serious for a dog owner. No one wants to have furniture ruined by "accidents." And almost pulling your arm out of its socket by yanking on the leash? Who's the alpha male (or female?) anyway, you or the dog? Does he run headlong into traffic? And the list goes on.

So you consider ways to civilize his behavior. Obedience school is an option, but they tend to be expensive, and it will tie up one of your precious nights. We're not talking rocket science here. You shouldn't have to go to a school to get your dog trained. At the school you may feel you and the dog are being graded. You get enough of that at work, why look for extra aggravation. Are these schools successful? What's their drop-out rate? If your dog flunked out of school and you became labeled as a bad owner could you handle that?

So try a book or books. Get an education about how to get your dog under control. For example, the experts recommend not using treats as rewards. They propose establishing boundaries for your dog which will result in good manners. And maybe most important: YOU must learn to think and act in ways that will get you the behaviors you want. With enough effort on your part I'm sure you can train your dog.

Joseph Starr writes on a variety of subjects to keep his brain from fogging over. See his blogs on blogger.com.

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