Your dog is hard-wired to respond to a leader and they will not follow anyone who is considered weak, as this can lead to injury or death for the members of the pack. In prievious years this was misinterpreted by trainers as being hard and violent towards a misbehaving dog and most trainers were bullies. This has changed with most modern thinking trainers and violence is counter-productive and in order to get the most from your dog, you must step up to the plate as it's leader so that he/she can follow your direction for the benefit of the whole pack.
I always say to people there are only two things you need to consider when talking about your dog. Forget about love, that will come as a natural consequence of gaining trust and respect. Ask yourself, does he/she trust you? Do they respect you? I would bet that if we are talking about the 80% of good dog owners, that your dog trusts you. You feed him/her, you take them walks and you provide love and care for the dog, providing him/her with all the basic requirements needed to survive. The dog is programmed to seek out these basic needs and so I never find trust with the owners as much of a problem.
When we get to respect however, then we find that the reverse is true and I find that a lot of dogs don't respect their owners. Before I'm howled down by dog owners saying my dog loves me, consider the issues above which I see everyday. Dogs ignoring their owners commands, growling and snapping at people and other dogs, food guarding or hiding of treats and dragging their owners around or jumping all over them.
All of these are disrespectful actions and are rude and should not be tolerated. The below signs and symptoms stem from this lack of respect for the owners
Over-excited and hyperactive - The dog is used to being acknowledged whatever it does, so when it goes into a crazy leaping, slobbering mad session whenever you enter the room, you are rewarding with lavish affection a dog who is out of control for that time.
Invading your personal space - This goes hand in hand with the hyper behaviour and the dog does not respect your personal space and constantly enters your intimate zone without invite and licks, nudges or jumps up or on you expecting a response.
Excessive barking at passersby - In the garden, out on the walk on a lead - The dog will be overly protective of you as its pack because it doesn't feel you are capable of protecting the home and the pack and so the dog will do it for you.
Following around - The dog won't relax and let you come and go, it will leap up and follow you from room to room. Whether you are making tea or going to the toilet your dog will monitor you.
Separation Anxiety - You won't be able to leave the dog outside or in another room without the dog crying, barking, howling. If you go out your neighbours will be left with the dog barking for hours on end as it can't protect you out of its view.
Poor Recall - If you aren't in charge then why should the dog worry about coming when you call? It won't leave you though because it needs to keep an eye on you.
Respect your dog as an animal. It is an animal first and then a dog. It isn't human and it is disrespectful to treat a dog like a human. You must acknowledge the DNA of a dog and learn it's language. Your dog can't speak human and you have to help it live in our strange world.
Give it clear rules and boundaries to follow. Your dog will respect you for telling it how to live in the human world. Not allowing your dog to do things that you don't like or are not tolerated by humans means that he/she can relax and not stress about what actions to perform. If you are talking to someone and you tell your dog to sit; you are not being cruel you are showing your dog how to react to the situation.
Don't be afraid to tell he /she off! You won't harm his/her feelings, they must learn that somethings are serious to you and must be obeyed and that they have no choice in the matter. If you aren't bothered about what the dog is doing and it is wrong how does your dog know?
If he/she does what you want reward him/her at the time and be lavish in your praise. Your dog did good, tell them so. Praise can be verbal, food, play, it can even be a wink of your eye. I regularly did this with my GSD Police Dog Max and he knew by my body language that I was happy with him by a smile and a wink of the eye.
Give your dog a job, even if its carrying the paper, hide its food and make him/her find it, stimulate them and allow them to be useful members of the family.
Make sure that you only fuss and praise your dog when you or your family and friends choose to. I don't mean force yourself on the dog, I mean call him/her and fuss when you want, ignore the dog demanding fuss when he/she wants it.
Remember, do you have your dogs trust and respect? Ask yourself this question whenever you need to and be honest about the answer. If you don't have both parts, your dog will have issues of some sort and on a sliding scale from irrelevant to dangerous depending on the dog and the lack of leadership of the owner.
Good training Steve
