Dog Care Info, Issue 26

If you where to tell someone not to be lazy that person would most likely react differently to this label then you would. Lazy like many other words are just labels given for collective behaviours. Lazy could be behaviours like not working, sitting in front of the television, leaving clothes all over the floor, not eager to walk or get up to get something from the counter. I mean really if you start thinking about it there are so many behaviours that could possibly be associated with this 1 word.

Sitting in front of the television can also be because you are watching a program to learn something new and not at all have anything to do with being lazy. You cannot train someone not to be lazy. Only the behaviour it self can be trained and not the label as the understanding of the label will be different to each individual and environment. One behaviour can have more then one function.

This is the same with dog behaviour...People label dogs with words like dominance, when in actual fact dominance is not a behaviour. A label like dominance is a bunch of behaviours that are thrown in the same bag of behaviours and can do a lot of harm. Very often these labels are misguided and dogs are punished by being pulled, choked, spanked and more just because we did not understand their reaction to their environment.

If your dog is growling, jumping on another dog or any other unwanted behaviour in stead of just labeling it with words and scolding at your dog you can train your dog as this is a training problem. The behaviour might not have anything to do with the label as we cannot know why dogs do everything that they do. Through positive reinforcement we can shape the behaviour so that it is acceptable to us and has the same value to the dog as his unwanted behaviour. Inflicting pain or labelling your dog with words like dominance can cause harm and using methods that go along with the idea of dominance can only lead to a scared and confused dog. Your dog will also learn to either just switch off to cope with you or to only not do the behaviour when you are present as he associates the behaviour with you only. Labels do not help in dog training, behaviour and knowing what you want to shape into wanted behaviour is what you need to train your dog. Behaviour is the response of the dog to stimuli in his environment to give a clear signal of the dogs physical status and needs which serves a purpose to the dog.

SBI!