Edie MacKenzie On Dogs

Posts Tagged ‘Fear’

The idea of punishing when puppy training makes no more sense than the idea of punishing an infant child.

Have you ever heard of anyone spanking a baby?  The only thing that would do is make the baby cry, and make the adult feel badly.  A small baby won’t learn from punishment, and puppies are no different.

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Just like everything you do with a small baby is designed to let it feel loved, protected and close to you, the way your treat a new puppy can affect the way that dog views you for entire relationship.

If you choose to punish a puppy, the most you will do is scare it and make it wary of you.  If you smack a puppy, even lightly, all it knows is the pain of the strike and the fear it feels at that moment toward you.

It doesn’t learn that it was doing something wrong because it’s too young to understand that concept.

If your puppy is chewing on something for instance, and you punish it with even a light tap, of course it will probably stop what it’s doing.

It’s surprised and possibly feels pain from the smack, and now feels very frightened of you.

It doesn’t link the punishment with what it was doing, though, and has no way of predicting when it might be punished next.

Shouting when puppy training can also do damage to your relationship.  If you startle the puppy with a shout, of course it might stop what it’s doing. But again, the puppy doesn’t understand the relationship between its actions and your shouting.  Even the angry tone of your voice can cause your puppy to be afraid for a moment.

If you use these punishments on a puppy, the puppy will learn to be afraid of you, or at the very least it will learn that you can be mean.

The puppy might not trust you, because it doesn’t understand why you frighten it. This can keep the puppy from every really warming up to you, and you’ll be unable to have a good relationship as the puppy grows.

Some dogs are very passive, and will respond to you in a very defeated way.  Your dog might stay in line all the time, solely out of fear, but it won’t ever trust you.

Other dogs have a more stubborn streak, and because they feel threatened by you may attempt to dislodge you as the one in charge.  Dogs are pack animals, and if your dog thinks it should be the leader, you might be in for many behavioral problems big and small.

At the very least, you won’t have as good a relationship with your dog as you could have.

Just as you would do with a very small child, use gentle correction when your puppy does something he shouldn’t do.

Use gentle movements when puppy training and a kind but firm tone of voice, so that your dog understands to stop without becoming frightened.

Knowing the right way to approach a strange dog will go a long way toward ensuring your safety, and the safety of those around you. At the same token, knowing how not to approach one can do the same.

Children should also be educated of the correct procedure. Some of their little innocent ways can trigger an otherwise well-behaved dog into aggressiveness and worse, biting.

Dogs normally bite for one of three reasons: Indiscriminate biting, fear biting, and protective biting.

Indiscriminate Biting

Knowing which type of biter you are confronted with depends on the situation you are in at the time. For instance, if you are walking along the sidewalk in a residential street, minding your own business, and a dog suddenly leaves his yard, runs directly at you and bites, this is indiscriminate biting.

This is a spoiled dog that is probably the dictator in his household. He is the type of dog that merely allows his family to co-exist with him in the house. It could be any breed, from a Toy Chihuahua to a Giant Schnauzer.

Fortunately, dogs that fall into this category are in the minority and are usually confined and restricted because the owners are fully aware of the their bad behavior. Undoubtedly, they probably have been the recipients of occasional bites from their own dogs whenever the animals didn’t get their way.

Fear Biting

The fear biter falls into another category because his demeanor could be genetically inherited, or he could be a product of under-socialization with different types of people and situations when he was a puppy. He could be in a panic-stricken mind at the time of the bite.

A friendly but injured dog, he could suddenly become a fear biter depending on the circumstances. If you stop on the highway to rescue a dog that has been struck by a car, the dog may think that you are the one who hit him, rather than understand that you are there to rescue him.

Protective Biting

Finally, a protective biter is one that’s unable to reason any farther than the fact that he feels the need to protect someone or something. Usually, the protective biter is in the group known as the working breeds.

That is, dogs whose ancestors were originally bred to herd livestock or to protect properties and real estate. Most dogs have this protective instinct but it seems to manifest more predominantly within the working group.

To learn more about how to effectively train your dog in all situations check out  Chet Womach’s Hands Off Dog Training

Some dogs just absolutely refuse to become house trained. No matter how long and hard you have tried to implement techniques to get your dog to use the bathroom in the proper areas, he still chooses to be “vengeful” towards you by not following your instructions, right?

Wrong! The common misconception that your dog is trying to be vindictive and countermine your housetraining efforts by refusing to follow the rules is a complete myth.

Dogs only have the capacity for simple, direct emotions, such as being happy, sad, or scared. Their minds are not capable of plotting ways to seek revenge for that swat on his rear, or how you scolded him an hour ago.

Dogs do, however, remember and draw upon past experiences that they associate with current situations. But it is important to understand that these associations only create an emotion in which they will feel when going through a similar experience.

In other words, lets say that you punish your dog for urinating on the front porch. If you continue to scold him for this behavior then eventually your dog will become fearful of using the bathroom outside. All he knows is that he is “outside”, not on the front porch. Your efforts will countermine your housetraining goals.

For this reason alone, it is important never to punish or yell at your dog when he uses the bathroom inside the house. Most housetraining problems actually stem from owners who completely instill fear in their pets when they go potty on the floor. This creates enough trauma to completely halt all of your housetraining efforts.

The key is trying not to react. Instead, remove your dog from the room and take him outside in a very calm and relaxed manner. Be sure that he does not see you cleaning up his mess. Quietly clean the area and be sure to use an enzyme-containing house cleaner. Vinegar or liquid soap will do just fine as well. By completely removing all of the older, this helps reduce your dog’s need to urinate and mark the same spot over and over.

Tip: Avoid using ammonia because the smell is very similar to that of a dog’s urine and can stimulate him to pee in the same area.

When all else fails, schedule a visit with your veterinarian so that the doctor can do a complete health checkup of your dog to make sure that there is not a health-related reason for his inability to become house trained.

Some dogs can be harboring illnesses that may prove to be the cause of not having the ability to control their bowel movements. Such illnesses could be caused by ticks, such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, or the most common reason: a urinary tract infection.